My Genealogy Hound

Dr. E. W. Thomas, physician, Booneville, Ark. Among the people of Logan, as well as surrounding counties, the name that heads this sketch is by no means an unfamiliar one. For eleven years he was actively and successfully occupied in the practice of his chosen profession, and during this time he has built up an excellent practice. He was born in Walker County, Ga., in 1851, and is the son of Samuel W. and Mary C. (Davis) Thomas, natives of Virginia and Tennessee, respectively. The parents were married in the last named State, but in 1850 removed from there to Georgia. There were nine children born to their union—five boys and four girls named in the order of their births as follows: Mary T. (deceased), Laura J. (deceased), Edwin W., William H. (deceased), Luther M., Florence L., Samuel B., Edgar R. and Mattie E. The parents removed from Georgia, and not believing in the old adage that “a rolling stone gathers no moss,” moved from place to place, and finally settled at Pine Bluff, where the father’s death occurred in 1887. He was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister and a member of the Masonic fraternity. The mother is now living at Fordyce, Dallas County, Ark., having passed her sixty-fourth year. Dr. E. W. Thomas received a good practical education in youth, read medicine under Dr. J. T. Foster (whose daughter afterward became his wife), and in 1879 and 1880 attended medical lectures at the Arkansas Industrial School at Little Rock, beginning to practice in the spring of 1880 at Ola, Yell County, Ark. There he was married the following year to Miss Rosa A. Foster, daughter of Dr. J. T. Foster, now of Booneville, Ark. Four children were born to this marriage: Harriet E., Jimmie C., James W. (deceased) and Rosa Dell. In 1882 Dr. Thomas removed to Booneville, where he has succeeded in building up a good practice, being at the present time one of the prominent young physicians of the county. He also owns a residence property in Booneville valued at $2,000, and is not only respected in a professional point of view, but is esteemed and liked for his pleasant social qualities. Dr. J. T. Foster, father-in-law of Dr. Thomas, graduated at what was then the University of Louisiana and began practicing at Beebe, White County, Ark. From there he moved to Perry County, then to Yell County, and in 1881 to Booneville, Logan County, where he now resides. He served in the Civil War in Col. T. D. Merrick’s Tenth Arkansas Regiment, first as first lieutenant, then captain and then as assistant surgeon. He was born at Greenville, Va., married Miss Harriet Alison at Memphis, Tenn., June 26, 1859, who bore him five children: R. A., J. H., B. B., O. T. (deceased) and R. S. The mother died in 1869, and later Dr. Foster wedded Ann Hill, of Perry County, and by her became the father of five children.