Magill: Hodgsons, McWhorters kept athletics as a family affair

The other day, my first cousin Col. Merritt Pound Jr., who seldom misses a home football, baseball or basketball game, asked me which family in Athens produced the most college athletes: Hodgsons or McWhorters.

It's virtually a tie, I replied. Each claim a dozen or more.

Both families settled in Athens in the early 19th century.

In 1839, Edward Hodgson arrived from Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, where he was a carriage maker. His English neighbor, Robert Bishop (forbear of longtime Athens mayor Julius Bishop) had written him that the little college town of Athens was a wonderful place to live.

The first McWhorter in Georgia was Hugh McWhorter, who moved to Georgia from Virginia in 1803 and settled at Potts Branch, Oglethorpe County. He married Helen Ligon of Virginia in 1810. She was a descendant of Thomas Ligon, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1655.

This Hugh McWhorter was a descendant of another Hugh McWhorter, a linen merchant of County Armagh, Ireland, who settled in Newcastle, Del. His family had moved to Ireland from Scotland where the McWhorters were part of the Buchanan clan, which produced James Buchanan, the 15th president of the United States.

The first Athens McWhorter was Judge Hamilton McWhorter, a railroad lawyer, who moved here from nearby Lexington. He had a huge plantation home on the highest ground on what is now Cloverhurst Avenue. He owned considerable land all the way to where now is radio station WGAU on Bobbins Mill Road.

All five of Judge McWhorter's sons were good athletes at Georgia in the early 1900s: Marcus, Hamilton Jr. and Howard, all excelled in baseball: Bob and Thurmond, opted for football. Bob also starred as a heavy-hitting centerfielder in baseball.

Bob McWhorter was the greatest of the McWhorter athletes: All-SEC halfback in 1910-13 and the South's first All-America selection in 1913. During his career he scored a record 61 TDs in 33 games. He also served two terms as mayor of Athens.

Other McWhorters con

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