Contents of this site are © 2002-2004, Harold D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Last updated October 18, 2008.
Descendants of Nathaniel Grigsby Thomas
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Genealogy is
history on a personal level. Just as we study the history of our nation and of
the world to understand how our society became what it is, so we use genealogy
to help us understand who we are as individuals, and why we have become what we
are. For a few royal and very influential political families, history and
genealogy are nearly one and the same; but for most of us, including the
Thomases of Botetourt County Virginia, genealogy teaches more about how we reacted
to history than how we formed it.
Genealogy is also
biography on the family level, for many, perhaps even most of, the influences
that form the character of an individual also form the character of a family.
These influences can be the result of wars, disease, economic depressions,
migration, the livelihood in a given region, ethnicity, religious teaching (or
the absence of it), and the presence or
absence of parental influence. This quest for understanding ourselves is what
makes genealogy so fascinating -- and the opportunity to teach future
generations about who we are as Thomases strengthens our motivation for
preparing this work.
Of course, no
living family ever finds its genealogy completed; and with us, much remains to
be done, both in tracing earlier ancestors, at least to the old country, and in
adding newer descendants, so that they and their families may connect to the
story we are telling.
I joined this quest
at the Thomas Reunion in September 1970, just before beginning my junior year
at Ohio Northern University. I had seen an old, yellowed photocopy of a list of
the children and grandchildren of William Henry Thomas, and had begun to see
the work of Donna Thomas Browning about her great-grandfather's experience as a
private in the Confederate Army; and that of his wife in helping our family
survive Reconstruction. I remained in Virginia for several days after the
reunion to do research in the Botetourt County Clerk's Office and in
theVirginia Room of the Roanoke Public Library. A year later, I heard from
Frank Thomas, son of James Milton, who then lived in West Liberty, Ohio, about
the research of Olive Thomas, who mentioned a John R. Thomas, of English
ancestry. Unfortunately, they were unable to provide me with any proof of this
claim.
In the intervening
decades, most of the efforts concentrated on filling out the listing of
descendants on the family tree; but interest continued in taking the history
back as well. I concluded that the best opportunity for further research would
be the Virginia State Library in Richmond. In April 1999, after several years
of talking about it and planning, my father and I made the trip. The new
material in this book is the fruit of our labor.
Serious
genealogists rightly demand proof for claims made in a family history. We have
not been as thorough in collecting proofs as we would like, a situation I
expect to be corrected in future editions. Family tradition has been precise in
naming names and dates for family members in the third and successive
generations (that is, the descendants of Nathaniel Grigsby Thomas). We have
made a few corrections to tradition on the basis of the Botetourt County birth
registrations, which began in 1853, and other source documents. Where
documentary evidence has been used, it is cited here. Please note that source documents have been inconsistent on the
spelling of the surname of Mary Kesslar (or Kesler), whose marriage certificate
shows both spellings; and of the name of Molley Porter Glen (or Molly Porter
Glenn). Prior to the Twentieth Century, such inconsistencies were common.
In the descendant
listing, the number beside each name indicates the generation of that person
among descendants of John R. Thomas, with John R. being accounted the first,
Nathaniel Grigsby the second, etc. The eldest Thomases now living are of the
fifth generation, a few of the youngest children are of the ninth.
On behalf of the
family, I wish I could thank Olive Thomas at least for the lead to John R., and do thank Donna Thomas Browning,
Charlotte Haymaker (the Keslar genealogist), my father, Harold R. Thomas, and everyone
who stopped me at a reunion over the years to add a child's name or make a
correction, for their contributions and encouragement. Finally, I thank my wife Lucinda for her
patience with me as Dad and I worked to put together this book. For the errors which are bound to appear
sooner or later, however, I alone am responsible.
Many historians
have argued that the single experience in American history that most defined
our national character was that of taming the West. When John Smith established
Jamestown in 1607, he merely set that process into motion. Two centuries later,
Virginia, the "Old Dominion" was still wilderness in its central and
western parts. Botetourt County, which had been formed in 1770, for a time
furnished in Fincastle the courthouse for half of the Northwest Territory --
with its western terminus at the Lake of the Woods, between what is now
Minnesota and Manitoba, Canada. The other half of the Northwest Territory was
in Allegheny County, whose seat is Covington.
Most of the
settlers in the frontier of central Virginia were from the British Isles,
though a few were German. This fact is significant to us, since the nationality
of our ancestry remains unknown. The name Thomas has always been a popular
Christian name, being the Latin form of the Greek Didymus, who was one of the
Twelve Disciples of Jesus. Between the tenth and fourteenth centuries,
Europeans began to use surnames as family names, but quite often the first
person's surname would be the first name of that person's father. The surname
Thomas is known throughout the Christian world, and to our knowledge can be, in
addition to English, Scots, and Welsh; French, German, Italian (variant of Tomasini
or Tomasetti), Serbian (from Tomasovich), or Lebanese (well-known
Lebanese Thomases include the Watergate reporter Helen Thomas, the late actor
Danny Thomas, and his daughter Marlo).
Our surname is most frequently associated with being Welsh; however the
Welsh, whom some believe to be descended from the Spanish, characteristically
have a darker skin and hair color than the very fair skin and blonde/brown hair color of most of our family. Olive
Thomas speculated that we are of English ancestry, which is supported by the
prevalence of the name Nathaniel in our family history, a name that was very
popular in 17th and 18th Century England.
Most of what we
know about John R. Thomas comes from the personal property tax records of
Botetourt County. By comparing those personal property tax records with the
fact that they record only males over the age of 16, and with the United States
Census for Botetourt County from 1830 and 1840, we were able to establish that
John R. Thomas was born between 1790 and 1797. He is listed as being part of a
Botetourt County unit of the Virginia Militia for two months and eight days in
1813, during the War of 1812. Such short enlistments were typical of that war.
