BIOGRAPHY: William S. Thomas - Cooke, Nacogdoches and Smith Counties, TX Submitted by Gayle Basaldu Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ***************************************************************** "Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas" Page 818-819 WILLIAM S. THOMAS, J.P., now of Cooke county, is a native Texan and was born in St. Augustine in 1838. His father, Benjamin Thomas, was a native of North Carolina, but an early pioneer of San Augustine county, Texas, whence he moved to Bexar county, and served under Sam Houston during the Texas revolution. He was afterward a sutler during the Mexican War in Veache's Texan regiment. He married a daughter of John Engledon and became the father of the following children - Oscar E., Angelina, (who married L.T. Barrett) and William S. William S. Thomas, at the age of six years, was taken to San Antonio, Bexar county, by his father, and at the age of ten to Mexico, where he remained until grown, acting as interpreter for traders coming from the States. In 1861 he enlisted in Company C, Second Texas cavalry, Confederate service and took part in numerous battles through New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana, the first being at Val Verde, the next at Glorieta, New Mexico, then at Galveston, Texas, then at Lafourche Crossing, Louisiana, and Berwick's Bay, same State, then on the Rio Grande, then back to San Antonio, where he performed provost-marshal duty; at the time of the surrender he went to Nacogdoches county, and finally in 1868, settled in Cooke county, where he has since been employed chiefly in merchandising and farming, being now engaged at the latter vocation. For eight years he has filled the office of justice of the peace and has just been elected for another term. In 1867 Mr. Thomas married Cordelia G., daughter of Claiborne Weaver, of Tennessee. This lady died February 5, 1874, the mother of two children - Benjamin C., and Mary A. The second wife of Esquire Thomas is Elizabeth C., daughter of James McKnight, a native of Tennessee, but now a resident of Nacogdoches county, Texas. This second marriage has been blessed by the birth of five children - Oscar, Carrie, Blanche, Bonnie, Frank. Mr. Thomas is an enthusiastic Free Mason and for many years has been a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church South.