William H Thomas 1861-1918

Born: October 1861
Died: 1918 (Buried at St. John’s Lutheran Church Ridge Valley, old cemetery)
Spouse: Mary Veth
- Born: 1867 in New York City (Buried at St. John’s Lutheran Church Ridge Valley
- Died: 1848
Married: 1887
Occupation: Cigar maker in the Bronx, NY; Cigar maker at Allen Cressman’s Sons Cigar Factory, Tylersport, PA; Night watchman at the tower of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company, Sellersville, PA.
Children: Philip, Anna, Ellen, William, Milton, Jeremiah, Harvey, Jacob, Charles

William Thomas was born in October 1861, most likely in or near Tylersport. As a young man he moved to the Bronx, NY, where he worked in a cigar factory. It is possible that both he and his younger sister, Hannah, traveled to New York together in search of work as industry began to boom after the close of the Civil War. However, although Hannah lived in the city at the same time, also married in New York, and returned to Pennsylvania sometime before 1920, she has not been found in any New York census records between 1880 and 1910.

In 1887 William married Mary Veth, who was born in New York and was the daughter of German immigrants John (b. 1827) and Rosanna (b. 1831) Veth. According to the 1900 census, the couple and their first five children lived at 629 East 153^rd Street. Google images of this address now show empty lots where houses once stood, and the neighboring streets are full of buildings, now either vacant or occupied by stores and apartments, that were likely factories around the turn of the twentieth century. Which one was the workplace of William can only be speculated. On a neighboring street is the old South Bronx High School building, now the Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School, which their older children may have attended. This neighborhood is near the modern Yankee Baseball Stadium.

By the 1910 census, William and Mary had returned to Salford Township, Pennsylvania, and lived on Allentown Road (near or in Telford and near the Ridge Valley church) along with their first five children and Mary’s mother, Rosanna. Back in Pennsylvania, the couple had four more children. William returned to work at Allen Cressman’s Sons Cigar Factory. His oldest daughter, Anna, also worked in a cigar factory at this time.

The Family’s Home

Years ago, William & Mary’s grandson (Henry, son of Jacob) gave me a copy of a photo of what was referred to as the Thomas’s inn or hotel. Henry and my grandfather both said that Jacob owned and lived at a hotel or inn in Tylersport:

Obviously, the hunt for this home began. But it also quickly ended, because with nothing other than the town of Tylersport to go on (and living in another state, myself), it was a 100-year-old needle in a haystack.

Earlier this year (2022), with vague recollections of something about this home being at the top of a hill, and something about the roads Ridge Road and County Line, I literally scrolled around on Google Maps. While there is a crossroads of Ridge Road and County Line Road in Tylersport – with a sizable old tavern still existing on one corner, two old homes on others, and one empty lot – the buildings there were no match.

Then it dawned on me that census records in the 1900s began including addresses.

In 1910, William & Mary and their 9 children (and, presumably, their daughter Ellen’s husband) lived on Allentown Road in the township of Salford, having moved back to Pennsylvania from the Bronx in the last decade. In 1920, William was deceased, but Mary continued to live on Allentown Road with several of her children (including Anna’s husband and son).

By 1930, censuses added house numbers, and the family is listed at 51 Allentown Road in Telford. The head of household was now 28-year-old Jacob, son of William and Mary, along with his wife Miriam and their first two children, Pauline and Ruth. By 1930, Mary was living elsewhere with her daughter Anna and son-in-law Henry Fitzgerald. According to Thomas Chappell, one of their great-grandsons, Mary had a stroke “shortly before 1940” which left her an invalid and unable to speak. Anna and Henry took care of her 6 days a week. Mary’s other daughter, Ellen, and son-in-law Norman lived at the adjacent address and took care of her on Saturdays.

Google Maps has become a great tool for locating old family residences. Allentown Road has since been split into a “north” and “south.” Only North has a 51, and the dwelling certainly did not resemble the photo above. However, one just a few doors down did:

And there she is. The bricks have been whitewashed, the trees have grown, but the lovely trim and path and even diagonal gutter on the side of what is now 39 N Allentown Road are exact. It is maybe 2000ft from that intersection of Ridge and County Line Roads, and very near the church that William, Mary, and many more generations attended and are buried at. According to Zillow, the home was built in 1900 and now has 4 bedrooms. For a family at the turn of the 20th century, it seems a large home. But, William and Mary did have nine children who lived here.

But was it an inn? I’m not convinced, even though the tale of the inn comes directly from Jacob’s son. Census records and his obituary list Jake as a butcher or factory worker. No mention of an innkeeper, and I doubt he would have had time to run an inn with a factory job and, as was typical for the time, food to grow and livestock to tend. That said, censuses make it sound as though Jacob was an independent butcher; perhaps he worked from home and could have overseen boarders. The home certainly could have had room to spare for a traveler or two.

At the intersection of Ridge and County Line there is an old tavern, which was almost certainly an inn at the time. Perhaps someone in the family worked there, or perhaps its proximity just led to a story not exactly rooted in fact. Since Jacob died in 1993, we probably won’t ever know.

William lived to be 57 years old. Late in life he took a new job as a night watchman in the tower of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company at Sellersville. This job was not a long-lasting one, however; according to his obituary, William suffered a heart attack his second night on the job, and his body was found in the watchtower by the day watchman upon arriving to work. This was in the year 1918, though the exact date of William’s death is unknown. William was also a member of the Tylersport chapter of the Patriotic Order of the Sons of America, which published an additional obituary.

