My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography from the book, History of Kentucky, Edition 1 by J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin and G. C. Kniffin and published by F. A. Battey Publishing Company in 1885.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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JOHN J. THOMAS was born August 8, 1813, in Albemarle County, Va. His father, Lewis Thomas, and his mother, Margaret Lewis, were natives of Virginia. The maternal grandmother was a cousin of Thomas Jefferson. Both parents died when subject was but an infant. When thirteen years old he was brought to Christian County, Ky., where he remained two years. Returning to Virginia, he entered the University of Virginia. There he graduated in mathematics, modern and ancient languages. He came to the Purchase soon after finishing his studies as an assistant to Chiles Terrell, father of T. F. Terrell, and assisted in the survey of portions of the Purchase District. In 1837 he married Miss Lucy M. Quarels, of Christian County, afterward settled in that county and engaged in general farming until 1844, when he received an appointment under President Polk to a clerkship in the post office department at Washington, serving through the remainder of Polk’s administration. In 1851 he was elected to the Kentucky State Legislature, in which he served two years, when he again turned his attention to agriculture in Christian County, continued the same until 1861, when he was elected to the provisional congress of the Southern Con federacy. He remained in that body until the organization of the permanent congress in February, 1862. He then entered the Confederate Army as aide to Gen. Williams, and served under him to the close of the war, when he again returned to private life, embarking in the tobacco-commission business in Clarksville, Tenn. In 1873 he became a tobacco inspector at New York City, where he was employed for about five years, and then settled in Paducah, where he has since been dealing in tobacco. Maj. Thomas is a man of fine mental ability, well-read in the current literature of the day, and impresses even the stranger that he is a gentleman of broad culture. His wife died in 1846, leaving two children: Lewis M., who was killed at the battle of Shiloh, and Dr. John Q. Thomas, of Christian County. Mr. Thomas was next married in Frankfort, Ky., to Miss Kate Pendleton, who died in 1882, leaving three children: Annie (wife of John Quigley), Miss Kate Thomas and Pendleton Thomas.

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This family biography is one of 165 biographies included in the McCracken County, Kentucky section of the book, The History of Kentucky, Edition 1 published in 1885 by F. A. Battey Publishing Company.  For the complete description, click here: History of Kentucky, Edition 1

View additional McCracken County, Kentucky family biographies here: McCracken County, Kentucky Biographies

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