What Happened to the Children of Nathan Thomas & Catharine Lancaster?

Introduction:
Nathan Thomas and Catharine Lancaster married 1 August 1867 in Kaufman County, Texas.[1] Two known children were born to them:
  • Ida Belle Thomas, 3 May 1868[2]
  • Wilson Franklin Thomas, 11 Jun 1870[3]

Catharine Lancaster died shortly after Wilson’s birth on 12 Feb 1871.[4] No known cemetery record has been found for her. No census record for Nathan with his two children in 1880 has been found either. The previous post described the resulting research on the whereabouts of Catharine and Nathan. Check it out here.

What happened to their children? This post continues the story.

Ida Bell Thomas
In 1880, eleven-year-old Ida Thomas was living with her aunt, Martha and uncle, Charles Fletcher in Rockwall County.[5] Martha was the younger sister of Catharine Lancaster.

Ida continued to live with her aunt, Martha, perhaps to help take care of Martha’s young children. Her husband died between 1891 and 1900.  In 1908, Ida Belle married John A. Nash.[6] Ida and her husband lived in Lewisville, Denton County, Texas in 1920 and 1930. John was a farmer. In 1920, Ida’s father, Nathan lived with them.[7] 

After John’s death in 1939,[8] she moved to Grayson County where she lived with her niece, Ida Jewell Ridlehoover and her family.[9] Ida died in Tarrant County, Texas at a home for aged Masons in Arlington. She died of chronic myocardium and was buried in the Rockwall Cemetery.[10]

Wilson Franklin Thomas
Nine-year-old Wilson Thomas was living with aunt, Sarah and uncle, Reuben Bourn, also in Rockwall County in 1880.[11] He attended school.

Because his mother had passed away, when his grandmother, Elizabeth S. Lancaster died in 1881, he and his sister, Ida, received their mother’s share of the estate of $49. 26, which they split.[12]

Wilson married Mrs. Lovie Stephenson on 4 July 1899 in Kaufman County, Texas.[13] She brought two children to the marriage: Etta M., born Jul 1893, and Byron D., born Jul 1895.[14]  In 1900 he worked as a farmer on his rented farm. His mother-in-law, Sarah Beck and a servant, Della Wilson, lived with them.

Wilson and Lovie had three children who lived to adulthood: Chester, born 13 Jan 1901; Frank E., born 10 Dec 1903, and Ida Jewell, born 18 Jan 1908. Ida Jewell married John H. Ridlehoover, who Ida Belle lived with in 1940.

Wilson lived a short time in Kiowa County, Oklahoma where he lived on a rented farm.[15] Sometime before 1920, he moved back to Kaufman County. His step-children had moved out.[16] Then they moved to Sherman in Grayson County.[17]

Wilson died 18 Jun 1926 in Sherman of tuberculosis. He was 56 years old.[18] He was buried in College Mound Cemetery near Terrell, Texas. His wife, Lovie lived another thirty years and died 24 November 1958 in Haltom City, Tarrant Co, Texas.[19]

Wilson and Lovie’s children all married and had children of their own:[20]
  • Chester C. Thomas married Letrus Leola Wilson
  • Frank Eugene Thomas married a Ridlehoover
  • Ida Jewell Thomas married John H. Ridlehoover


A tenant farm, Texas. Dorothea Lange, photographer. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b31955
[1] Kaufman County Marriage Certificates, T, Bk 1a, n.p., 1867, Thomas-Lancaster; index, Kaufman County, Texas USGENWEB page, http://www.rootsweb.com/~txkaufma/marriages/marrcert.htm (link broken 21 Sep 2016), now archived on WayBackMachine: https://web.archive.org/web/20040321091419/http://www.rootsweb.com/~txkaufma/marriages/marrcert.htm
[2] Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : ), Memorial# 27545060, Rockwall Memorial Cemetery, Rockwall TX, Ida Belle Thomas Nash.
[3] Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : ), Memorial# 156951300, Wilson Franklin Thomas, College Mound Cem, Terrell TX.
[4] Year only was listed in husband, Nathan Thomas’ obituary. Full birth and death were listed in Tharp/Yost Family Tree on Ancestry.com,  by Erin Tharp, viewed on 15 September 2016.
[5]  1880 U.S. census, Rockwall Co, Texas, pop. sched., ED 30, sht 16d, dwelling 135, family 135, Samuel Fletcher household, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Sep 2016); NARA T9, roll 1324.
[6] Based on two years married on the 1910 census: 1910 U.S. census, Rockwall Co, Texas, pop. sched., ED 177, sht 5a, p. 5 (stamped), dwelling 88, family 88, J.A. Nash household, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 15 Sep 2016); NARA T624, roll 1586.
[7] See 1920 & 1930 census: 1920 U.S. census, Denton Co, Texas, pop. sched., ED 59, sht 2a, p. 208 (stamped), dwelling 27, family 27, John A. Nash, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Sep 2016); citing NARA T625_1795. Also 1930 U.S. census, Denton Co, Texas, pop. sched., Lewisville, ED 61-13, sht 4b, dwelling 122, family 122, John A. Nash, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Sep 2016); citing NARA T626_ 2323.
[8] Texas Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate, digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : ), No. 27579, John A. Nash; FHL 2,118,255.
[9] 1940 U.S. census, Grayson Co, Texas, pop. sched., ED 91-50, sht 8b-9a, family 161, John H Ridlehoover, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Sep 2016); citing NARA T627_4044.
[10] Texas Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate, digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : ), no. 41770, Tarrant Co, 1958, Ida Bell Nash; FHL film 2,115,550.
[11] 1880 U.S. census, Rockwall Co, Texas, pop. sched., ED 30, sht 14b, dwelling 118, family 118, Reuben Bowen household, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Sep 2016); NARA T9, roll 1324. Wilson was enumerated as “Thomas Wilson.”
[12] Rockwall County, Texas, Probate record 1877-1895, bk B, p. 302, estate of E.S. Lancaster.
[13]  Kaufman Co, Texas, Marriages, Book 7: 275, no. 550, W.F. Thomas to Mrs. Lovie Stephenson; FHL microfilm 1305364.
[14] 1900 U.S. census, Kaufman Co, Texas, Prec 4, ED 78, sht 6a, p 233 (stamped), dwelling 86, family 87, Wilson F Thomas, digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 15 Sep 2016); NARA  T623, 1651.
[15] 1910 U.S. census, Kiowa Co, Oklahoma, pop. sched., Qill twp, ED 164, sht 12a, p. 111 (stamped), dwelling 83, family 83, Wilson L Thomas, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Sep 2016); citing NARA T624_ 1257.
[16] 1920 U.S. census, Kaufman Co, Texas, pop. sched., College Mound, ED 43, sht 12a, p. 276 (stamped), dwelling 207, family 223, W.F. Thomas, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Sep 2016); citing NARA T625_1825.
[17] 1930 U.S. census, Grayson Co, Texas, pop. sched., ED 91-49, sht 7a, p. 89 (stamped), dwelling 119, family 120, Chester C. L. Thomas, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 Sep 2016); citing NARA T626_2338.
[18]Texas Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate, 1926, Grayson Co, no. 21582, W.F. Thomas, digital image, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : 15 Sep 2016); citing FHL microfilm 2,114,143.
[19] Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate, 1958, Tarrant Co, no. 64773, Lovie Cinderella Thomas, digital image, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : 15 Sep 2016); citing FHL microfilm 2,115,622.
[20] Research needs to be done on the children.

Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, Mam-ma's Southern Family

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