Lindsay D. Thomas -- Military Air Crash Casualty

 

Lindsay D. Thomas

Lindsay D. Thomas was born on October 25, 1911 in Trigg County, Kentucky in the Pleasant Hill community which is located in what is now known as the Land Between the Lakes. He was the only son of Edward “Edd” Clark Thomas and his wife, Augusta “Gustine” Arbell Thomas.  He had two sisters, Edna Lucille Thomas born in 1909 and Ambie Marie Thomas, born in 1918.  When Lindsay was young, his parents moved to the Donaldson Creek community in Trigg County. It was on Donaldson Creek where Lindsay grew to maturity.

Lindsay was known as a carefree young man He was a talented guitar player and loved to sing county-western songs.  During his twenties he worked at many jobs including being a waiter, a cook, and a partner in a restaurant and even a gold miner.  

Lindsay had moved to Cripple Creek, Colorado and was a young man of only 30 when World War II began.  In July of 1942, he entered the United States Navy where he became a gunner’s mate.  He was assigned to the Navy Air Force and was subsequently sent to the South Pacific Theater where he was involved in several major battles against the Japanese.  His assignments included duty at Pearl Harbor, Wrigley Island, and other islands.

After the war ended Lindsay returned to the United States in 1945 and was assigned to the United States Navy Air Station at Whidbey Island located in the Puget Sound, south of Seattle, Washington. Lindsay was the rank of Aviation Ordnanceman, first class (AOM 1/c) and was responsible for the maintenance of aviation ordnance equipment. He also served as an instructor at the Air Station.

On the evening February 14, 1945, Lindsay was aboard a Navy plane that was making a routine night training flight in the Puget Sound area near the town of Arlington, Washington  The plane was apparently circling an airfield trying for a landing when it crashed into the side of a nearby mountain.  The bodies of the eight officers and men aboard the plane were recovered but their bodies were so badly burned that exact identification of the men was impossible.

Due to the lack of identification, all eight men on the flight were buried together in a joint grave at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California.  A memorial service was held for the men at the Naval Air Station at Whidbey Island on February 18, 1945.  Another memorial service was held on February 25, 1645 at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Shelton, Washington.  From there the bodies were sent under military escort to the cemetery in California.  Burial at the gravesite was made with full military honors. A common headstone was erected at the gravesite bearing the names of all the men who died in the crash.

In addition to the tombstone at the Golden Gate National Cemetery, a separate tombstone to honor Lindsay Thomas was erected near his parents’ graves in the Peyton Thomas Cemetery in the Donaldson Creek community. The Inscription on the tombstone reads “Killed in the line of duty, U. S. Navy, buried at San Bruno, California.”  The tombstone also has the name of his older sister, Ambie M., who died of influenza on February 16, 1937 at the age of 18.

Lindsay Thomas tombstone in the Golden Gate Cemetery in California

 

Lindsay Thomas tombstone in Peyton Thomas Cemetery in Kentucky

LINEAGE: (Lindsay D. Thomas was the son of Edward Clark and Augusta Arbelle Carr Thomas, the grandson of Carroll and Margaret Jane Reid Thomas and the great-grandson of James, Jr., and Margaret Ethridge Thomas.  James, Jr. was the sixth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)

William Bridges -- "Predecessor" of the Bridges Family Name

 

William Bridges

William Bridges was born on May 30, 1800 in the Tyancoca Swamp community of Edgecombe County, North Carolina.  He was the fourth of the seven children of Drury Bridges and Charity Cohoon Bridges.  William became the patriarch, after his father, of the Bridges family of Trigg County, Kentucky.  All members of the family tree who carry the surname of Bridges descend from Drury Bridges through his son William Bridges.

Of William’s six siblings, he only had one brother, Orren Dates Bridges.  Orren Dates was born about 1802 as his exact birth date is not known.  Orren Dates died before the family migrated to Kentucky in 1804 and is buried somewhere in the Tyancoca Swamp community. William’s other siblings born in North Carolina were his twin sisters, Selethia and Piety, born in 1790 and his sister, Jemima, born in 1795.  William along with his three sisters traveled with their parents across the Appalachian Mountains and settled in the Donaldson Creek valley in western Kentucky.  William’s two other sisters were born in Kentucky, Elizabeth Josephine Bridges, born in 1804 and Mary Bridges born in 1807.

