From Proud Heritage, Volume I by DCPA, currently out of print.
John S. Thomas was the son of Isaac Thomas, Indian fighter and scout for General John Sevier during the Indian Wars in Tennessee. Isaac Thomas was born in Virginia about 1735, and was a hero of the Battle of Watauga Settlement in 1776. He married Elizabeth Massengill and settled at Sevierville, Tennessee where they raised eight children to adulthood.
John S. “Jackie” Thomas was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, the fourth of eight children. He married Hannah Andes, probable daughter of John Andes, who was said to be a minister. She was probably born in Virginia. They migrated to Missouri at some time, and from there were said to come to Dallas County about 1844, under the Peters Colony legislation. John Thomas was granted 640 acres of land as head of a family, and his son, Alexander A. Thomas, was granted 320 neighboring acres as a single man. The headright is in the vicinity of Preston Road and Walnut Hill Lane.
John S. Thomas was the first County Judge of Dallas County, serving from July 1846 until August 1848. Thomas Chapel was built in his honor in 1868 as a community church and school.
His children were: Henry M., who was killed by a horse in 1841; Cynthia Adaline, who married William Jenkins; Alexander Aiken, who married Mary Elizabeth Armstrong; John P., who died in the Mexican War and was buried in Mexico; Elizabeth B., who married Charles B. Durgin, first postmaster of Dallas; Adeline Jane who married Edward (Ned) Hunt; Ellis C. who married Julia Moon and later died of typhoid fever at Boggy Depot, Arkansas, during the Civil War; Sarah A. who married Richard Sayre of Jefferson City; Eliza, the youngest child, who owned the first sewing machine in Dallas, and according to the records married Rees Jones.
The Thomas burial ground is located near the intersection of Preston Road and Walnut Hill Lane. The bodies of John S. Thomas and his wife Hannah were removed to the Durgin plot in Greenwood Cemetery in 1900 by their daughter, Elizabeth Durgin. The homestead was located about a half mile from the burial ground. The old well, which was said never to go dry, may still be there.
Elizabeth B. Durgin, daughter of John S. Thomas, was the Vice President of the Dallas County Pioneer Association at its inception in 1875 and served in that capacity for many years thereafter.
By W. D. Baird, Dallas
