The McRitchie and Hollis families have played a significant historical role in the city of Newnan, Georgia.

Thomas McRitchie, son of David and Margaret Barrie McRitchie, married Elizabeth Deuchars in 1858. In 1866, they sailed from Liverpool to New Orleans with their three children, Margaret, Jean, and Thomas Berry McRitchie. After Elizabeth’s death, the children went with their great aunt to Newnan. Thomas Berry McRitchie later married Annie Elizabeth Askew, and they had four children, including Janet Howell, who married Edgar Baldwin Hollis, and Thomas Berry, Jr., who married Michigan native Phyllis Barabe.

Born in 1900 to Thomas Baldwin Hollis, Edgar Baldwin Hollis was appointed to the Newnan Water and Light Commission’s board of commissioners in 1947, serving until 1971. He and Janet Howell McRitchie had one son, Edgar B. Hollis, Jr., born on March 7, 1928. After attending Newnan High School, Hollis, Jr. received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Emory University, then relocated to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the federal government for his entire career. He visited Newnan at least once per month while living in Washington, D.C. Edgar B. Hollis, Jr., died on June 17, 2006.