Welsh immigrants began arriving in America in significant numbers by the end of the 17th century. Many who were attracted by William Penn's creed of religious tolerance came to Pennsylvania. By the mid-nineteenth century, Wales had become one of the world's leading coal producing regions. The burgeoning coal and steel industry in Pennsylvania lured large numbers of Welsh citizens to America. Ultimately, the Scranton area boasted the largest number of the Welsh people outside Wales itself.
One of these immigrants was William Evan Thomas, born in Swansea, Wales on June 3, 1835. William secured second class passage aboard the sailing ship Centurion when it cast off from Liverpool, England in the summer of 1857. Centurion arrived at the Port of New York on July 23, 1857. The William E. Thomas shown on the ship manifest above was very likely the same person I mention here.
William made his way to western Pennsylvania, where he found work in the bustling coal mining and iron industry there. In 1863, he was working as an iron puddler, a worker who turns pig iron into wrought iron by "subjecting it to heat and frequent stirring in the presence of oxidizing substances." Shown above are puddlers at work in the 1920s.
On March 3, 1863, the United States Congress passed the Conscription Act, which required all male citizens between the ages of 20 and 45, and those who had applied for citizenship, to register for the military draft. On June 30 of that year, the name of William E. Thomas, a puddler aged 28, was written on a list of men from Scranton who were subject to the draft. Whether he ever served in the Union army is not known, although I suspect that the decision was made somewhere that his labor in the iron works was of greater benefit to the war effort than toting a musket into battle.
Sometime in 1864, William married a young woman from Wales, Amelia Morgan, the daughter of a Welsh coal miner. Their first child, Thomas Evan Thomas, was born in Scranton on March 16, 1865. A daughter, Margaret, was born in 1869. Amelia died shortly after her birth. The 1870 census (in which William is now listed as a "miner") shows that William, Thomas and Margaret were living as boarders in Scranton in the household of Amelia's mother, who herself had also been recently widowed.
In 1875, William married another Welsh immigrant, Sarah Mills Williams, born in Cardiff in January 1839, the daughter of Jane Mills and Samuel A. Williams, a Congregationalist minister. As seen on the ship manifest above, the Williams family arrived at the Port of New York on the sailing ship Carroll of Carrolton on November 4, 1840. Sarah was not yet two years old. The Williams family settled in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. The 1870 census shows that Sarah was living with her parents and working as a "tailoress."
William and Sarah's first child, Jane "Jennie" Williams Thomas was born on September 19, 1876. By this time, William had laid plans to move his family to Spotsylvania. By a deed dated November 27, 1877, William Evan Thomas bought a 184-acre farm in Spotsylvania from Anthony and Maria Wineschenk. Located about a half mile west of Zoan Baptist Church, the farm "lay on both sides of the old Turnpike Fredericksburg to Orange Court House" [that is, today's Route 3]. William and Sarah's youngest child, Samuel, was born there two years later, on June 5, 1879.
In 1884, William bought a 143-acre tract that was part of the estate of the late Reuben McGee (1798-1881). This was located on the Turnpike (today's Route 3) adjacent to the modern location of the Spotsylvania County History Museum. Today what remains of that property is owned by the Battlefield Trust.
In December 1887, William deeded the former Reuben McGee property to his son Thomas, now 22 years old. Here Thomas would build the house he and his large family would live in for many years.
On July 30, 1890, Thomas married 32-year-old Ida Kezia Morrison. Their wedding took place at the home of her parents, James T. and Sarah Eastburn Morrison, and was officiated by by Methodist minister Arthur R. Goodchild. Fourteen years later, Ida's younger sister Abbie married Scottish immigrant Mungo William Thorburn, who--like Thomas--would become one of Spotsylvania's leading citizens (William Thorburn is particularly remembered for being instrumental in the founding of The Fredericksburg and Wilderness Telephone Company). During the 21 years they were together, Thomas and Ida became the parents of 12 children, ten of whom survived childhood. In the family portrait above, Thomas and Ida pose with seven of their offspring. (Photo credit: Stephen Huerta on Ancestry.com)
Thomas was a deeply religious man. He became an ordained minister in the Methodist church, and his family were devoted members of Tabernacle Methodist Church. Over the years, Reverend Thomas conducted services at a number of local churches and officiated at many weddings and funerals. He read from the Bible each morning at breakfast while holding one of his children in his lap. Shown below is Tabernacle Methodist Church as Reverend Thomas knew it.
In addition to his clerical life, Thomas was for many years actively in the Spotsylvania Republican Party. In 1899, he was elected to the first of several terms as justice of the peace. The following year, he was appointed as one of Spotsylvania's enumerators for the 1900 census. In 1901, he was elected as a delegate to the Virginia Republican convention.
The dawn of the twentieth century brought with it the first of a series of tragic evens that would befall the Thomas family. On April 9, 1900, Ida Lady, the 9-month-old daughter of Thomas and Ida, died of whooping cough. She was laid to rest in the cemetery at Salem Baptist Church.
Two years later, on May 5, 1902, 67-year-old William Evan Thomas died of heart disease at his home. His funeral was held at his house, officiated by Methodist minister James William Heckman. William lies buried in the cemetery at Salem Baptist Church. His grave is marked by an impressive obelisk with several inscriptions on it. The first is the well-known quote from Matthew 5:8: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It appears first in English, then in Welsh. This is followed by a heartfelt sentiment from his widow, Sarah, which reads in part: "Farewell my dear husband, thy days on earth are over. Thy sufferings to an end have come. Those pains thou shalt feel no more."