William was only about four or five years old, when his family moved from the Donaldson Creek valley and settled in a small cabin on Beechy Fork Creek in an area eventually called Maple Grove. William grew to maturity in that small cabin on the north side of Beechy Fork Creek where his father had acquired 85 ½ acres of land.

On June 20, 1820, William, at the age of 20 married Mary Thomas, the youngest daughter of James and Mary Standley Thomas.  Mary was born July 1, 1802 in Bertie County, North Carolina. William and Mary settled on a farm which was located about two miles west of his father’s original homestead.  His farm was in an area known as “Little Spring” also on the banks of Beechy Fork Creek.

William and Mary had twelve children. The twelve children were Orren, born June 27, 1821; Starkie, born February  15, 1823; Simco, born January 17, 1825; Drewry, born January 20, 1827; Burnetta, born March 5, 1830; James, born June 14, 1832; William, Jr., born October 3, 1834; Stanley, born February 14, 1837; Mary, born April 23, 1839; Charity and John, twins, born May 2, 1842; and Cullen, born August 12, 1844, who was born a month after his father’s death.  Through his nine sons, who lived to maturity, the Bridges name became well established in Trigg County, Kentucky and eventually throughout the United States.

William Bridges died at his homestead at the fairly young age of 44 on July 11, 1844.  He was buried in a family graveyard located on a hillside adjacent to the house where he lived now known as the William Bridges Cemetery.  His wife, Mary, outlived her husband by 32 years and died at the age of 74 on July 28, 1876.  She was buried next to her husband in the family cemetery.

 

Tombstone of William Bridges

LINEAGE:  (William Bridges was the fourth child of Drury Bridges and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)

Mildred Earl Thomas -- Died Tragically at the Age of Eleven

 

Mildred Earl Thomas was born on June 16, 1923 in Trigg County, Kentucky, but she only lived to the age of eleven when she died in a tragic fire accident.

Mildred was the oldest of three daughters born to Bluford Earl Thomas and Mildred Hawkins Thomas.  Bluford Earl was born in 1899 in Trigg County and was the son of Seldon Trimble Thomas and Bettie Bridges Thomas, both Trigg County natives.  Mildred Hawkins was born in 1897 and was the daughter of Robert Lee Hawkins and Ersula Elizabeth Adams Hawkins, who were also Trigg County natives.

Mildred’s two younger sisters were Ann Tressa Thomas who was born on January 18, 1925 and Clara Elizabeth Thomas who was born on November 17, 1930.

Bluford Earl worked as a farm laborer and he and his wife and three daughters lived on a farm in Trigg County, which according to the news articles at the time was located “far in the country.”   

On Saturday afternoon, March 17, 1934, Mildred Earl, age 10, was in charge of her two sisters, Ann, age 9 and Clara, age 3. The children were alone at the time.  Mildred Earl was washing dishes for the family when she noticed that there was leak in one of the pans she was washing.  She attempted to plug the hole in the pan using a patent solder. Some burning chemicals from the solder dropped on her dress and ignited it.  Mildred Earl with the assistance of her sisters tried to smother the flames using an oilcloth, but this method failed.  With her dress blazing, Mildred Earl ran to the well in the yard, drew water from the well and filled a tub and submerged herself.  

Mildred Earl was badly burned from her chest to her knees. Newspapers at the time described her valiant effort to save herself from the flames as an “…unusual manifestation of self-control….”  

 Unfortunately, Mildred Earl did not survive the tragedy.  She lived for over three months and died on June 26, 1934 just ten days after she had reached her eleventh birthday.  Her death certificate listed her cause of death as “third degree burns.” Mildred Earl was buried in the Lawrence Cemetery in Trigg County but no tombstone marks her grave site.


