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Born: August 23, 1851 - Presque Isle, ME
Died: May 5, 1904 - Ligonier, PA
Married: Ida R. Kitchin
April 25, 1878 — North Bend, PAChildren:
Harry Thomas
Harold Clyde Thomas
Maude Thomas German
Nelle Thomas Brady
Siblings:
Oscar, John, Frank, Owen, Willis,
George, Theodore, Angeline Thomas
Parents:
Deborah Brown and Leonard Jarvis Thomas
Charles grew up on a farm in the area of Presque Isle, Maine. He moved to northwestern Pennsylvania as a young man, sometime between 1870 and 1877 (based on U.S, census data), about the time that huge tracts of virgin hemlock forest were opened for logging operations. He was a pioneering Pennsylvania lumberman who, for a number of years, was half of the Thomas & Whiting Lumber Co., in Cameron County, Pennsylvania. The company did business in Cameron and Potter counties, in the general Pittsburgh area, and in West Virginia.
Charles and his family lived in Emporium, PA. At one time, Charles served as County Treasurer for Cameron County.
Charles died in a horrific accident, as a result of being thrown from, and then run over by, a logging train. The accident happened just south of Ligonier, PA, during a switchback.
Although Charles' obituary implied that his widow, Ida, would be financially secure, this was not the case. She was able to stay in the family home, but she was not at all well off financially. For the rest of her life, she had to come in person — probably to a bank or company office — and wait, sometimes for hours, before receiving a small monthly sum. Their grandson, Ronald Thomas German, used to go with Ida when he was a boy, and remembered this well.
I have no information on how my great grandparents met, but there is some evidence they met at a dance, as these were held regularly in that area.
Later in life, Charles and Ida had the front stained glass windows installed in the First Baptist Church in Emporium, PA, in memory of his mother, Deborah S. Thomas, of Presque Isle, ME.
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Copyright © 1999-2007, Carolyn G. Fox. All rights reserved.
