CHRISTOPHER C. THOMAS

CHRISTOPHER C. THOMAS was of English descent, with the Virginia Branch of the Thomas family being derived from a single immigrant who arrived in America from England about the year 1635 and took up 3,400 acres of land in Culpeper and neighboring Counties of Virginia. He was mentioned first as William, son of Thomas. His sixth generation descent, also named William Thomas, became the father of Massey Thomas (b. March 23, 1760 - d. March 23, 1818). The latter was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, and at age 16 (1776) enlisted in the American Army (Virginia Militia) during the American Revolution, serving about seven years. He was in a number of engagements, and was a participant in the siege of Yorktown (1781). 

Massey Thomas was united in marriage to Dicey Talbert (b. March 24, 1763 - d.c. 1856) in Culpeper County, Virginia, on June 3, 1783. They had five children by 1795, as follows: Rhoda Thomas (b. September 24, 1784); James Thomas (b. August 27, 1786); Benjamin Thomas (b. September 20, 1788); John Thomas (b. December 29, 1792); and William Thomas (b. May 12, 1795). About 1798 Massey Thomas and family came from Virginia to Kentucky and settled in Ohio County. He is listed on the Ohio County Tax list for 1799, as Clerk of the Beaver Dam Baptist Church in 1802-1805, and as foreman of a 21-man grand jury sworn in at the March 28, 1803 Session of the Circuit Court of Ohio and Breckinridge Counties. He died on March 23, 1818, his birthday, and in the beginning of his fifty-eighth year. His wife lived to the advanced age of ninety-three years, and was never ill until the day of her death, sometime in 1856. Their earthly remains rest on a farm plot (owned in August, 1971 by Miss Ruby Daniel) near Axton Cemetery near Olaton in Ohio County. 

William Thomas, their fifth child and fourth son, married Sarah "Sallie" Jackson, the daughter of Christopher M. Jackson and Catherine (Rhodes) Jackson, on an Ohio County license on November 18, 1824. Mr. Jackson appears to have been a first cousin to President Andrew Jackson. They became the parents of fourteen children. One daughter, Corrina Thomas (b. August 5, 1825) became the wife of James F. Austin, three times Pastor of the Green River Church. Mr. Thomas was a man of considerable wealth and influence, who died in 1862 at age sixty-seven. He was the grandfather of Christopher C. Thomas. 

Christopher Thomas, the son of William Thomas and Sarah "Sallie" (Jackson) Thomas, was born in Beaver Dam, Ohio County, Kentucky, on August 13, 1834, and received such advantages as were afforded by the public schools of the day. In November, 1856, on a Butler County, Kentucky license, he married Miss Harrriett Kuykendall, the youngest daughter of Matthew Kuykendall (1794-1865) and Martha B. (Gilbert) Kuykendall (1804-1873) of Butler County. She was born about 1839. They became the parents of eight children before her death on September 16, 1872, in her thirty-second year of age and fifteenth year of marriage. 

On December 20, 1875, Brother Thomas married Mrs. Sally (Shultz) Taylor, widow of Moses Taylor. She was born on March 16, 1850, in Cromwell Precinct, Ohio County, Kentucky. He was a prosperous farmer and lived about two miles west of the Big Bend of Green River in Ohio County and near Cromwell. He and his second wife united with the Green River Church by letter in November, 1888. He died on March 4, 1904 in his sixty-ninth year, and his body was consigned to the grave in Green River Cemetery. We have no information as to the burial site of his two wives. 

Christopher C. Thomas was the sixth child and third son of the eight children born to Christopher Thomas and Harriett (Kuykendall) Thomas, and was born in Ohio County, Kentucky, near Cromwell, on November 10, 1868, a few years after the Civil War. He grew up on a farm and attended the public schools at hand. On September 3, 1894, he was united in marriage to Miss Cordia Edmonds on an Ohio County license. She was a native of Butler County and was born on November 4, 1874. They became the parents of at least three children, as follows: Robert C. Thomas (b. August, 1895); Eva Mae (Thomas) Burgess (b. November 5, 1897, who became the wife of Cleve Burgess (b. April 5, 1886 - d. July 20, 1951); and Ruth (Thomas) Rone (b.c. 1901). 

Brother Christopher C. Thomas united with the Green River Church by Christian Experience and Baptism in October, 1903, being baptized by pastor A. B. Gardner. His wife, Cordia (Edmonds) Thomas, had come into the Green River Church prior to their marriage by Christian Experiance [sic] and Baptism in November, 18l88. She was fourteen years of age at the time. He was one of the five men selected and ordained as Deacons by the Church on April 23, 1909. The others were: J. P. Miller, Warren Shields, Martin Flener and Benjamin Benton. Pastors G. W. Gordon, A. J. Snodgrass and A. B. Gardner served as the ordaining Presbytery. He filled the office until his death, on November 26, 1937. His wife died on July 9, 1944. Both of them were buried in the Green River Cemetery. He had served as a Deacon for twenty-eight years. She had been a member of the Church for fifty-six years.

A Sesquicentennial History of the Green River Missionary Baptist Church 1836 - 1986, Written and Compiled by Wendell Holmes Rone, Sr., For the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Church, 1987.