Andrew J. Thomas

A. (Andrew) J. Thomas, a retired farmer, at Hixon, was born March 10, 1825 in Bledsoe County , and came to Hamilton County in 1833, settling first at Georgetown . He has been living at or near Hixon since 1854. He is the sixth of nine children born to Abraham and Sarah (Kosy) Thomas. The father was born in Virginia December 20, 1789 , and came to Sequatchie Valley at a very early period, where he married. He after- ward moved to Hamilton County , and here died, December, 28, 1859 . He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was discharged at Mobile , at the close of the war. The mother was born in Marion County , and died September 7, 1846 . She was of English descent. Our subject received his education at the subscription schools of Hamilton County . He lived with and assisted his father on the farm until his twenty-ninth year, when he married Miss Louisa Gann, a native of Hamilton County , born in 1834, the daughter of Preston and Mary Gann, who were of Irish and Dutch extraction respectively. To our subject and wife were born eight children: Sarah (Mrs. Barker), Mary (Mrs. Powell), Martha (deceased), James A. (deceased), Matilda (Mrs. Dr. W. F. Skillern), William (deceased), George and Florence (deceased). Mrs. Thomas is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Thomas is a Democrat in politics although in early life he voted with the Whig party. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He was elected justice of the peace in 1865, and served in that capacity with universal satisfaction until 1871. Not one of his decisions was ever reversed. The grandfather of our subject, John Thomas, was a soldier the Revolutionary war, and shortly after being discharged moved his family into the Sequatchie Valley .
1880 US Census, District 2, Hamilton Co., TN; Page 1B 
Goodspeed's "History of East Tennessee" 1887; Page 1001.