The personal papers of a well-known Civil War colonel recently returned to their owner’s native north Georgia. Frank Clark, a curator of the Bell Research Center at the historic Cumming schoolhouse, said the center was able to secure funding through grants and various donations to purchase the collection from a rare documents dealer in Virginia.Featuring nearly 100 articles from the life of Col. Lovick Pierce Thomas Jr., the collection was welcomed to the center with a reception Feb. 10. Clark said the event drew about 150 people.“The reception went really, really well,” he said.