The Thomas Family in Indiana
- westmohney
- Aug 17
- 10 min read
They voted against slavery and eventually felt the need to remove themselves in order to find a place to live peacefully without the wrongs they saw around them daily. ~ George G. Thomas
For this post, we are once again we are indebted to George G. Thomas for his fantastic research on our Thomas family even after he discoved he was not related to them. In his blog he has five posts entitled "That Other Thomas Family." In one, he lamented his loss:
I had absolutely a wonderful time chasing this other Thomas family until it all came crashing down with the discovery of the above deed (proving that our Indiana family was not his). I’ve traveled, learned a lot, and met some good people. I’m sort of sad that so much time was spent collecting memories and keepsakes that no longer have family value. A clean break was needed and for a while I even refused to discuss this other family.
Exodus to Indiana
We wrote about our Quaker uncles John (4U), Lewis (4U), and James Thomas (4U) in our "The Thomas Family in North and South Carolina" post. These three families attended the Piney Grove Monthly Meeting near the border of North and South Carolina and, later, the New Garden Meeting in Guilford County, NC. Sometime in the early 1800s the Piney Grove Meeting House "closed its doors." In 1833, the land was deeded to the Methodist Church. Today, the Pine Grove Methodist Church stands on the old meeting house site.
By the early 1800s, many Quakers living in the South found themselves uncomfortable living in slave states. A western exodus soon began to the newly founded non-slave Indiana Territory which was formed in 1803.
Note: In the years leading up to the Civil War, the U.S. Congress designated new states either slave or non-slave in order to create a balance of the two. The idea was to try and appease both the slave owners and the abolitionists.
An excerpt from "That Other Thomas Family" by George Thomas perfectly explains how our Quaker relatives might have felt:
Times again became difficult for Quakers as numbers of large plantations with slaves grew along the fertile lands east of the Pee Dee River. They voted against slavery and eventually felt the need to remove themselves in order to find a place to live peacefully without the wrongs they saw around them daily. Can you imagine James having to live near his brothers Tristram (4U), Robert (4U), Benjamin (4U), and William (4U) who all held slaves? And it’s known that some of this extended Thomas family held hundreds of slaves.
The first in the Thomas family to test the waters in Indiana was John's son Francis (1C5X).
Francis was born in Richmond County in 1781. When he came of age in 1803, he purchased from his father 199 acres of land in Marlboro County, SC, near the North Carolina state line. Sometime before 1807, he decided to move 150 miles northeast to Nahunta in Wayne County, NC.
There, Francis requested membership in the Great Contentnea Meeting House where he met and married Lydia Woodward. According to George Thomas, a Quaker minister once came to spend the night at the Thomas home. After a short walk around the property, the minister came back and "told his host he had an impression from the lord, that it would be right for him to sell the farm and move to the territory of Indiana."
That was enough for Francis. The year was 1811 when he, along with his cousin Lewis Thomas, Jr. (1C5X), began the 550 mile journey northwest to the New Garden Township in Wayne County, Indiana. Lewis was the son of our uncle Lewis Thomas, Sr. (4U),
The Quaker preacher who told Francis to go to go west knew what he was talking about. Wayne County, Indiana was first settled in 1806 by North Carolina Quakers "seeking good, affordable farmland that was not driven by a slave-based economy." Coincidentally, the county Francis left in North Carolina and his new county in Indiana were both named after "Mad" Anthony Wayne, one of the heroes of the Revolutionary War.
an incident
By the time the majority of the Thomas family began moving to Indiana, the War of 1812 had begun. The war in that territory was mainly fought against the Indian leader Tecumseh and his followers. Trouble began brewing near Fort Wayne, Indiana where our cousin Benjamin Franklin Stickney (5C6X) served as Indian Agent. We told his story in our "Benjamin Franklin Stickney and the War of 1812" post.
The Quaker settlers at New Garden, however, were a peacable lot and did all they could to befriend the Natives in the area. An incident did occur, however, in the early days of the war when two men shot a Native. One of the first settlers in the area, George Shugart, had always taken "every precaution to avoid trouble. He neither used a gun nor would allow his sons to do so."
