Thomas Jefferson Hodnett was born on May 15, 1828, in Troup County, Georgia, to William Hodnett and Caroline Finley. His father was a farmer who owned $6,000 of real estate and $8,000 of personal property in 1860. The family lived in Troup County, and Hodnett attended school there. He married Celestia Kimbrough in Harris County, Georgia, on December 6, 1850, and they had at least seven children: Martha, born around 1852; William, born around 1856; Saphronia, born around 1858; John, born around 1861; Leroy, born around 1866; Leanna, born around 1868; and Celestia, born around 1870. Hodnett enlisted in the Confederate army on May 1, 1862, and mustered in as a private in Company K of the 13th Georgia Infantry. He surrendered as part of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.
Hodnett and his family moved to Clay County, Alabama, after the war. By 1870, he was working as a farmer, and he owned $400 of real estate and $423 of personal property. He died in Clay County on May 17, 1898.