Thomas Mahony, proprietor of the Central Hotel, was born in Petersburg, Va., August 14, 1852. His parents were Jeremiah and Mary (Reardon) Mahony, natives of Ireland. They came to America in 1850 and lived about four years in Virginia, and then removed to Ohio. From there they came to Tennessee in 1870, where the father died in 1878, having been a manual laborer in mines, on railroads, etc. The mother now lives in Erin and superintends the hotel. Thomas spent his early life, to the age of fifteen years, with his parents. He then, being a poor boy, began his own support by manual labor. He was brakeman on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad for three years, and in that service lost an arm in coupling cars. Since then he had been attending water tanks for the same company. In 1877 he established the Erin Wagon Works, which he now runs. In 1880 he began keeping hotel in the building where the Partridge House now is, and for two years kept that place. Since then he has had his present stand. May 9, 1883, matrimonial rites were celebrated, uniting him to Ella Dawson, of Paris, Tenn., the result of this union being two children: Mary and Emma. Mr. Mahony is a member of the Catholic Church. Politically he is a Democrat and always has been. He is one of Erin’s good and enterprising citizens.

Transcribed by Susan Knight Gore

Source: Goodspeed, Weston A, and John Wooldridge. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Montgomery, Robertson, Humphreys, Stewart, Dickson, Cheatham and Houston Counties. Nashville: Goodspeed Pub. Co, 1886.