LINEAGE:  (Mildred Earl Thomas was the daughter of Bluford Earl and Mildred Hawkins Thomas, granddaughter of Seldon Trimble and Martha Elizabeth “Bettie” Bridges Thomas, and great-granddaughter of James Jasper and Mary Magdaline Cunningham Thomas.  James Jasper was the fourth child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas.  Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.  Mary Bridges was the seventh child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)

Oscar McAtee Grigsby -- Farmer Extraordinaire

 

Oscar and Irene Grigsby and family

Oscar McAtee Grigsby was born on June 8, 1914 in Trigg County, Kentucky, the son of John Garton Grigsby and Georgia Reid McAtee.  Both his parents were natives of Trigg County, his father being a descendant of Jemima Bridges Sholar and Drury Bridges.  Oscar grew up as a farmer’s son and as a youth attended Bethel School. He graduated from the eighth grade and then began his career as a lifetime farmer.

On December 11, 1937, when Oscar was 23 years old, he married Irene Gertrude Freeman. Irene was a native of Trigg County and the daughter of Lindsay Livingston Freeman and Elsie Diuguid who were also a family of farmers.  Oscar and Irene became the parents of four children, Clarence Ray, born in 1938; Lonnie Oscar, born in1939; Elsie Jean, born in 1946; and Perry Wayne, born in 1952.

After their marriage Oscar and Irene moved in with her parents on their farm. They lived on the Freeman farm until 1943 when they purchased the farm owned by Oscar’s great-grandfather who had settled there in 1855. Oscar and Irene began operating a Grade A dairy on the farm with the assistance of Oscar’s brothers.

In 1948, they sold their farm and bought a rundown farm located two miles south of Cadiz, Kentucky on highway 139.  Here they farmed 186 acres of land, continued to operate their Grade A dairy and later began raising beef cattle and sheep.  The land they purchased was so poor the previous owner had to buy hay to feed his cow, but soon this land became a model farm to which farmers from far and near came to see the fine things that were being done there.

The rundown farmstead began to undergo an immediate change with eradication of "briars, bushes and broom sedge." In 1947 the extension service enrolled the farm in the TVA test demonstration program. That program resulted in a high fertility program for Grade A milk production.  Oscar was committed to farm conservation and Its technical and applied use. He was among the first cooperators in the Trigg County Soil Conservation District program. In 1951 Oscar completed a conservation plan by accomplishing the following: installed complete tile drainage system on two fields; dug four ponds; constructed two miles of terraces; seeded 20 acres of forage crops and established 150 acres of pasture. The Grigsby farm became an example of what can be accomplished by .following a conservation plan. The Grigsbys turned a farm where animals once went hungry to one where 40 dairy cows and 30 heifers feasted dally. Where formerly you were lucky to harvest a half ton of hay per acre, Oscar was gathering three tons per acre. Tobacco yields jumped tremendously, corn production increased from 15 to 75 bushels per acre. Their herd of Jersey and Brown Swiss dairy animals reaped the harvest of productive land created by the Grigsby family.  An article in the Paducah Sun Democrat, on April 15, 1958 said that “The family is a shining example that farming efficiency can be attained by prudent use of technical and financial assistance available to all farmers today.”

On Sunday, February 13, 1977, Oscar was driving his 1965 Ford Mustang on highway 139. He was alone, except being accompanied by his dog.  He lost control of the car, ran off the road, went through a fence and into a pond.  Oscar was pinned in the vehicle beneath the pond.  He was dead upon arrival of the ambulance and his death was caused by drowning. Oscar was 62 years old at the time of his death.

Oscar was buried in the East End Cemetery in Cadiz, Kentucky.  Irene died on May 6, 2002 in Cadiz at the age of 83.  She was buried next to Oscar in the East End Cemetery.

 Oscar and Irene Grigsby Tombstone

LINEAGE:  (Oscar McAtee Grigsby was the son of John Garton and Georgia Reid McAtee Grigsby, grandson of John Ferguson and Mary Josephine Lawrence Grigsby and great-grandson of James Henry and Elizabeth Sholar Lawrence.  Elizabeth was the fifth child of Allen and Jemima Bridges Sholar.  Jemima was the first child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)

Starkie Armstead Thomas -- Founder of the Starkie Thomas Cemetery

 

 Starkie Armstead Thomas

Starkie Armstead Thomas was the tenth child and youngest son of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas.  He was born on November 20, 1844 in the Oak Grove community of Trigg County, Kentucky.  His father was a farmer and one of the seven children of James and Mary Standley Thomas.

