BIOGRAPHY: William Thomas

I was born April 4, 1821, in Jones County, Miss. My parents, John C. and Sarah Thomas, moved to Jasper County, Miss., when I was small. I was reared there to manhood. My parents were Baptists. I was brought up in a Methodist neighborhood, and in my eighteenth year I attended a protracted meeting of theirs, at which there was a great deal of noise. One night a preacher requested silence saying he would address himself to the careless and unconcerned, and I said to a youth sitting by me, "let us listen to him; he is going to talk to us now." Hie said we "were liable to die at any moment, that we were exposed to the wrath of God to hell and damnation," etc., and was eloquent on the subject. I thought if these things be so, I am in a desperate condition. At this meeting was my first serious impression about death and a judgement to come, and I then commenced to do better so to appease the wrath of God so that He would not send me to that horrible place that the preacher described. The Baptist Church to which my parents belonged was about eight miles from our house. Father was going one day, in the spring of 1841, and asked me if I would not like to go. I went. When the door of the church was opened, a little girl, eleven years old, went up and told my feelings so exactly that I wanted to talk to the church, which I did, and was received, and baptized by Elder E. Y. Ferral the next day. The name of the church was Salem, in Jasper County, Miss. August 24, 1843, I was married to Barbara Touchstone, and in the fall of 1846, we moved to Arkansas, Drew County. I put my church letter into a church called Pilgrim's Rest, Elder Stephen Berry, pastor. He would ask me to open or close the service, I was no preacher and never expected to be, so I got along very well for a while. One day I was not at meeting on Saturday; when I got there Sunday morning the clerk of the church handed me a paper stating that the church believed that God had called me to the work of ministry, and that they authorized me to preach the gospel wherever God in His Providence should cast my lot. When I read that paper, the date of which was October 28, 1849, I thought I never would open my mouth again in the way I had in the church, and I said so, and did not for twelve months. Soon I became willing to occupy wherever the Lord orders, and say and do whatever he commands. Meantime, Union Church was constituted in our neighborhood; the brethren frequently spoke of my ordination, but I would invariably tell them that I had all the liberty I wanted. January 3, 1857, I was ordained to the full work of the ministry, by a presbytery called on by Union Church, composed of Elders Othniel Weaver and E. Y. Ferral. I was kindly received by the Primitive Baptists and the people generally wherever I went; and after all this, although the Lord had been so good and merciful to me, I turned back to the beggarly elements of the world, and in 1861-2 joined the Masonic fraternity--which is a good, moral, worldly institution--for which the church excluded me from her membership. I was just as blind to the sin that I had committed as if I had never been born again. You will remember this was during the war. I did not understand then that the scriptures are full and complete in reference to the faith and practice of the children of God, and that nothing is a good work unless commanded of the Lord; and that He has commanded us to come out from the world. Brethren, I was taught this important lesson by the reception of many stripes. Not long after my exclusion Union Church dissolved, and many of the members moved away. In 1863 I moved to Bosque County, Texas, and Saturday before the first Sunday in June, 1855, I went to Little Fork Church, Bell County, Texas, Elder O. W. McDonald, pastor, and told them my condition, and that I wanted to get into the fellowship of the Primitive Baptists, showing them a corroborative statement made by Elders C. B. Landers and J. M. C. Robertson, of Arkansas, who were very well acquainted with me. I was received into the fellowship of Little Flock Church, and the church sent an order to the ex-clerk of old Union Church for my ordination credentials. In the fall of 1865 I moved from Bosque County to Milam County, Texas, rented land near Mayfield, on Little River, and in 1866 New Providence Church was constituted, and I was in the organization. January 1867, I bought a small piece of land on Knob Creek, Bell County, Texas where I yet live, and cast my lot again with the brothers and sisters of Little Flock Church. I have tried to fill any place the brethren have seen proper to assign me, whether in the church or Association. I don't think I am egotistic when I say that I have been received with favor by all the Primitive Baptists and the people generally, with but few exceptions. Note: Elder Thomas passed from this life in 1893.