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WHO WAS - Emanuel W. Thomas
in Plum Township
Venango County, Pennsylvania
By Howard Strawbridge January 6, 1958

Emanuel Wars Thomas was born in Centre County, Pa., on March 4, 1825. He was the eldest son of Samuel and Elizabeth Rote Thomas. When Emanuel was a little boy the family moved to Clearfield County and lived there several years.

In 1841 the family moved to Oakland Township, Venango County, on a farm of 150 acres located a mile and a half northwest of Dempseytown. Here Emanuel reached his maturity.

On Jan. 8, 1852, Emanuel married Miss Ellen Adeline Deupery who was born Jan. 19, 1834, in the Brokenstraw vicinity, near Youngsville, Pa. The couple lived several years on the old Thomas farm.

In 1862 they moved to Petroleum Center and lived there about eight years. Their house was beside Oil Creek. Emanuel worked as a teamster while there and took part in the oil excitement. He hauled oil and earned good money. Then during evenings after hauling oil all day, he would take his team and maybe earn an extra ten or fifteen dollars per evening by towing empty barges or flatboats up the creek. He would drive his team along the creek bank while pulling these barges upstream. These barges had of course been previously loaded with oil and floated down to the Oil City vicinity by way of the pond freshets.

There was another unique way in which Emanuel occasionally earned good money. Entertainment of girls of high-strung caliber used to arrive in Petroleum Center by train. Emanuel would get his team and wagon and put a dozen or so of them in the wagon, making them as comfortable as possible, and drive them overland to the then booming city of Pithole. He would get $50 a trip. There evidently hadn't been a railroad to Pithole at that particular time.

About 1870 Emanuel and his family moved to Milroy, located in central Pennsylvania. There he both farmed and teamed. He worked on the farm of his brother-in-law, Henry Lehr. He also worked a couple of miles away from Milroy at a limestone plant at Nagney. Emanuel did drilling by hand in preparation for blasting limestone.

It was while living at Milroy that he got word of the death of one of his younger brothers, Miller M. Thomas of near Wallaceville, as a result of a plowing accident in April, 1870. Emanuel always felt bad that he wasn't able to come back for the funeral.

After staying at Milroy only a few years, the family moved up to Franklin, staying there about a year. Emanuel teamed in Franklin, mostly hauling lumber for the building business.

From Franklin his family then moved to Plum Township. They located on the Will McIntosh farm on the hill just east of Wallaceville. Emanuel rented this farm and lived there several years. There was a large bank barn by the curve in the road going by the place.

Emanuel and Ellen were parents of the following 13 children: Mrs. Hattie M. Felton, Mary Jane Thomas, Lauretta Adaline Thomas, Cassius M. Thomas, Mrs. Jennie Grove, William Sherman Thomas, Mrs. Arminta M. Kerr, Harry Thomas, Fearon H. Thomas, Mrs. Anna M. Duncan, Emanuel Thomas Jr., Mrs. Ella Goodwill and Miller Thomas.

Two of the children, Mary and Addie, died of black diphtheria just five days apart. Addie died Oct. 24, 1862, lacking 12 days of reaching her 5th birthday, and Mary died on Oct. 29, aged 7. They died just a month after two of their little cousins, Joseph and Tima Thomas, died. These were the children of David E. Thomas of Oakland Township, a brother to Emanuel. They also had diphtheria.

Emanuel's son, Harry, died near Fagundas on Sept. 27, 1900, of typhoid fever. He was 32 years old.

Four of Emanuel's children are still living. They are Mrs. Jennie Grove, 95, of Rocky Grove; Mrs. Arminta Kerr, 91, of Salem, Ore., Mrs. Anna Duncan, 84, of Enterprise; and Miller Thomas, 75, of Hydetown.

Emanuel W. Thomas was six feet tall and weighted approximately 180 pounds. He had a good natured disposition and was a hard worker. It seemed that he just kept busy all the time. He practically had to, with the number of children he had. Many people knew him as "Man" Thomas.

He served as a Plum Township pathmaster for a period of time, and also served as an inspector of election in 1883 and 84.

During January, 1880, he had to serve as a petit juror for Venango County court held in Franklin.

Emanuel was quite a deer hunter and shot many deer in his time. He would dry the deer steaks, and the mean, or jerk, was delicious.

One morning he and another fellow hunter went out hunting. By 11 o'clock that forenoon they had gotten 11 deer. They ate their dinners, then got the team and wagon, loaded the carcasses on and took them to wherever was their destination. This incident was related by that companion hunter of Emanuel's to Miller Thomas many years ago when Miller happened to come across him while hunting in that region.

In the fall of 1882 Emanuel had planned to go on a hunting expedition to Michigan with fellow hunters from Wallaceville who included James R. Grove, George Winchester and Marion Grove. However at the last minute Emanuel changed his mind because he came to the conclusion that he couldn't afford to go, due to renting the farm and supporting the family. The rest of the fellows went out to Michigan and that hunting party ended in tragedy. Marion Grove was fatally shot by an old man there who mistook Marion for a bear.

Mrs. Ellen Thomas was a good sized woman and she too, like her husband, was a hard worker. She was an expert baker and could also make very delicious butter. She did a lot of quilting and made mittens for the children. She was a cheerful woman and never went about the house in a grouchy manner.

It was probably in 1884 that the family moved from Wallaceville to East Hickory. On the first day of moving from Wallaceville they got as far as the John Strawbridge residence, a mile east of Diamond, where they spent the night. They had their furnishings and stock with them, and the stock was put overnight in the barn. The Thomas family lived at East Hickory nearly two years.

Then they moved on what was called the Marsh place on the Spring Creek road about six miles from Titusville. They lived on this place awhile when they moved to the Hale place, still in the same locality.

About a mile and a half through the woods from Emanuel's house, there was a sawmill commonly called the "pine mill." It was on the Windfall Road. Emanuel's son, Cassius, worked at the mill. One day Emanuel decided to walk to the mill. When he arrived there he was all tired out. This was most unusual because he had traveled so much while hunting and it never bothered him at all. He stayed at the mill for only a short while then started back home. It was all he could do to reach the house. He went to bed immediately and never got up again. Pneumonia had set in and he died five days later, on March 27, 1888.

At that time, being early spring, the roads were in their worst condition with mud. Emanuel's funeral was scheduled to be held in the M.E. Church at Wallaceville - quite a long distance from Spring Creek. The family's team of horses was used to convey the body to Titusville where the undertaker's livery team was then hitched on. Then out to Wallaceville the procession slogged through mud that was axle deep in places. They arrived at Wallaceville without any mishap, but just as the horses pulled up in front of the church to stop, lo if an axle didn't break and let one corner of the hearse fall to the ground. It had held firmly while the going was rough, but broke after the ordeal was over.

Emanuel was buried in the church cemetery beside his two small daughters, Addie and Mary. The son Harry is also buried on the lot.

Mrs. Thomas later moved to Hydetown where she lived the remainder of her days. She died July 22, 1909. Her sickness was of three weeks duration. she had fallen, and this had riled up a tumor from which complications set in. She is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery, between Titusville and Hydetown.

Incidentally, Emanuel's aged mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, survived him by eight years. She died on the old homestead in Oakland Township on March 31, 1896, at the age of 89.

Transcribed by Penny Kulbacki Minnick
minnick862@verizon.net

Disclaimer:there may be errors due to transcription ofinformation from both early and late (current contributors) work.