Starkie Armstead married Inez “Mitt” Miller in Trigg County, Kentucky on February 23, 1881. At the time of their marriage Starkie A. was 36 years old and Inez was 25 years old.  Inez was of Spanish descend and was the sixth child and youngest daughter of John Lewis and Mary Ann Carloss Miller.  John Lewis had been born in Richmond, Kentucky and Mary Ann was a native of Dinwiddie County, Virginia.

Seven months after his marriage, Starkie Armstead’s father, Starkie died and he and his bride settled on his father’s farm where as the youngest son was responsible for the care of his widowed mother. Starkie Armstead lived his entire life on the farm where he was born and his parents lived.  He and Mitt had five daughters, Eunice Mae (1883- 1883), Lillie Jane (1884-1968), Martha Miller (1886-1981), Mary Ann (1890-1940), and Lena Armstead (1893-1981).

 In the division of the vast land holdings of his father,  Starkie Thomas’ estate, Starkie Armstead inherited the family’s home place and a large parcel of the surrounding land, much of which remains in the family today. Included in this inheritance was the family burying grounds which would in time be called the Starkie Thomas Cemetery. Starkie A. drafted a deed dated February 21, 1907, wherein he granted the cemetery to his brother “F. M. Thomas and all the heirs of the said Starkie Thomas for the purpose of securing it as a permanent family burying ground.” The only stipulation Starkie A. made in the deed was that an equal portion of the cemetery be reserved to him as grantor for his family. As dictated by the laws of the time, the deed includes language stating that Inez relinquished “her right of dowery” as part of the transfer of title. 

Records of the day and many personal accounts indicate that Starkie A. was an astute businessman and an upstanding citizen and neighbor. One must assume based on the date of the aforementioned deed and its filing date of September 6, 1907, that the gentleman knew he was in the final days of his life; he died at home just a few days after the filing on September 23, 1907 at the age of 62. Although her dowery rights granted Inez the right to remain in her marital home for the duration of her life, she would eventually move to Cadiz with her daughter Lena. Inez died at the age of 75 at Lena’s Main Street home on May 14, 1931.

Starkie Armstead and Inez were buried in the Starkie Thomas Cemetery; the cemetery he had ensured would be the permanent resting place for his beloved family.

 Starkie and Inez Thomas

LINEAGE:  (Starkie Armstead Thomas was the tenth child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas.  Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.  Mary was the seventh child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)

This leaf is based on an article appearing in the June 2022 issue of The Thomas-Bridges Newsletter, written by Thomas Harper, TBA Newsletter Editor.

Jemima Bridges Sholar -- Pioneer Matriarch of the Sholar Family

 

Jemima Bridges was the oldest child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.  She was born on October 12, 1795 on the plantation owned by Drury in the Tyancoca Swamp community in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. In 1804 when Jemima was nine years old, she along with her younger siblings, six-year old twins Selethia and Piety and younger brother, three-year old William migrated from North Carolina to Kentucky. The family settled down on a tract of land on Beechy Fork Creek in what is now Trigg County, Kentucky.  The family built a log cabin on the north side of the creek and two more children, Elizabeth and Mary, were born there.

On October 20, 1812, at the age of 17, Jemima married Allen Thomas Sholar; Allen was born in Bertie County, North Carolina on May 26, 1793.  Allen had also migrated to Kentucky in 1806 along with his cousin, Joshua Sholar and had settled in the eastern end of the Donaldson Creek valley. Allen was the son of Benjamin Sholar and Laodicea “Dicey” Thomas Sholar. Laodicea was the sister of James Thomas who migrated to Kentucky in 1806.  Benjamin and Laodicea were the parents of two other children in addition to Allen--Benjamin, Jr. and Sallie. Laodicea was also called Uredica in several recordings of the Sholar family history.

