George Thomas

Richland County, NC – Wythe County, VA, Logan County, KY –

 Montgomery County, TN – Pickens County, AL

© Judith Voran 2005 All rights reserved

 

Family sources and county histories of Pickens County link George Thomas, son of William Cram BellyThomas of Richmond County, NC as the father of Tristram S. Thomas.  There are no photocopies of original Bible records available, although one family member sent me transcribed copies of what are supposed to be Bible records of John R. Cole who married the daughter of George and Elizabeth Thomas.

 

The following records are those transcribed from the Cole Family Bible [1] :

 

George Thomas was born 1774 Nov. 15^th Died 1850 May 14. Age 75 yrs 5 [sic.] mos. 29 da

Lived in or near Tuscaloosa & Carrollton, Ala.

m. 8/4/1796 Elizabeth Cother

1796 March 5 – 1853 Jan 26

Elizabeth Cother was born March 5, 1776 died Jan. 26, 1853.

William Thomas (1800 – 1850) wife Delilah Nicholas

Tristram S. Thomas (1797 – 1843) wife Malinda Moore

 

(Mrs Carruth has the dates and the wive's names transposed.)

 

Elizabeth Thomas  b. 1810 Nov 11 m. Nov 16 1826 [to] John Russell Cole 1800, Dec. 1^st died 1859 June 27^th

 

The record goes on to name the fifteen children of John Russell Cole and Elizabeth [Thomas] Cole.

 

The following Bible records appear to be those of the Francis Dumas Smith – Mary Ann Cole Smith's family. [2] Francis and Mary Ann Smith were living in the same household as Elizabeth Thomas at the time of the 1850 census.  Mary Ann [Cole] Smith would have been the granddaughter of Elizabeth Thomas.  John Russell Cole and Elizabeth [Thomas] Cole, father-in-law of Francis Dumas Smith and parents of Mary [Cole] Smith were living nearby. [3]   Francis D. Smith was Clerk of the Ebenezer Baptist Church from about 1846 to 1851.  This, of course, was the same church in which the activities of George, Tristram, and Benj. C. Thomas are all recorded. [4]

 

Born and died

John Russel Cole Sr. Born Dec. 1, 1800 Died June 27^th, 1859.

Elizabeth Thomas Cole wife, was Born Nov. 11, 1810 Died Nov. 17, 1862 (Handwritten notation: Walnut Grove Cemetery,"

 

Fifteen children are named. 

 

Martha Cole  Born April 2, 1829≤ is the second child listed. After the last Cole child is the notation "Benjamin Cother the son of Jessie Cother and Elizabeth Cother his wife,

son was born the 11^th of December, 1813 (very dim)"

 

Married (Father & Mother)

John Russell Cole and Elizabeth Thomas were married Nov. 16, 1826.

 

Under children the marriage of Ben Cother and Martha Cole were married Jan. 26, 1843.  (This must be the Benjamin Cother who asked for a letter of dismission from the Ebenezer Church in 1848. 

He and Martha may have moved from the county at that time.)

 

George Thomas was born Nov. 15^th 1774 Died May 14, 1850

Elizabeth Thomas was born March 5, 1776 died Jan. 26, 1853

William Thomas The son of George and Elizabeth Thomas was born Katy the 12^th day 1797.

Tristram S. Thomas son of George and Elizabeth Thomas was born September the 28^th day 1800

Elizabeth Thomas daughter of George & Elizabeth Thomas was born November the 11^th day 1810

William Thomas died July the 28^th 1843 His age was 46 yrs.

T(restart) S Thomas the son of George and Elisabeth Thomas died 17^th of July his age 55 years 9 months 19 days.

 

George Thomas made a deed of gift of a female slave named Hannah, about nine years old, to his daughter Elizabeth on 27^th of June 1827.  Deed was delivered to John R. Cole.  This proves that John R. Cole was the husband of Elizabeth Thomas Cole, daughter of George Thomas. [5]   It appears that John and Elizabeth Cole and George and Elizabeth Thomas were living in Tuscaloosa County in 1827.  By 1830 George Thomas was in Jefferson County.

