Obituary: Mr. Thomas Lanier Black
Augusta Chronicle
Thomas Black died on Feb. 4, 2021 at Jefferson Hospital in Louisville. He was born on Sept. 15, 1941.
Thomas is survived by his wife of 30 years, Martha Crouch Black; their son, George Edward Crouch V and his wife Allison June Crouch; and two grandsons, Ward and Jones Crouch.
Thomas graduated from the University of Georgia in 1963 with a degree in Landscape Design. He interned at Callaway Gardens before serving four years in the United States Navy, stationed in Norfolk and the Mediterranean. Thomas later joined the Peace Corps and served 2 years in Nigeria and participated in an exchange program in Sweden.
The Dickinson-Williams mansion in Greeneville, Tennessee. Photo courtesy of Phil Gentry, Greeneville Sun.
By Marian Betancourt, Contributor
The Irish Mansion in Greeneville, Tennessee.
William Dickson left County Antrim, Ireland at the age of 16 for a better life in Greeneville, Tennessee. He succeeded. By 1796, when he was 21, he was commissioned by President George Washington to be the town’s first postmaster, a lifetime appointment. He also amassed a considerable fortune as a merchant.
This mountainous region of northeast Tennessee was not easy to get to except along old Indian trails. It did have a good water source, known as “Big Spring,” but there is nothing to explain why the area was amenable to the Irish, or to merchants, who needed to ship goods in. They named an early road Irish Street, so they obviously worked it out. No matter the difficulty of the terrain, what the Irish settlers found was a vast improvement over conditions in the h