Jerome & Lucy (Underwood) Thomas
February 21st 2021
From “The Jerome Thomas Story – by Howard Thomas”
Pioneers and Progress, Alix Clive Historical Club, 1974
Jerome Thomas was born in 1854 and his wife the former Lucy Underwood was born the same year. Grandfather came by democrat the year before moving up from Iowa to the Clive area about 1901. His possessions were shipped to Lacombe and then moved out by wagon. Their homestead is … NW 22-40-24-4.
Grandma ran a “stopping house” for travellers freighting between Lacombe and Red Willow on the old Buffalo Lake trail. This trip used to take 3-4 days. They used to hang a lantern from the peak of the roof out the upstairs window and this could be seen as you came over Church Hill….
One fellow tells how he used to stop for supper at Thomas’ and while he was inside eating, he had a bent pin through a kernel of corn tied to a string and fastened to the wagon outside. An old hen would swallow the corn and when the traveller drove off the chicken led behind firmly tethered by that string pinned in the corn. Once driven over the hill, ole hen would get her neck wrung. [T]hus the fellow had his next day’s dinner as well.
The Thomas children were all musical. There were Bert, Jess, Belle, Lorena, Will, Minnie, Jim and Roy.
They played for dances miles around the country and would travel in the winter by sleigh with hot stones to keep their feet warm.
Jerome Thomas died in 1912 and Lucy Thomas in 1918….
Roy the youngest son, never married. He stayed on the family homestead for many years. His sister Lorena Handley kept house for him.
Pioneers and Progress, Alix Clive Historical Club, 1974
Jerome Thomas was born in 1854 and his wife the former Lucy Underwood was born the same year. Grandfather came by democrat the year before moving up from Iowa to the Clive area about 1901. His possessions were shipped to Lacombe and then moved out by wagon. Their homestead is … NW 22-40-24-4.
Grandma ran a “stopping house” for travellers freighting between Lacombe and Red Willow on the old Buffalo Lake trail. This trip used to take 3-4 days. They used to hang a lantern from the peak of the roof out the upstairs window and this could be seen as you came over Church Hill….
One fellow tells how he used to stop for supper at Thomas’ and while he was inside eating, he had a bent pin through a kernel of corn tied to a string and fastened to the wagon outside. An old hen would swallow the corn and when the traveller drove off the chicken led behind firmly tethered by that string pinned in the corn. Once driven over the hill, ole hen would get her neck wrung. [T]hus the fellow had his next day’s dinner as well.
The Thomas children were all musical. There were Bert, Jess, Belle, Lorena, Will, Minnie, Jim and Roy.
They played for dances miles around the country and would travel in the winter by sleigh with hot stones to keep their feet warm.
Jerome Thomas died in 1912 and Lucy Thomas in 1918….
Roy the youngest son, never married. He stayed on the family homestead for many years. His sister Lorena Handley kept house for him.