The Hyphen Family Lineage

[Anniversary announcement for Mr. and Mrs. Lewis S. Thomas; paper and date unknown, but presumed to be the Huntington Herald-Press.]

[headline] Union Township Couple Observes Fifty-Seventh Anniversary Of Wedding

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis S. Thomas, Union township, celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary Sunday at their home with a family dinner and by receiving a few callers in the afternoon. Their anniversary is January 23 but the celebration was held on Sunday to allow all family members to be present.

Guests at the dinner were Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Paul and children, Lynn Edwin and Rosalou; Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Thomas, Sr., and children, Dean, Jane Ann, and John Philip, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Thomas, Jr., and children, Michael and Joseph, and the Rev. and Mrs. R.H. Bealer and children.

[Editing note: finding the date of the paper would help determine the exact date of the party, which is stated to be on Sunday, making it likely to have been either the 19th or the 26th of January. Lewis died on the 27th of January, either just over a week later or, if the party was on the 26th, the very next day.]

[Obituary for Lewis S. Thomas, paper unknown, but with hand-written date of 31 Jan 1947 on the clipping.]

[headline] Former Union Twp. Trustee Dies

Lewis S. Thomas, almost 79 years old, retired farmer, died shortly after 6 p.m. Monday at his home in Union township where he had lived for the last 57 years, of a heart attack suffered about 2 a.m. Monday. His condition was alarming at once. He had been in failing health for several years and had suffered minor heart attacks at times.

Mr. Thomas was born February 2, 1868, in Wells county, to Samuel [sic] and Susanna Caley Thomas and spent his boyhood in Union township, Wells county. He was married January 23, 1890, to Rose Ann Smith by his grandfather, the Rev. D.F. Thomas, and they went to housekeeping on a farm adjacent to the present home.

Mr. Thomas was a member of the Macedonia United Brethren church for years and later became a member of the Union Church of God serving as Sunday school superintendent, and a trustee for many years. He was elected trustee of Union township, the second Republican ever elected to that time, serving four years during which the present high school building was erected.

Surviving are the widow, two children, seven grandchildren, a brother and a number of nephews and nieces. The children are Mrs. Merle Paul, Huntington, and Floyd Thomas Sr., Union township. Grandchildren are Lynn Edwin and Rosaliu, Huntington, and Floyd Thomas Jr., Jane Ann Thomas, Richard Dean Thomas, Robert Lewis Thomas and John Philip Thomas, Union township. The great-grandchildren are David Michael Thomas and Floyd Joseph Thomas, Union township. The brother is Dale Monroe Thomas, Wells county near Markle.

A grandson, Thomas G. Paul; half-brother, Jacob Kohr; half-sister, Mrs. Margaret Smith, and a brother, Allie, preceded him in death.

Funeral services were helf at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at the residence with the Rev. R.H. Bealer, officiating, assisted by Bishop A.M. Johnson and the Rev. M.I. Burkholder, of this city. Burial was in the Haverstock [sic] cemetery at Zanesville.

[Article "Lewis S. Thomas" from Huntington County, Indiana History & Families 1834-1993, p388.]

Lewis S. Thomas was born 1868 in Union Twp., Wells County to Sampson and Susanne Caley Kohr Thomas. He married Roseanna Smith, daughter of Jeremiah and Rebecca DeWitt Smith in 1890. They moved to Union Twp., Huntington County.

He purchased land from his Uncle Shalter Thomas, built his own house and gradually acquired 120 acres of farmland which still remains in the family.

Lewis and Rose had three children, a stillborn infant, Merle Thomas Paul, and Floyd Sr.

Merle, born in 1891 was married in her parent's home to Charles Paul in 1915. They moved to Huntington where they lived all their lives. They had three children: Thomas, Lynn Edwin, and Rosalou Paul Navin.

Thomas became a band teacher, working in Mooresville, KY where he died in 1944. Lynn married Phyllis Young. They live in Dallas, TX and have two adopted children. Rosalou married Ray Navin and has two daughters, Evelyn and Judy, and a new granddaughter. They live in Baltimore, MD.

Charlie was a news reporter for the Huntington Herald Press. He was a talented, jolly man, very dedicated and good at his job. He died in 1954.

Merle died in 1985 after a full life of work, homemaking and community service. She was a member of the Eastern Star and held office many times.

Floyd married Mary Bayha in 1921 and moved to his farm that spring. He farmed and continued working with his father.

