Alexander Travis Hawthorn was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Western and Trans-Mississippi theaters of the American Civil War. After the war, in company with a party of friends, he traveled extensively in Brazil as the guest of the imperial government, the policy of the government being to encourage immigration from the Southern States. In 1880, he was ordained a minister of the Baptist Church.

Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city is located about 100 miles south of Little Rock. Situated on bluffs overlooking the Ouachita River, the city developed because of the river.