Thomas Neel Hawthorn was the son of Col. James and Mary Neel Hawthorn. He was a twin brother of Andrew Neel Hawthorn. He was born in York County, South Carolina in 1779. He married (name unknown), he and his wife had no children. He completed his study of law at Centerville, KY under Reason Davage and Matthew Gage, two lawyers of that place. Thomas and his brother, Andrew and his father, James had fine farms in Kentucky. In 1808 Thomas is listed on the tax rolls as having 400 acres of land in Livingston County on Crooked Creek. But the crooked sheriff of Livingston County that was connected to a state wide gang of land thieves, seized their farms. In about 1811 he moved to Arkansas, first arriving at Des Arc at a place called Trmble Island. Later the pioneers boarded keel boats and polled up the White River to the present site of Izard Co. AR. Thomas Hawthorn established a farm at the mouth of Moccasin Creek, next to the White River three miles upstream from Calico Rock now Izard County AR. His Grandmother, Jean Spratt Neel, also resided with Thomas and his wife. His brother Andrew Neel Hawthorn became a famous hunter and lived in the upper Buffalo River area, which is now Newton County, AR. Andrew preferred to sleep on nothing at night except buffalo rugs and his excuse was that he rested better and slept sounder on the "hides of wild beasts, than on the feathers of timid geese".
The Panther Story

Sometime after Thomas' wife was drowned, he lost his eyesite. He and his wife are buried in the Hawthorn Farm Cemetery, now called the Talley Cemetery, Izard Co. Arkansas. (Robert T. Leeper and Lyman C. Draper Manuscripts, the Silas Claiborne Turnbo Manuscripts, and the Trimble Family History, Norma Trimble Burleson, Marion Co. Library, Marion County, AR.)