Though Lewis had only a fourth grade education, he was a well educated man, though mostly self-taught. He was a good reader with an innate wisdom and understanding. He passed this trait on to many of his heirs. He believed in the power of education and worked hard to improve the school system in Union Twp. He served both as trustee and on the school board.

Rose and Lewis read their Bibles daily, supported their church and ministers with time, prayers and money. They lived their beliefs. They attended Macedonia Church, then Union Church where they were members until they died.

Lewis was a small, soft-spoken man, never swore, but was astute and knowledgeable about business. He was kind-hearted to a fault, yet was not easily fooled by human nature. He was slow to anger, but his blue eyes flashed at injustice to others or himself.

He could carve a linked chain from a single piece of wood, many of the links had balls within.

He had the first tractor in the community, a Fordson, but refused to use it, leaving that to his son. Instead he worked horses, was a gentle master, with a touch that gave his teams confidence.

Rose was a large boned woman. She fulfilled her tasks of farm wife, mother and community worker with skill. Rose was a semi-invalid for years, but Lewis took her with him to town, visiting or to their cottage at Lake Webster, many times loading the old high-backed, noncollapsible cane wheelchair himself.

They lived to celebrate their Golden Wedding, a rarity in those days. Lewis died in 1947, Rose a year later, never having adjusted to life without her mate. They left behind a rich heritage of family, morality and Christian values. (Submitted by Jane Anne Thomas, granddaughter.)

Note: Names of Lewis S. Thomas

In the Thomas family documentation and oral history, he is referred to always as "Lewis Samson" (or occasionally "Lewis Sampson") and his gravestone reads "Lewis S." Matthew Caley, in his "Descendants of George L. Cailey, Sr.," refers to him as David Lewis, although he is called simply "Lewis" in text quoted from the Wells County, Indiana Family History 1837-1992 in that same descendants tree. On the record of his marriage to Rosa Smith, he is called simply "Lewis Thomas."

His parents were married in 1866, and he was born in 1868. Beginning with census records in 1870, we find the following:
1870 - Shalter L D Thomas, male aged 2yrs, born in Indiana
1880 - David Thomas, male aged 12 yrs, born in Indiana
-> Both of these place him in the household of his father, Samson Monroe.
-> No record can be found of him in the 1890 census thus far. He married in January 1890, and would likely have been his own head-of-household by the time of the census. The following entries are from his own household.

1900 - Lewis Thomas, male aged 31 yrs, born in Indiana
1910 - Lewis S. Thomas, male aged 42 yrs, born in Indiana
-> His nephew Keith (son of Dale Monroe Thomas) is listed as living with Lewis' household in 1910, because of the death of Keith's mother Mollie (Kline) Thomas from complications due to Keith's birth.

1920 - Lewis S. Thomas, male aged 51 yrs, born in Indiana
-> Other than wife Rosanna, only his son Floyd is listed as living with him in 1920.

1930 - Lewis S. Thomas, male aged 62 yrs, born in Indiana
1940 - Lewis S. Thomas, male aged 71 yrs, born in Indiana

It appears, as best it can be determined, that the man the Thomas descendants have always known as Lewis Samson Thomas was born named Shalter Lewis David Thomas, presumably for his uncle (his father's younger brother) Shalter Thomas, born 1846. The elder Shalter never married, lived with his parents well into his middle age, and died in 1926. It is also reasonable to assume that the given name "David" was in honor of his grandfather.

By what reason and by whose choice his name changed over the years is unknown at this time. It seems likely that the name "Lewis" was used as his given name to avoid confusion with the other two living males with whom he shared names. It also seems possible that, as an adult, he chose to call himself "Lewis Sampson" so that, like his brother Dale Monroe Thomas, he would bear part of his father's name in his own.

ADDENDUM: Before her death, Jane Anne Thomas had discussed the names of Lewis with her close friend Jean Pasko, who remembers Jane Anne had heard in her youth that, when a young adult, Lewis had had a falling-out with his uncle Shalter, rarely (if ever) spoke to him anymore, and wanted as little as possible connecting them. Because of this, he chose to stop even acknowledging that he bore the name "Shalter."

It stands to reason, as well, that the initial "S" may simply represent the name "Shalter," and that later generations of his family simply assumed the middle initial stood for "Samson." As Jane Anne was the source of nearly all the family's history and genealogy information for a great deal of her life, it might well be that the assumption started with a mistake or belief of hers, and the remainder of the family accepted it as fact.

SECOND ADDENDUM: Copies of his mother Susanna's family record from her Bible name him Shalter Lewis David Thomas, both at the note for his birth and at his marriage.