 

According to the records of Pickens County extracted from the West Alabamian, John R. Cole was the executor of the estate of George Thomas.  The paper published the announcement that he filed accounts on the final settlement of the estate of George Thomas on 10 Jan. 1855 and again on 23 Dec. 1857. [6]

 

Both sets of Bible records list only three children for George and Elizabeth Thomas.  This is fairly unusual in that time of large families.  There is a three year gap between William and Tristram Thomas and a ten year gap between Tristram and Elizabeth.  The unfortunate issue with these records is that they are transcriptions and not photocopies of the original pages from the Bibles.  However, they appear to be from two different families and therefore each record set corroborates the information of the other,

 

Another source for the relationship between George Thomas and Tristram S. Thomas comes from a transcribed article from the Pickens Republican, 1854: [7]

 

Republican in 1854, the following is taken: --

 

Judge Thomas [Tristram Shandy Thomas] is one of the earliest settlers of this county.  He was born in Wythe, Virginia, whence he removed to Kentucky when a boy, and came from there to Pickens

(while a part of Tuscaloosa) in 1818, resided, subsequently, one year in the State of Tennessee, and has spent most of his life in Pickens.  His father, the late George Thomas, removed to this county

with his family, many years ago, but sometime later than his son, the old gentleman and lady, the mother of Judge Thomas, having both deceased within the past two or three years.  He was an excellent citizen, an honest man, a good patriot and an orthodox Whig of the old revolutionary stripe.  (The full text of the article is copied under the section for T. S. Thomas below.)

 

Land Records in Kentucky and Tennessee

 

Checking land and court records in Tennessee, land transactions are recorded for George Thomas in Montgomery [8] and Robertson counties.

 

"A Deed of Conveyance Stephen Thomas, John Thomas, Nathan Tho"as, George Thomas and Zacariah Ratliff and Elizabeth Ratliff to William Thomas was proven in open court by the Oath

Samuel C. Hawkins"  This is the deed whereby the sons and daughter of William "Ram Billy" Thomas of Richmond County, NC convey to their brother William Thomas their interest in land left

by William Cram BellyThomas to his children. [9]   This deed of conveyance proves the parents of George Thomas.

 

In Kentucky there is a land grant in Warren County for George Thomas [10] and deeds in Logan County. Montgomery and Robertson counties in Tennessee are counties adjacent to Christian and Logan counties in Kentucky. George Thomas held land in the area along Walker's line which was disputed by Kentucky and Tennessee, each claiming it for their own state land. (George Thomas, 5/12/1814 purchased 200 acre tract of land from Joshua and Sarah Norris on Drake's Creek; adjacent  and along state line.) [11] Given this description it appears that the land of George Thomas was in the southeast corner of the county line between Logan County, KY and the southwest corner of Warren County, Kentucky as the county lines existed before Simpson County, Kentucky was created from the counties of Allen, Warren and Logan.  This would possibly put him in the area south and east of Franklin, Kentucky.  

 

Since Pickens County is a "burned county" and no probate or deed records remain from that time, the newspaper and transcribed Bible evidence is the strongest available to prove the relationship between George and Tristram Shandy Thomas.  There is also a piece of evidence in the minutes of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

  I extracted portions from the microfilm of the original Minutes Book of the Ebenezer Baptist Church that referred to anyone with the surname Thomas.  In the June 22 minutes for the year 1851, there is a statement: " Sabbath Day. A large congregation Elder J. H. Taylor preached Bro. George Thomas Funeral and T. S. Thomas followed him in preaching Service closed  F. D. Smith (Church Clerk)" [12]

 

However, there is a discrepancy there.  George Thomas died in 1850 according to the Cole family Bible and the 1850 Mortality schedule of the U.S. Census. [13]   In the Federal census taken in September 1850, Elizabeth Thomas is shown age 63 years as living as head of a household with Francis and Mary Smith – granddaughter and granddaughter's husband  – and George Thomas is not listed. [14] Did T. S. Thomas preach at the funeral of his father or of another George Thomas?  Or was the service more like a memorial service a year later and Tristram did preach at the funeral/memorial of his father George?

 

Elizabeth Thomas, wife of George Thomas, is listed in family records as Elizabeth Cother (Coulter, Couther, Colther) the daughter of William Coulter of Richmond Co. North Carolina who married George Thomas as his second wife about 1797.  Records of the Cother family in Pickens County, Alabama and Delta County, Texas outlined below under the section of the Cother family connection support this statement.