Jemima and Allen were the parents of eleven children who were the ancestors of the rather large Sholar family.  The children were: David or Davie Sholar, born in 1813; Polly Sholar, born in 1815; Sarah or Sallie Sholar, born in 1817; William Bridges Sholar, born in 1819; Elizabeth Sholar, born in 1821; Allen Thomas Sholar, Jr., born in 1823; Thomas J. Sholar, born in 1825; Emily Sholar, born in 1827; Alpha Gemima Sholar, born in 1829; Drewry Bridges Sholar, born in 1831 and Peyton Sholar, born in 1834.

All eleven children grew to adulthood and all but three of them married and had numerous descendants. Three of the siblings married into the Lawrence family.  No record has been found that Sarah, Allen, Jr., and Emily were ever married.

Jemima died on July 22, 1877 in Trigg County, Kentucky. She was buried in the James Thomas Cemetery located about 50 yards west of the original site of the Cullen Thomas home site on the south side of Donaldson Creek.  Her husband, Allen had died on January 29, 1853 in Trigg County and was also buried in the James Thomas Cemetery.

Tombstone of Jemima Bridges Sholar

LINEAGE: (Jemima Bridges was the first child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.)

Velma Fay Bridges Hinson Green -- Arkansas to California Migrant Worker

 

Velma Fay Bridges Hinson Green

Velma Fay Bridges was born on August 11, 1914 in Viola, Fulton County, Arkansas.  She was the third child of William Stanley and Eva Rowena Haywood Bridges. William Stanley was a native of West Plains, Missouri and the grandson of Orren Dates Bridges who had migrated with his family from Trigg County, Kentucky to Missouri in the 1890s.  In 1905, William Stanley married Eva Rowena Haywood. Eva was a Cherokee Indian who was born in the Indian Territory in Oklahoma in 1885.  She was a small woman with long straight black hair that hung all the way down her back.

Velma had six siblings, a brother, Virgil Ray, born in 1907; a sister, Dahlia, born in 1911; a brother, Herman Freeman, born in 1915; a sister, Virna Marie, born in 1919; a brother, Eugene Paul, born in 1922 and a sister, Dorothy Agnes, born in 1924.

She grew up in Arkansas and only obtained a third grade education. On November 26, 1932, at the age of 18, she married Roaten Eugene Hinson, the son of a cotton farmer and a native of Logan County, Arkansas.  Velma and Roat, as he was known, both worked as sharecroppers working in the fields of Arkansas in the 1930.  Velma and Roat had four children, Sadie, Roaten, Jr., Kathron and Gwinn.

Life was very difficult for the Hinson family.  In was the middle of the depression, and they became what was known as “Oakies” or “Arkies. They worked their way across the country to California harvesting crops and working in the fields and living in migration camps. They drove a Model A Ford on their journey to California.

After arriving in California, they moved around the state working in the fields picking fruit, cotton, prunes and whatever they could to survive and feed their kids.  They finally got permanent jobs after the start of World War II working in defense plants.  They settled in Campbell, California and bought a small piece of land where they built a general store with a meat market and attached gas pumps.  The family lived upstairs over the store.

In the late 1940s, the Velma and Roat decided to sell their store and move back to Arkansas. They purchased a farm and began growing cotton.  Their children were especially happy living on the farm, but unfortunately the farm idea did not work out for the family.  So they sold the farm and returned to California.

Times were rough again for Velma and her family after they returned to California.  She and Roat were divorced and she had to work at several jobs to raise her four children. She finally got a job as a grocery checker and things improved for the family.  Velma then married her second husband, John Wesley Green. The family bought a home and settled in Campbell, California. Velma and John had one son, Jess Green, born in 1953.  A few years later, Velma and John were divorced.

Velma died on October 8, 1984 in Campbell, California at the age of 70.  She was buried in the Mission City Memorial Park in Santa Clara, California.

Velma Fay Bridges Hinson Green

 

Tombstone of Velma Fay Bridges Hinson Green

LINEAGE:  (Velma May Bridges was the daughter of William Stanley and Eva Rowena Haywood Bridges, granddaughter of John William “Buck” and Nancy Adeline Pugh Bridges, and great-granddaughter of Orren Dates and Mary Elizabeth Hixon Bridges.  Orren was the first child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges. William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.  Mary was the fifth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)