One of the Indians who had witnessed the deed came to Shugart's and announced "White man kill Injun." Shugart went with a team and sled to the place where the wounded man was, and carried him to the Indian camp. . .George Shugart, Jr., then a boy, accompanied his father. He says the scene on arrival at the camp was heartrending. The Indians, men, women and children, gave touching evidence of their sorrow and the lamentation was great. A few days later a council was held at Shugart's mill, and an understanding arrived at between the settlers and the Indians.
Luckily, the Indian survived or the incident "would have been much more serious." The Thomas family arrived on the scene shortly afterward when conditions were only semi-peaceable in New Garden. From the History of Wayne County, Indiana:
Francis Thomas…a son of John Thomas, came from South Carolina to New Garden in 1811. He not only encountered the unavoidable hardships of pioneer life in general, and among others, that of going on horseback thirty miles to get bread-stuff, but was obliged, with others, to flee for safety during the Indian troubles. Notwithstanding his fear of attacks from Indians, he held his peace principles too dear not to be preserved at any hazard, even of life. He took his lock from his gun, and hid the gun at a distance from his house, lest, in case of an attack, he might be tempted to harm the Indians. . .He was liberal and charitable; and was during his life a member of the society of Friends
In spite of the early troubles Francis, like the rest of the family, stayed the course. Below is a copy of an 1835 land grant for property in New Garden that he was issued in Fort Wayne.
the family follows
After deciding that Indiana was the place to be, both Francis and Lewis went back to North Carolina to convince their families to follow. All of Francis' living brothers and sisters made the decision to move to Indiana. The U. S. Hinshaw Index to Selected Quaker Records lists the dates that John's children received their certificates of removal from the Piney Grove Meeting House to the new meeting house in Indiana
From the History of Wayne County Indiana by Andrew W. Young.:
Probably no other head of a family, with perhaps a single exception, ever came to this county whose descendants outnumber those of John Thomas. . .and, we doubt not, to the better class of its citizens.
John Thomas, of South Carolina, came to this county in 1812 or 1813, not so much, probably, with a view to becoming a settler as to see the country and visit his children. . .He stopped at Richmond, where he was taken sick and, in a few months died. Of his children, all but one came to this county.
Note: The last line from the History of Wayne County above is incorrect. All of John's living children moved to Indiana.
John, Jr. (1C5X) and his brother Benjamin (1C5X) were the first of John, Sr.'s children, after Francis, to make the move. On 11 Feb 1811, they both received their certificates from Piney Grove. They and their families arrived in Indiana shortly after that.
Benjamin became noted for his contribution to African American education. From The History of Randolph County by Ebenezer Tucker. Tucker himself was an abolitionist.
He was prominent in the "Separation" among Friends of the Richmond (NC) Yearly Meeting on account of slavery. . .and was one of the principal founders of Union Literary Institute . . .established in 1845 and 1846 in Randolph County [Indiana] for [African-American] and other youth. He was active and influential among Friends during his whole life. he was mild and gentle in disposition, quiet in temper, exemplary in his life, industrious and frugal, a consistent Christian, a worthy citizen and a generous-hearted, benevolent man.
Benjamin donated 150 acres of land for the Institute which was primarily for black students but whites were allowed to attend as well. One of the first blacks to attend the school was a fugitive slave named Louis Talbert who had escaped from a Kentucky plantation and made his way to Indiana. Robert Churchill, author of The Underground Railroad and the Geography of Violence in Antebellum America began his book with a description of Louis' escape:
One summer night in 1845 thirteen slaves escaped from a plantation in northern Kentucky and ran for the Ohio River, led by Louis Talbert.
Later, Louis "made two unsuccessful attempts to rescue his sisters from slavery." Though he never succeeded in freeing his sisters, he was able to bring back to Indiana with him a number of runaway slaves. On his third try for his sisters, he divulged his plans to a friend who unwisely told another. Louis was then found by his master and taken back to Kentucky. A master of escape by then, Louis was able to once again free himself and others. It was estimated that in his lifetime "Louis carried off $37,000 worth of slave property."
