James Maston Thomas -- Printer

 

 

On November 21, 1940, The Cadiz Record reported that a short film, featuring James M. Thomas of Model, Tennessee, and his homemade printing press, would be shown at the Kentucky Theater in Cadiz. The short film was only a few minutes long and was cut from a Universal Studios series.

James Maston Thomas was born in the Donaldson Creek community of Trigg County, but moved with his family to the Model, Tennessee area where he remained for many years. Thomas was an extraordinarily interesting and intelligent man, an inventor, farmer, and a minister of the Christian Union Church. However, he was best known as a newspaper publisher and was widely recognized for the unusual way his paper was printed.

As a boy, Thomas hung around the printing office of the Cadiz Record, watching and learning the trade. He carved cedar sticks into stencils and began printing with them. Eventually he was given a small hand press, and in 1901 he began using it to print a newspaper. He decided he needed a better press, and built his own in 1917 - a wooden cylinder press. By then he was printing a newspaper titled “The Model Star” once a year. It was a small four-page, three-column periodical, and set entirely by hand. Much of the paper was of a religious nature, but of no specific denomination. Thomas built up a worldwide circulation for “The Model Star” through missionary societies and it was sent to places such as Tahiti, Russia, China, and Egypt.

The Thomas & Bridges families owe a thank you to James Maston Thomas for preserving the family history in print form. G.A. Bridges wrote the first Thomas & Bridges family history in the late 1920s, and James M. Thomas printed the booklets on his homemade press.
(Source: The Cadiz-Trigg County Kentucky Bicentennial Facebook page, November 21, 2020)

 Maston also sent copies of “The Model Star” to service men all over the world.  Mementos sent by these men back to him were on display throughout his home and shop.  When Kentucky Lake was formed, the waters covered his farm and after selling his land, he and his family moved to Calloway County, Kentucky.  He was married to the former Miss Flora J. Seawright on October 20, 1901 and they had three daughters.

 

 Maston Thomas and his printing press. Photo courtesy of Ira Scott, The Cadiz-Trigg County Kentucky Bicentennial Facebook page, November 21, 2020.

THE LINEAGE:
(James Maston Thomas was the son of Albert Dillard and Mary Jonathan Vinson Thomas and the grandson of Peyton and Sarah L. Ethridge Thomas.  Peyton was the third child of Cullen and Elizabeth Futrell Thomas.  Cullen was the first child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)