He first appeared on the Botetourt County tax rolls in 1813, but did not appear
on those rolls in 1817-1818, possibly to marry a Cynthia Bailey in Norfolk
County, Virginia, in September 1817, according to marriage registers in that
county.
He returned to be
counted in the 1819 property tax return. On January 3, 1826, he married
Elizabeth Peaton, a widow, in Norfolk County. The couple returned to Botetourt
County, where John continued to work as a laborer. The marriage certificate in
Virginia at that time was in the form of a bond in the amount of $150 posted in
the name of the Governor of Virginia.
Having posted the bond, if a lawful cause was found to obstruct the
marriage, the bond would be forfeited. The Governor at this time was John
Tyler, who would become President of the United States following the death of
William Henry Harrison in 1841. John Thomas signed the bond with an x,
indicating that he could not write and was probably illiterate. He never owned
land, and in the good years, would be taxed for owning one or two horses at the
rate of 8-12 cents each. In 1836, affected by the national depression that
year, he took out a loan for $400, mortgaging virtually everything he owned to
the person who happened to be County Clerk, Ferdinand Woltz, agreeing to repay
the amount in 13 monthly installments. In this record and one of the property
tax records, he is known as John Lapps Thomas. In 1842, the return showed
property belonging to John R. Thomas Estate and to Elizabeth Thomas, who lived
until 1846. We can therefore conclude that John R. Thomas died in 1841 or 1842
at an age between 44 and 52. After one more entry listing the estate of John
Thomas, the property taxes were paid in the name of his son Nathaniel Grigsby
Thomas. Together, these records and the Botetourt County US Census for
1830-1850 prove that Nathaniel Grigsby Thomas was the son of John R. Thomas.
The record is still
unclear about other children of John R. Thomas; however the 1850 US Census
lists two males whom we can presume to be brothers living with Nathaniel G.
Thomas, then 23 (according to his military record and the listing of his age as
33 in the 1860 Census -- the 1850 Census shows his age as 20). Their names are
Levi E., 15, and John M., 12. John M. Thomas is said to have lived for a time
near the sanitarium in Hollins Virginia, later moving to the Kanawha Valley
(Charleston, West Virginia), and then to Cleveland (whether Ohio or Tennessee
is uncertain).
Nathaniel Grigsby
Thomas was born between September 5, 1826 (his age being shown as 33 on the US
Census of September 4, 1860), and July 24, 1827 (according to the Botetourt
County property tax roll for July 24, 1843, which is the first to show any
16-year-old males in Elizabeth Thomas' household). Like his father, Nathaniel
started out as a laborer, as indicated in his daughter Mary Jane's birth record
in 1853. In 1848, he married Cynthia Tolley, who in 1850 gave birth to a
daughter, Martha A. Both died soon after.
On November 4,
1851, he married Mary Kesler, born March 16, 1825 in Allegheny County,
Virginia. The marriage certificate shows two spellings for her name: the
license reads "Mary Kesslar", signed by Botetourt County Clerk
Ferdinand Woltz November 3, 1851; but Rev. Lewis P. Fellers' marriage register
for 1851 states that it was performed November 4 to "Nathaniel G. Thomas
and Mary Kesler." An endorsement by Rev. Fellers adds, "I certify
that the within marriages were celebrated by me according to the rites of the
Baptist Church." Ray Thomas, Mary's grandson, recalls her saying that her
parents both died young.
Confederate
military records show that Private Nathaniel G. Thomas was enlisted in
Botetourt County by Captain Gilliam on November 16, 1863 for three years'
service or the end of the war. He was assigned to Company K, Wharton's Brigade,
60th Virginia Infantry. Muster rolls indicate he was paid and present from enlistment
until April 1, 1864. He was then captured by forces under General Philip
Sheridan at Winchester, Virginia, and sent to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia and
Point Lookout Maryland, where he arrived September 24. At the end of the war,
he was paroled at Point Lookout and sent to Aiken's Landing, Virginia, for
exchange. Records show he was admitted to Chimborazo Hospital, Richmond, for
chronic bronchitis, March 19, 1865. He died there March 26, 1865. Family
tradition also suggests that he died of starvation or of the measles; and was
buried in the Confederate Cemetery, Section G, Row M, Number 99, at Oakwood
Cemetery in Richmond.
Chimborazo Hospital
was a very large facility on the east side of Richmond. Established in 1863, it
could treat thousands of soldiers at once. While it was considered a major
advancement in military medicine for the time, the illness and injuries
sustained by Confederate soldiers at the end of the war were overwhelming to
the medical staff. For additional information about Chimborazo Hospital, see
Phoebe Yates Pember, A Southern Woman's Story (Ed. Belle Irvin Wiley,
Marietta, Ga.: Mockingbird Books, 1974). A museum stands at the hospital site
as part of the Richmond National Battlefield Park.
Tradition states
that, as with most Southern families, the winter of 1865-66 was extremely hard,
due to the repudiation of Confederate money. The last day Confederate money was
accepted, Mary went into Fincastle to purchase a 300-pound bag of sugar,
shirting, and some other small items ... at a cost of $800. That winter, the
family lived off of corn meal fried in bacon grease. It was said the eldest
son, James, had to walk for miles in the country in late winter with no
clothing except a linen shirt and a pair of britches. Following the war, according
to a family tradition, Mary was given responsibility for the freed slaves in
the area. She had the reputation for being able to shear forty head of sheep
per day by hand (typically, men sheared 30 to 33 head of sheep per day with
electric shears). While she was an excellent cook, her reputation piece was
coleslaw. In her later years, she lived with her son William Henry Thomas on
the farm on Craig's Creek, where she died in January 1909. Picture of Mary Keslar Thomas