US Congressman, Entrepreneur, Lawyer. He was a United States Representative from the State of Mississippi. He was born one of three children as Thomas C. Spight to James Mumford Spight (1808-1861), and his wife Mary Elizabeth Donelson Rucker Spight (1817-1893), near Ripley, Mississippi, on October 25, 1841. He was educated locally and attended the local common public schools and the prestigious Ripley Academy in Ripley, Mississippi, and the prestigious Purdy College in Purdy, Tennessee, and the prestigious La Grange Synodical College in La Grange, Tennessee, where he was a Member of the original Sigma Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. Following his education, he served his country during the American Civil War after enlisting with the rank of Private in the Confederate States Army in 1861. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant also in 1861 and then served with the rank of Captain of Company B, Thirty-Fourth Regiment, Mississippi Volunteer Infantry. During the American Civil War, he took part in most of the battles that were fought by the Army of Tennessee and was severely wounded during one of these in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 22, 1864, and was also in charge at the time of the surrender of General Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891), at Greensboro, North Carolina, in April of 1865. He continued to serve in the military until the end of the American Civil War. Following his military service, he taught school and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1875, and commenced his practice of law in Ripley, Mississippi, shortly thereafter. He then took an interest in politics and served a term as a Member of the Mississippi State House of Representatives from 1874 to 1880. During this time, he also founded and established the newspaper publication, The Southern Sentinel in 1879, where he stayed until his retirement from the newspaper publishing business five years later in 1884. He also served a term as the Prosecuting Attorney of the Third Judicial District from 1884 to 1892. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected to succeed the outgoing United States Representative William Van Amberg Sullivan (1857-1918), on May 31, 1898. The United States Representative William Van Amberg Sullivan (1857-1918), had resigned his seat in the United States Congress after being appointed a United States Senator thus causing a vacancy. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served Mississippi's 2nd District (Fifty-Fifth Congress), in the United States House of Representatives from May 31, 1898, to July 5, 1898. He was then reelected to the same seat representing the Fifty-Sixth Congress and the Five succeeding Congresses on July 5, 1898. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served Mississippi's 2nd District (the Fifty-Sixth Congress, the Fifty-Seventh Congress, the Fifty-Eighth Congress, the Fifty-Ninth Congress, the Sixtieth Congress, and the Sixty-First Congress), in the United States House of Representatives from July 5, 1898, to March 3, 1911. In total, he was elected to finish United States Representative William Van Amberg Sullivan's term in 1898, reelected in 1898, reelected in 1900, reelected in 1902, reelected in 1904, reelected in 1906, and reelected again in 1908. He was an unsuccessful Candidate for renomination after losing the election in 1910. Following his second term in the United States Congress, he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative Hubert Durrett Stephens (1875-1946), on March 4, 1911. After leaving the United States Congress, he resumed his practice of law, until his death on January 5, 1914, at the age of 82. A Member of the Baptist Church for over fifty years, he also took an interest in religious work and taught the Men's Bible Classes at the Ripley Baptist Church in Ripley, Mississippi, for many years. He also organized the Tippah County Camp of Confederate Veterans which he was the Commander of continuously for many years. He passed away at his home from a cerebral hemorrhage in Ripley, Mississippi, on January 5, 1924, at the age of 82. Following his death, his funeral services were held, and he was buried in the Family Plot in Ripley Cemetery in Ripley, Mississippi. On his headstone, he is remembered as an honored citizen and a valiant soldier of the cross. He was married twice, first to Mary Virginia Barnett Spight (1844-1901), in Ripley, Mississippi, on December 12, 1865. The couple had seven children together including, Mattie Spight (1866-1936), Mary Virginia "Mamie" Spight Hines (1868-1936), Lynn Donelson Spight (1870-1957), Albert Francis Spight (1872-1873), Allie Francis Spight (1873-1948), Henry Rucker Spight (1876-1953), and Lillian Spight (1879-1937). His first wife Mary predeceased him passing away in Ripley, Mississippi, on May 21, 1901, at the age of 57, and she is also buried in the Family Plot in Ripley Cemetery in Ripley, Mississippi. He married for the second time to Bethiah "Thida" Duncan Spight (1853-1936), in Tippah County, Mississippi, on October 15, 1903. The couple had no children together. His second wife Bethiah survived him and she passed away in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22, 1936, at the age of 82, but she is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee, with her mother and siblings.