Amanda Thomas Ledbetter
Amanda Elizabeth Thomas was born on May 14, 1870 in the Donaldson Creek community of Trigg County, Kentucky. She was the sixth of seven children of James Clark “Muck” Thomas and Elizabeth Lawrence Thomas. Muck was a farmer and Elizabeth was a homemaker. Both were natives of Trigg County. Amanda Elizabeth was a descendant of James Thomas, Jr.
Amanda’s siblings were Mary Stanley Thomas, born in 1859 and married Thomas Jesse McCasland; Ezekiel Mitchell Thomas, born in 1861 and married Cora Mae Horton; Drucilla Thomas, born in 1864 and married Samuel Monroe Smyth; Harriett Thomas born in 1868 and married Albert Sid Johnson Acree; Alpha Adeline Thomas, born in 1865 and married Charles Walter Smyth; and Jemima Emma Thomas, born in 1872 and married James Henry Martin; . Amanda had four half siblings from Muck’s second marriage to Mary Ann “Mollie” Fowler Meeks. They were James Clark Thomas, Jr., born in 1879 and married Myrtle Booze; Robert Thomas, born in 1880 and died in infancy; Letha Thomas, born in 1880 and died in infancy; and Fannie Beatrice Thomas, born in 1882 and married Clarence C. Archer and later married William Russell Talley.
When Amanda was four years old, she left with her family from their Donaldson Creek home and boarded a flat boat at Canton, Kentucky and travelled down the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers until they reached Memphis. They then traveled into Arkansas where the family settled in Searcy County, Arkansas. Her mother died in 1874 and her father married his second wife in 1879 when Amanda was nine years old. Amanda grew up on her father’s farm in Arkansas.
On August 7, 1890, Amanda married Richard Smyth in Marshall, Arkansas. Richard was born in 1865 in Weakley County, Tennessee and was the son of Pinkney Houston Smyth and Mary Westley Nowlin Smyth. Pinkney was a farmer and both he and Mary were natives of Weakley County, Tennessee and had moved to Searcy County, Arkansas in the 1870s. After their marriage, Amanda and Richard moved to the small community of Maud in the Oklahoma Territory.
Richard died in 1894 in Maud, He and Amanda had only been married for four years. They had one child, a son, Cullen Mitchell Smyth, born on April 1, 1893 in the Oklahoma Territory. He died on August 12, 1899 in Maud at the age of six.
On March 3, 1895, in Pottawatomie, County, Oklahoma, Amanda married her second husband, Thomas Lewis Ledbetter. Both Amanda and Thomas were 25 years old when they married. Tom was born on October 29, 1869 in Hood County, Texas, the son of Arthur Brooks Ledbetter and Mary Pell Wright Ledbetter. Arthur was a farmer and a native of Overton County, Tennessee. Mary Pell was a native of Giles County, Virginia.
Amanda and Tom settled in Maud where Tom operated a blacksmith shop and a cotton gin as well as doing some farming. They later settled in Pryor, Oklahoma where he was considered a progressive farmer. He served for approximately 20 years as a member of the Board of Education at Boatman and Pryor. Amanda was a homemaker and was called “Aunt Shug” by her nieces and nephews and in later years she was called “Mama Better” by her grandchildren. She was known as a good homemaker who cared for her home, her family and her neighbors.
Amanda and Tom were the parents of nine children, Ruth Ledbetter, born in 1897 and died at age of one day; Leslie Orchard Ledbetter, born in 1898 and died at the age of seven; Alpha Pell Ledbetter, born in 1900 and died at the age of two; Ruby Pearl Ledbetter, born in 1902 and married Clayton Gerald Williams; Arthur Brooks Ledbetter, born in 1905 and married Effie Taylor; Mary Esther Ledbetter, born in 1908 and married Howard Vernon Trogdon; Thomas Logan Ledbetter, born in 1910 and married Elsie Loraine Ivans; James Arthur Ledbetter, born in 1913 and married Mildred Margaret Morgan; and Oliver Vinson Ledbetter, born in 1914.
Amanda died on May 3, 1936 of pneumonia at the age of 65 at her home in Pryor, Oklahoma. She was buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Pryor. Tom died on April 29, 1952 at the age of 82 In Pryor. He was buried in the Fairview Cemetery next to his wife.
Amanda Ledbetter
Tom Ledbetter
Amanda and Tom tombstone
LINEAGE: (Amanda Elizabeth Thomas was the daughter of James Clark “Muck” and Elizabeth Josephine Lawrence Thomas. James Clark was the fourth child of James, Jr. and Margaret Ethridge Thomas. James, Jr. was the sixth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)
Visit the entire Thomas-Bridges family tree at: http://tinyurl.com/thomasbridgesfamily2
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