Following William’s death, Mary continued to reside on Allentown Road with her children. Mary died in 1948 at the age of 81. She and William are buried at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Ridge Valley, near William’s parents.

The Children of William Thomas and Mary Veth

Philip, the oldest child of William and Mary, is discussed here.

Anna O., the couple’s oldest daughter, was born in October 1891 in the Bronx. After returning to Pennsylvania she worked in a cigar factory. She married Henry H. Fitzgerald at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Ridge Valley on February 22, 1912. They had two children, named Henry and Charles. Anna died in 1978 and is buried with her husband at St. John’s.

Ellen F. was born on January 14, 1893 in the Bronx. She married Norman Royer in 1910, after returning to Pennsylvania. They had three children named Norman L., Russell S., and Mary. She died on July 14, 1962, and is buried with her husband at St. John’s.

William J. was born in August 1895 in the Bronx. Like his father, he was a member of the Patriotic Order of the Sons of America. He died at the age of 22 of pneumonia and is buried alongside his parents at St. John’s.

Milton J., often called “Mook” by his family, was born in March 1897 in the Bronx. He married Elsie Klein on August 1, 1929 and had two daughters named Esther and Mary. He died on August 5, 1970 and is buried in Christ Union Cemetery in Trumbauersville.

Jacob, also known as Jake, was born on February 5, 1902. He married Miriam Nase (born Dec. 5, 1903; died June 11, 1997; daughter of Charles & Carrie Nase) and had seven children: Pauline, Ruth, Mary, Jacob, Janet, Henry, and Carl. According to his son, Henry, Jacob owned and lived in a hotel in Tylersport (see the above story and photo of the purported hotel/inn). Jacob died on March 30. 1993 and is buried with his wife at St. John’s.

Jeremiah, also known as Jerry, was born on November 27, 1903 and baptized at St. John’s on March 20, 1904. He married Mabel Breisch (born Sept. 17, 1906; died Feb. 25, 2008, at the age of 101) and had three children named Nancy, Paul, and Barry. Jeremiah died September 8, 1997 and is buried in the Sellersville Cemetery. Russell Thomas once mentioned that Jeremiah had a barber’s shop in his brother, Jacob’s inn. Russell also recalls some details about the lives of Jeremiah’s three children: Paul, who lived from August 24, 1928 to August 31, 2011, played for the Orioles baseball team when it was a farm team for the NY Yankees. He died in South Carolina. Barry was a highly acclaimed football player who played for the Citadel. According to Russell, who recalls watching one of his games on New Year’s Day, the “papers were full of him,” and he “could have gone pro but his mom didn’t want him to.” Nancy left Pennsylvania and moved west.

Harvey was born on September 3, 1905 and baptized at St. John’s on May 27, 1906. According to Russell Thomas, his nephew, Harvey was a racketeer. He owned a gas station and sold tires on the black-market during WWII, when many such materials were strictly rationed for the war effort. Russell says that he “played horses” at racetracks and “always had a pocket full of money.” Harvey did marry, though her name has not been remembered by anyone in the family or found in any of my research. According to Russell she worked in the top offices of Sears and didn’t associate with the Thomas’s very much: “not that she was nasty, she just went her own way… Why she married [Harvey] I’ll never know!” Harvey died on August 9, 1985 and is buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Boyertown.

Charles O was born in 1910 and died in 1944. He is buried in the St. Philip Neri Catholic Church cemetery in Pennsburg. All other information here about him comes from the personal knowledge of his nephew, Russell Thomas, and his grandson, Scott Thomas:

Charles O was a great baseball pitcher for the Perkiomen township team, part of what was known as the “Twilight League.” Russell recalls watching him strike out 17 of 21 batters: “I knew who he was, and I watched him pitch ball when I was around 12 or 14 years old.”

According to Scott, Charles O met Catherine Klein through her brother, William Klein, who also played baseball. According to Russell, Catherine lived on Main Street in Pennsburg. He says that she “was on the wild side,” and would often “hang out with a bunch of boys.” Scott recalls that she was also into bowling.

In 1933, Catherine had a child, whom she named Charles F Thomas, and claimed that Charles O. was the father. At the time, Catherine was 17 years old and Charles O was 23. Charles O and the rest of the Thomas family denied that the baby was his son. He spent a few days in jail for denying the child was his and for refusing to marry Catherine. According to Russell, the incident was “a sore subject in the Thomas family,” who never accepted the possibility that the baby could be a Thomas. Young Charles F, however, was determined that he was a Thomas.

According to Scott, Charles F was mostly raised by his grandmother, Amanda Klein (Catherine’s mother). The younger Charles only saw his father twice: once when he was injured as a child and in the hospital, and at his father’s funeral.

Charles O later married Anna Welck in 1939 and lived with her, his mother-in-law, and step children on Ridge Valley Road in Salford until his death. He died in 1944 at the age of 34, some say as a result of alcoholism.

Like his father, Charles F was also a baseball player, and as a bat boy he met his cousin, Paul (Jeremiah’s son), who later played for the Orioles. Charles continued to play baseball into his 40’s. He graduated high school in 1952 and joined the army, just barely missing going to Korea. He married Elizabeth Stoudt (b. 1933) and had three children: Sharon, born in 1957; Charles F, born in 1960; and Scott, born in 1963.

Catherine Klein later married Roland Heffentrager and lived on 3^rd street in Red Hill for many years. She died in 1992, and she is buried at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Red Hill. Scott Thomas, her grandson, had the opportunity to get to know her and says that she was a very sweet lady.

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