Perhaps Golden's most famous son was Father Theobold Mathew, OFM (Cap), who was born at Thomastown Castle, close to Golden on 10 October 1790, though it is sometimes claimed that Rathclogheen House, close to the Castle was the place of his birth – that residence being part of the extensive family estate of the Mathew family, Earls Landaff. Father Mathew was the best known Irish temperance reformer and founded the Abstinence Society in 1838 and became widely known as the "Apostle of Temperance". To mark the centenary of the foundation of the Society, a statue in his honour was raised at Thomastown Cross in 1938 and is a very visible landmark on the N74 road, west of Golden.