John, Jr. and his younger brother Elijah (1C5X) had married sisters Liddy and Susannah Sneed in 1792 and 1797 respectively. The sisters were obviously not of the Quaker faith because both John and Elijah were disowned by the Church for "marrying out of unity." Below is John's non-Quaker marriage bond. His bondsman was John Moorman, husband of John's cousin Sarah Thomas (3A). Sarah was a daughter of our grandfather William "Billy Ram" Thomas (4GGF)
Luckily, the Quakers were a forgiving lot and, after apologies from the repentant sinners, the church welcomed both brothers, along with their wives, back into the fold.
Uncle John and his wife Molly came to Indiana in 1813. Whether they were just visiting or came to stay is up to question. With them they brought two of their Mendenhall grandchildren. Their daughter Betty (1C5X) had married Moses Mendenhall in 1790. Moses died in 1807 and Betty followed In 1811. It appears that Betty had seven children. John and Molly brought the two youngest, Moses, Jr. (2C4X) and Rebecca (2C4X) with them to Indiana. Betty's three other children all eventually moved to Indiana as well.
Sadly, our uncle John died shortly after his arrival in Indiana. He was 71 years of age at the time of his death. Molly stayed, probably living with one of her children.
Son Elijah (1C5X), who had been disowned from the Quaker Church in 1798 for "marrying out of unity," saw the error of his ways and was welcomed back into the fold by the time of his move to Indiana in 1815. He lived a mile north in Newport (now Fountain City) where he built a sawmill, most probably on the banks of Fountain Creek. By the 1840 census, Elijah had moved north to Michigan where he died in 1866 at age 89.
Isaac (1C5X), born in 1767, came to Indiana with his wife and seven children. They arrived sometime before their 8th and last child was born in 1816. Isaac died in 1855 at age 88.
Stephen (1C5X) received his dismissal certificate from Piney Grove on 19 Feb 1814. He and his family probably made the move to Indiana not long afterwards. Stephen, like his sister Betty, married a Mendenhall. Below is a daguerrotype reportedly of Stephen and his wife Hannah:
John's daughter Christian (1C5X) and her husband Thomas Knight received their certificates from Piney Grove on 16 July 1814. The Knights eventually moved to Grant County, IN, about 60 miles northwest of New Garden. Christian died there in 1836 at age 51.
In 1808, daughter Sarah (1C5X) had married Charles Baldwin in South Carolina. They received certificates for themselves and four children from Piney Grove in August of 1813. Ten more children would be born in Indiana. Sarah sadly died at age 44, only one month after her last child was born in 1834. Four years later, Charles married Eunice Coppock and the couple had two children. Some years later, Charles and two of his sons would become heavily involved in the Underground Railroad in Indiana. We'll have that story in a future post.
The Lewis Thomas family
Our uncle Lewis Thomas (4U), who was a Quaker like Uncle John, also came to Indiana with his family. His son Lewis, Jr. (1C5X) had been the first to come out with his cousin Francis. Lewis, Jr. must have extolled the virtues of life in Indiana to his family back in North Carolina because, three years later, Lewis, Sr. (4U) and his sons Tilden (1C5X) and Stephen (1C5X) were granted certificates to the Lick Creek Monthly Meeting, about 80 miles west of where John's family had setted .in Indiana. In March, Lewis, Sr. sold his remaining property in North Carolina and the entire family "would journey to a hilly land situated in the southern tier of the newly formed State of Indiana." Lewis, Jr. joined his family there shortly afterwards.
The area where the Lewis Thomas family settled in Lick Creek eventually became part of Orange County, IN. By 1820, the mostly Quaker-inhabited Orange County became a haven for African Americans seeking territories which forbade slavery. They settled heavily in an area which became known as the Lick Creek African American Settlement. In the mid 1800s "this community became a southern gateway for the famed 'Underground Railroad.'"
Following Quaker tradition, Uncle Lewis wrote his will on "the third day of the fourth month" of 1826. He died just months later at age 76 and was probably buried in the Lick Creek Meeting House Cemetery.
Our remaining Quaker Thomas brother was James (4U) who had died in North Carolina in 1790 at age 32. At least two of his sons eventually moved to Indiana to join their uncles' families.
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