Will Thomas Home Assembly, KS
Will Thomas was born in Wales, and was saved and introduced to the assemblies there at the age of 20. He soon was invited to join an assembly-founded group of itinerant evangelists called the Pilgrim Preachers, and eventually emigrated to Perry, Kansas, where he was involved in leadership with Perry Gospel Hall, a sizable assembly there. After Will's death, his widow raised their two daughters back in Perry.
First Wichita Assembly
Will Thomas married Margaret E. Bradford (1899-1985) around 1928 and lived at 702 E. Boston, Wichita, Kansas with their two daughters, and started the first Open Brethren assembly in the Wichita area that year in their home, which lasted until around 1931 when they moved back to their farm in Perry, Kansas due to failing health, dying later that year, when daughter Charlotte was two, and Florence was one.
Others in the assembly remembered by daughter Florence Wakefield include Mrs. Shea and her son Vincent.
Florence remembers Dean Jensen visiting their family farm in the 1940's to advise her mother that the remaining Wichita assembly that her late husband had started, had acquired a building and was then known as East Kellogg.
Margaret E. Bradford Thomas
Margaret was a descendant of William Bradford, who emigrated on the Mayflower. She was born in 1899 to Charles Oliver Bradford and Anna L. Bradford. She taught school for nineteen years in Perry, Kansas, and moved to Lawrence in 1964, where she was involved at Lawrence Bible Chapel, where after her death, Ron Nadvornik and John Scollon officiated her memorial.
Margaret Bradford Thomas' siblings
Margaret had several siblings, who were raised at the Perry Gospel Hall:
- Robert Bailey Bradford (1898-1918)
- William Alonzo Bradford (1902-1956)
- Paul Bradford
- Donald Irving Bradford (1910-1983) died Topeka, KS.
- Mary Gladys Bradford Peterson Walterick (1913-1986) was engaged to Vincent Shea, of her brother-in-law William's house assembly in Wichita (1928-1931), which ended. She then married Edwin Peterson who died (two weeks into their marriage) in the Battle of Viny Ridge. She then married Lloyd Walterick, founder of the Brethren publisher of the assembly address book.
Contents
Will's Siblings
Will was the youngest of seven children (from eldest to youngest):
- Morgan William Thomas (1880-1944) married Gertrude Selina Vincent (b. 1883) around 1909 in Wales, and was employed in the early 1910's as a substitute postmaster and grocer in Nantgarw, Glamorgan Wales. Later he served as a "clerk in holy orders" at Oxford in the late 1930's, also referred to as "Reverend" at time of death as at the Vicarage East Garston, near Newbury, Berkshire, England.
- Henry William Thomas (b. 1881)
- Garnet Evelyn Thomas (1882-1940), just before his death was living in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, employed as a Prinester of Religion. He married Winifred Mary Greenway (b. 1887), and had at least one daughter Enid M. Thomas (1919-1997), who married Ernest J. Rowe. Also served with the Pilgrim Preachers.
- Gordon Hugh Thomas (1885-1941) lived in Brooklyn, NY, then Garden City, NY then died in Mineola, NY. He married Sarah Ann (b. 1891 Wales), and they had one son, Aneurin Hugh Thomas (1914-1975), who served as a T3 in the U.S. Army during WWII, & one daughter, Dilys (b. 1921)
- Margaret Ann Thomas James (1887-) married Joseph Lewis James (1884-1954), a wholesale milk contractor.
- Abraham Ernest Thomas (1889-1980) and his wife Bertha Mary Squire Thomas (1892-1969) emigrated in 1926 to Brooklyn, and later lived in New York City. Bertha was raised in England. They had one son, Leslie S. Thomas (1918-1984)
Will Thomas' Ancestry
Will Thomas born in 1891 in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales to Hugh William Thomas and his wife Margaret A. Thomas.
Hugh William Thomas b. 1852
Hugh was born around 1852 in Aberdare, also in Glamorgan Wales to Morgan William Thomas & Mary Thomas.
Morgan William Thomas
Morgan was also born in Aberdare, the son of William & Mary (b. 1802) Thomas.
William Thomas b. 1781
William was born in Kill Cwm, Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Pilgrim Preachers news
1924
"6,000 Miles Covered By Gospel Preachers" "TORONTO. Nov. 11: Speaking yesterday at the annual Thanksgiving Conference in Maranatha Hall, William Thomas told a fascinating story of the work of the Pilgrim Preachers who have traveled throughout the Old Land preaching the Gospel for the past five years. Taking as their password the words of the Psalmist, "They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." Mr. Thomas stated that the Pilgrim Preachers, composed of from 12 to 18 men, had traveled on foot or by bicycles over 6,000 miles, from Land's End to John o' Groats, touching every county in Scotland, England and Wales. Among their numbers were business men, army and navy veterans and even an ex-convict."
1927
- "The Courier" @ Waterloo, Iowa: 4-23-1927;
"Welsh Evangelist to Be Gospel Hall Speaker Next Week" "William Thomas, Welsh evangelist, will be at Gospel hall, 726 Western avenue, for meetings beginning Sunday evening, April 24, and continuing every night during the week except Saturday. Mr. Thomas is one of the singing evangelists who accompanied the "Pilgrim Preachers" in their tour throughout England, Scotland and Ireland two years ago, when thousands heard the "old story" heralded forth both in preaching and in singing of the Pilgrim choruses. Mr. Thomas' home is in Toronto."
1928
- "The News" @ Paterson, New Jersey: 9-10-1928;
"Thomas Brothers, the Pilgrim preachers and singers, are conducting a gospel campaign in a tent at the home of her sister, Mrs. Edward Irving place in Rutherford. They preach every evening except Saturday at 8 o'clock this week."
Sources
- Ancestry.com
- Florence Wakefield intervews 2019
- Newspapers.com