Ora Agnes Bridges Thomas -- Accomplished Early Family Member

 

 

 

 

 

Ora Agnes Bridges Thomas was born on June 15, 1869 in the Maple Grove Community of Trigg County, Kentucky.   She was the fourth child of Civil war veteran Cullen Thomas Bridges and his wife, Martha Ann Virginia Thomas.  Her siblings were the well known Bridges Brothers who made a name for themselves in the early 1900s in the Trigg County community.  Those brothers were Ghent, Mark Dale, John Trice, Cleveland and Jesse Clyde.  In addition, Ora had three sisters,   Rosa Lee, Mollie May and a sister, Sallie who died as an infant.

Around 1900, Ora married Robert Henry “Bob” Thomas, a widower whose first wife, Lillie Belle Thomas had died in 1899.  Ora and Bob were the parents of three children, Ruby Virginia Thomas, born May 11, 1902, Henry Cullen Thomas, born November 24, 1903 and Edison Hugh Thomas, born June 5, 1912.  Ora also raised Robert Peyton Thomas, Bob’s son by his first wife, Lillie.

Ora and Bob settled in the Donaldson Creek Community where Bob was a farmer.  The farm was not far from where James Thomas, Sr. had settled in 1806.   Except for a short time when they lived in Paducah, Kentucky, she and Bob lived their entire married life on the Donaldson Creek farm. 

Ora was an accomplished musician.  She played the organ and guitar and sang.  She had a keen interest in current events and was “well read” for a woman of her time.  In addition, Ora was an excellent cook.  Photography was another one of her talents, using a small box camera with roll film.

Ora was also before her time a feminist, a word that she never heard during her lifetime.  She was appointed as an assistant clerk in the Donaldson Creek Baptist Church at a time when women were not even permitted to speak pertaining to business matters of the church.  After the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, she was one of the first women to vote in the Donaldson Precinct.

Ora was a humanitarian, who helped her friends, neighbors and relatives when they were in need and during an illness. But most of all, Ora was a devoted mother and grandmother.

Ora died on October 28, 1933 in Trigg County at the age of 64.  She was buried in the Drury Bridges Cemetery in the Maple Grove Community near the site where she was born.  Her husband, Bob, died on January 27, 1948, at the age of 80.  He was buried in the Peyton Thomas Cemetery on Donaldson Creek next to his first wife, Lille Belle Thomas.

 

Ora Bridges Thomas Tombstone

LINEAGE:  (Ora Agnes Bridges was the daughter of Cullen T. Bridges and Martha Virginia Thomas Bridges and the granddaughter of William Bridges and Mary Thomas Bridges and Peyton Thomas and Sarah Ethridge Thomas.  She was the great-granddaughter of Cullen Thomas and Elizabeth Futrell Bridges and Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.  She was the great-great granddaughter of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)