Biographies

Thomas Family Biographies

Chronicling one Thomas Family originally from

Butler County, Alabama

This is a work in progress. Any additional information you might provide on these individuals will be greatly appreciated. Please E-mail Me with any additional stories, anecdotes or knowledge you might have about these individuals.

Isaac J Thomas (1827-1885)

Lucinda Williams Thomas Posey (1834-????)

Cornelius James Thomas (1853-1926)

James Walter Thomas (1877-????)

Ida Dee L. Thomas Hood (1879-1949)

Thomas Watson Thomas (1881-1973)

Isaac J Thomas and Margaret Lucinda Williams

So far, our earliest traceable Thomas ancestor is Isaac J Thomas. According to census records, he was born in South Carolina about 1827. By 1849, however, he had moved west to Pike County, Alabama, where he married Margaret Lucinda Williams. He is apparently the same Isaac J Thomas who purchased land in Pike County in 1853. As a farmer, family tradition holds that he provided well for his family. Isaac and Margaret Lucinda had the following children while living in Pike County: Mahala (f - 1851- ?), Cornelius James (m - 1853-1926), Sarah A Thomas (f - 1856 - ?), Nancy Catherine (f - 1860 - ?), John William (m - 1861 - ?). By June 1864, Isaac and Margaret had moved to then neighboring Butler County, Alabama, and had added another son, Frank C (m - 1864-1920). They settled near Greenville, in the small community of Midway. They both attended the Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church. Some family reports say he was an elder at that church. Isaac would live the rest of his life in Midway, Butler County, Alabama. He died in 1885, and is buried at Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church's cemetery. His grave is unmarked. Family tradition holds Isaac's middle initial to stand for James, and it has often been transposed in legal documents as J Isaac. Margaret Lucinda Williams (cited by our family as Margaret) was born in Alabama in 1833/1834. She was 16 when she married Isaac J Thomas in 1849. Little is known about her side of the family, though they likely resided in Pike County, Alabama, or its environs. She was a homemaker, who taught her girls also how to run a home. After her husband Isaac died, in 1885, family oral tradition tells of her subsequent engagement and marriage to H.H. Posey of Pike County, Alabama. This engagement and marriage became suspect, according to this tradition, when leadership at the Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church discovered that Mr. Posey already had a living wife. When these church leaders asked Mr. Posey to go back to his wife in Pike County, he staunchly refused. Margaret's long-standing fellowship with the Primitive Baptist Church was removed as a result. The Thomas children also pleaded with Mr. Posey to return, but to no avail. Tempers flared, and Mr. Posey, according to this family story, was shot and buried in a wooded area near the Thomas land. Grandma Posey, as Margaret was then known, moved to western Butler County with her son John William and his wife Malissa (Phelps), and daughter Sarah A and her husband Avander Braden. Grandma Posey lived to a ripe old age, though her exact death date is not known.

Cornelius James Thomas and Frances Isabelle Rhodes

Known as Jimmy to his wife and friends, Cornelius James Thomas was born 11 June 1853 in Pike County, Alabama. He helped his father Isaac with farming, and would use that experience for the rest of his life. He married Frances Isabelle Rhodes on 27 November 1874 in Butler County, Alabama. They had the following children in Butler County: James Walter (m - b. 1877), Ida Dee L. (f - 1879-1949), Thomas Watson (m - 1881-1973), and Edward Leonard (1883-1961). Between 1884 and 1886, the family moved from Butler County, Alabama, to Falls County, Texas, eventually settling in the small German community of Otto. Because he was a sharecropper, Jimmy did not make any substantial amount of money for his family. His children at times were obliged to take over financial and custodial support of their parents. Fannie (as Frances was known) was born on 28 October 1856. Her hair was full and brown, which in her older years turned a gorgeous shock-white. She was a beautiful, stout woman who displayed a stern disposition toward children -- even those not her own. She had a fine wit, and sense of humor -- especially when disciplining her own children. A family story relates that she had scolded her sons Thomas Watson and Edward Leonard for some misdeed or another. "I have tried to teach you boys better," she scolded. "I just don't know what to do. Guess I'll have to take you out and hang you." Sure enough she headed for a nearby tree with her two trembling boys. After reaching the orchard, she complained, "Well, I don't see a limb to hang you on. Guess I'll just have to knock you in the head." As she grabbed for a dead limb from a tree, the boys begged forgiveness at which time Fannie relented allowing them one more chance. Both Jimmy and Fannie were members of the Primitive Baptist Church, but it is unclear how faithfully they attended services. One of their favorite pastimes was sitting on the porch, with a small elm twig cut to a point, and grinding chewing tobacco into their teeth. His excessive use of tobacco may have been the cause of Jimmy's death on 19 March 1926. The coroner's report in Caldwell, Texas, indicates that Jimmy died of stomach cancer. Fannie would outlive Jimmy by 17 years. She died on 18 February 1943. Their children in Falls County, Texas, were: Maggie Lee "Dollie" (f -1886-1968), Merlie (f - 1890-1972), James Marcus (m -1892-1959), Maud Ellen (1894-1925), Minnie (1898-1985), and Metta Mae (1899-1962). Fannie and Jimmy are buried in the Masonic Cemetery, Caldwell, Texas, beside their daughter Metta Mae Thomas Parkhill, wife of Laurence Lee Parkhill.

James Walter Thomas and Neila Mizell

James Walter Thomas, the first of Cornelius and Frances Thomas' children, was born 19 March 1877 in Greenville, Alabama. He was a teenager when the family moved to Falls County, Texas. He would become a barber, maintaining the trade even in his later years. According to an official census account, he was boarding in 1910 with William M. and Verna E Monk of Mart, Texas -- about 10 miles away from Otto. Walter married Neila Mizell, but the couple would have no children. They moved to Mexia, Texas, where Walter continued his barbering trade.

Ida Dee L. Thomas and Walter "John" Hood

Thomas Watson Thomas and Emma Rose Schneider

Thomas Watson Thomas was born on 22 July 1881 in Greenville, Butler County, Alabama. As a boy, he worked as a farm hand with his father, Cornelius James Thomas, especially in the years following the family's move to Texas. The farm life seemed to appeal to young Thomas Watson. By 1905, his sister Maggie "Dollie" Thomas had introduced him to a beautiful young Emma Rose Schneider. Soon afterward, Thomas Watson left Falls County, Texas, for Endee, New Mexico, in an effort to homestead some land. He was required, at the time, to live on and work the land for three years in order to secure his claim. After the three years, on 1 July 1908, Thomas and Emma Rose were married. Almost 9 months later -- and on the way back to their homestead -- Emma Rose gave birth to their first son, Thomas Watson Thomas, Jr. right in the middle of Deaf Smith County, Texas! Thomas and Emma Rose traveled by prairie wagon to their final destination -- a sod dugout in Endee, New Mexico, not far distant Tucumcari. Their second son, James Harold, was born in this dugout in 1913.