Smith Thomas -- Teacher and Farmer

 

Smith Thomas was born on September 25, 1879 in a log cabin on the Maple Grove Road in the Oak Grove community of Trigg County, Kentucky. He was the third of five children born to Jonathan Starkie Thomas  and Julia Dyer Thomas.  Jonathan Starkie was a farmer and both he and Julia were natives of Trigg County.  Smith was a descendant of Starkie Thomas.

Smith’s siblings were Forrest May Thomas, born in 1876 and married Jesse Monroe Vinson; Rufus Hayden Thomas, born in 1878 and died in Cuba at an unknown date; Lucian M. Thomas, born in 1881 and married Inez B. Crews; and John Vernon Thomas, born in 1883 and married Clemie Wilson.

Smith attended the local county schools in the Oak Grove community.  As a young man he was a teacher in several different schools in Trigg County. 

On October 26, 1904, Smith married Ida Mae Meador at the home of Ida’s sister, Mrs. Jesse Ricks, south of Cadiz, Kentucky.  Ida was born on July 30, 1883 in the Oakland community of Trigg County.  She was the daughter of Henry Clay Meador and Sephronia Wilson Meador.  Henry was a farmer and was a native of Stewart County, Tennessee.  Sephronia was a native of Trigg County.

Following their marriage, Smith and Ida moved into a brand new two-room house with an attic located in the Oak Grove community between his parents’ home on one side and his grandparents’ home on the other side. Smith clerked with the firm of Jefferson and Street Department Store in Cadiz and a few years later they bought a farm and a larger new home on the site of his grandfather’s house.  For the latter part of his life, Smith engaged primarily in farming.

Smith and Ida were the parents of two children, Julia Bell Thomas, born in 1905 and married John Carl Bridges and Ora Lucille Thomas, born in 1907 and married William Thomas Armstrong, II and later married Joe Edmond Nunn.

Smith died on September 11, 1938 at the age of 58 at his home in Oak Grove as the result of pneumonia.  He was buried in the Starkie Thomas Cemetery in Trigg County.  Ida died on October 18, 1955 at the age of 72 at the Trigg County Hospital in Cadiz.  She had married her second husband, Bristo Futrell, after Smith’s death.  She was buried in the Starkie Thomas Cemetery.

Smith and Ida

 

Smith and Ida tombstone

LINEAGE: (Smith Thomas was the son of Jonathan Starkie and Julia Dyer Thomas. Jonathan Starkie was the third child of William Bridges and Nancy Jane Rogers Thomas.  William was the first child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas.  Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)