Thomas was 5 ft. 11 inches tall, had dark hair and grey eyes, with a fair complexion according to his army record. He was in Co. F, 14 Reg. 8th Missouri Calvary. He was wounded in the right arm in the Battle of Springfield on 8th of January, 1883, he also suffer an attack of  “Bilken’s fever” in August of 1862. According to his pension application this cause him much bowel trouble a may have been the cause of his death on 3 February, 1885.

Thomas was married Francis Angeline Byrd and they had twelve children:

Robert Segal who died young, Nancy Jane, my grandmother who married John Sanders, Mary Elizabeth, who married George Bryd (Frankie’s half brother), James Pleasant, who married Sara Flood, John Henry, who married Nancy Cloud, Wilson Grant, died young, Margaret Catherine, married John Parker, Missouri Tennessee, called “Zude”, married Henry Jenkins, William Burchfield, who married Marth Jane McCullah, Sara Angeline, who married Charles Burton, Minnesota Lousiana, who married Jasper “Jap” Jenkins and Etta Louverna, who married Bill Burton.  Frankie and Thomas and his mother Nancy are all buried in the Wright’s Chapel Cemetery. Thomas donated the land for this cemetery as well as for Wright’s Chapel.

The house that Thomas built is now falling in, It was a small house with a fireplace at the end of a long room. Grandma Frankie did her cooking in the fireplace, as there was no stove. She was a good cook. The house had a long porch, where they could set and look across the valley.

Frankie married James P. “Willie” Burton in 1891after Tom died. Tom had another brother Joseph, who had a deformity and two sisters, Katherine, who married Tom Gold, and Elizabeth, who married my Great grandfather John Henry Anderson. So you see, I got a double dose of Wright’s.

One day Robert and Thomas took the wagon to Springfield for supplies, on the way home they stopped at the Turkey Trot saloon. Tom bet the tavern keeper a gallon of whiskey he could show him the ugliest man he had ever seen. The man took him up, so Tom went out and brought Robert in, they got their gallon of whiskey.