T. J. Elder Program Room Professor Thomas Jefferson Elder (1869 - 1946) founded Washington County's  first public school and library for black people in 1889 in the Springfield Baptist Church of Sandersville. Later, with the support and respect of all citizens, he erected a new Sandersville High and Industrial School. Today T.J. Elder Primary School and Elder Middle School, as well as this meeting room, bear the esteemed educator's name.