Sarah Williams Thomas outlived her husband by 24 years. After the death of William, Sarah made her home with the family of her daughter, Jennie Ricker, and moved with them to Clarendon in Arlington. She died there on January 14, 1926. She is buried near her husband at Salem Baptist Church, her grave marked by an obelisk of the same design as her husband's:
The Holiness movement in America had its roots in 19th-century Methodism. The adherents of the Holiness doctrine were Pentecostal and evangelistic. Revival camps sprang up in many places, including Spotsylvania. Methodist minister James William Heckman established the Spotsylvania Holiness Association in 1903. The Association bought a tract of land at the intersection of Brock and Piney Branch roads. By 1906, the camp consisted of "a large and well-ventilated auditorium, eight commodious cottages and a large dining room." Revival meetings would be held at this location for nearly half a century.
Reverend Thomas was elected as the first president of the Association, and he played a key role in its success in the years to come. The captioned photograph below, taken in August 1907, is the earliest known picture of the SHA camp. Among those shown here are Reverend Thomas (18), Cora Lewis Parker, who would become Thomas's second wife (21), Thomas's daughter Abbie (34), Reverend Heckman (48), and Thomas's son, Thomas Maxwell (50).
In addition to this image, there are three other known photographs of gatherings at the Holiness camp site which were shared with me by Barbara Faulconer. I have been told that the captions for the first two were prepared by Thomas's youngest child, the late Amy Thomas King.
In the last photograph, Reverend Thomas can be seen standing at right with his arms folded across his chest:
As if his activities in the religious and political realms were not enough to occupy his time, Thomas found other constructive outlets for his boundless energy. He had to make a living, of course, and he did this by farming his own land as well as a 243-acre farm he bought near Screamersville called the Appler Tract. He also owned a sawmill operation near the Jackson monument (he generously provided Thanksgiving dinner to his mill employees in 1909, a kindness noted by The Free Lance). For a time he served as school trustee and was postmaster at the general store at Screamersville 1908-1910. The store and post office also served as a stop on the Potomac, Fredericksburg and Piedmont Railroad. Below is a rare photograph of the store taken in the early 1900s (Photo credit: Vickie Neely).
The house that Thomas had built on Route 3 had to grow as his family grew. These undated photographs show two elevations of his house (pictures courtesy of Carolyn Carmichael):
Thomas's farm and residence were among the most modern of their era by Spotsylvania's standards. He used a hydraulic ram to pump water up two hills from a stream to his house. He had a carbide lighting system for his house and he also made use of a Delco Light Plant to furnish electric lights for the farm. It is said that his farm was the first to have electric lights before electricity in Spotsylvania was available by transmission lines. Shown below is a representation of the Delco Light Plant:
The Thomas farm included a milk barn with a concrete vat in which the milk cans were immersed in cold water until they could be transported. There was a silo, a cow barn, woodshed, brooder house, a granary, machinery shed, corn house and a barn for the horses and mules that included a hayloft.
All of Thomas's thirteen children who lived to be of school age received a good education. In 1911, it was reported that three of his children were attending the Hanover School in Fredericksburg. When Chancellor High School was built in 1912, the Thomas children became students there. This photograph taken about 1920 shows three of his sons standing in front of the school: Thomas Maxwell (16), Adlowe (20), and Rhys (23):
Thomas was dealt two crushing blows in March 1911. Ida died suddenly at home on March 11. Eight days later, their four-year-old son Edward died of pneumonia after a bout with whooping cough. Mother and son are both buried at Salem Baptist Church. The sad news of their passing was noted in The Daily Star:
Cora Lewis Parker was born in Spotsylvania County on April 28, 1885. By 1910 she was living with the family of her sister Charlotte in Staunton. Charlotte's husband, Clifton, was a teacher at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. Cora also taught there. She gave up her career when she married Thomas Evan Thomas on October 14, 1913. The wedding took place in Washington, DC and was officiated by Reverend Henry B. Hosley, pastor of the Wesleyan Pentecostal Church on D Street. Hosley was closely identified with the Holiness movement and frequently preached at the Spotsylvania Holiness Association (Reverend Hosley also married my grandparents in 1917). Shown below is a likeness of Hosley from one of the Washington newspapers.
Advocating for the rights of farmers was also part of Thomas's portfolio. In 1890, he was elected as an officer in the Spotsylvania chapter of the Farmers Alliance. He later was active in the Virginia Agricultural Council of Safety and the Virginia Farmers' Educational and Co-Operative Union.
During World War I, Thomas was the Fredericksburg chairman of the YMCA's effort to maintain the organization's huts at all the army training camps in Virginia. During the war, the YMCA was the principal provider of services to men in uniform to sustain their morale and to promote their spiritual and physical well-being.
During the 1920s, Thomas was elected to two terms on the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors. He was named chairman of this board in 1926. In late 1928, Thomas fell ill and when it appeared that he was not improving, he sought treatment at Sibley Hospital in Washington, DC. It was presumed that he was suffering from cancer of the stomach, and an exploratory surgery was performed on October 26, which revealed that his illness was too advanced to be successfully treated. He died at the hospital on November 5, 1928 at 11:00 p.m. with Cora at his side. His body was brought back to Spotsylvania. His funeral was held at Tabernacle Methodist Church and he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.
Cora Thomas outlived her husband by 48 years. She remained on the farm and taught in the public schools. She was also a long-time Sunday school teacher at Tabernacle. In 1940, she boarded several lodgers at her house, including Gay Broaddus, who was the last principal at the R.E. Lee School at Spotsylvania Court House (the school burned in December 1941). Cora died at the Riverside Nursing Home in Fredericksburg on July 10, 1976. She is buried near Thomas at Oak Hill Cemetery.
My thanks to Carolyn Carmichael, a granddaughter of Thomas Evan Thomas, for her help in writing this article.
