The ALEXANDRIA PAPERS #5

E A R L   a n d   M A E

One of the people not often mentioned in Alexandria and St. Albans' History is Edward Earl Thomas. Nobody that I knew called him Ed or Edward, with the possible exception of his mother during moments of, well, I think we've all been there... I knew him as Earl, Earl Thomas. His wife was, as far as I knew when I was a four-years-old, Mae Thomas... she was Earl's second wife after his first wife and mother to his son passed. Earl's first wife was Maud Aura Parsons and she was the daughter of Horace Parsons, the village undertaker. This made Earl an in-law to the Mount family of Mounts Road fame. Mae was a Dumbauld by birth with ancestors in the Cooperider and Gosnell families. I remember Earl and Mae coming to church with Edith Irwin, their neighbor. Both Mae and Edith always wore hats to church along with a nice dress and dressy shoes. (Only worn on Sundays.) Such was the style in a more genteel age, a life sadly gone by. Earl always wore a white shirt and a conservative tie. In the winter, he added a suit coat to his ensemble. Both Earl and Mae were slight of stature. By this time, Earl used a cane.

Earl came from a long line of Edward Thomases that stretches back to Wales where his grandfather was born in 1829. His father, Edward Charles Thomas, was born on Black Back Farm in Wales and is listed in St. Albans Township having immigrated with his parents to a farmstead in northwest St. Albans. Earl's father was 21 when he married Ellen Frances Remington, an Iowa native whose family moved to the Concord and Liberty Township area before 1860. Earl was the middle of five siblings. The farm was located in the northeast quarter near Castle Road.

Alexandria had one filling station and garage in the early automobile days.  The Cental Garage advertised their expertise as battery specialists.  The March 11, 1926, edition announces the acquiring of Central Garage by Earl Thomas.

Earl left farming and purchased the old S. S. Anderson Hotel, now called the Robinson Building. By then, Buxton's 'Old Red' Tavern was gone, and Wat Davison was selling wagons and plows from the building. Earl leased part of the first floor to the United States Post Office. A store was also located there. This store was run by Pop Johnson with Neil and Carol Williams running it later on.

Local barber Forrest Sines started his business in Earl's building. Forrest would later move his barbershop to a single building near the Fire House where he would remain throughout his life. For a while, a vegetarian Mexican cuisine restaurant was housed there before becoming a Barbecue restaurant of late.

George Dumbauld ran a Creamery from Earl's building. This was a favorite spot for the kids of the 1930s to stop after a hard day swimming in Raccoon Creek to pick up an ice cream cone.

Earl also owned one of the Feed Stores. Alexandria had two, one located next to where the old train depot stood. Today, the location serves as a parking lot for the bike path. Earl's Feed Store started as E. H. Hammond's Livery at the southwest corner of North Liberty and Church Streets. Today, this is the Township Building. Earl sold this building to Art and Doc Revercomb in 1938 who ran it as Revercomb's Feed Store until 1967.

Earl took great care in life. Earl's neighbor to the east was his daughter-in-law. Earl and his first wife had a son, Horace Edward Thomas. I have heard he drove a long-distance bus for a living. While there is more to this story than I will tell, suffice it to say he died in 1954 and is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Alexandria. Horace's widow, Wilma (Mosher) Thomas was, at one time, a telephone operator for the Alexandria exchange. They lived in the house Horace Parsons used for his business as the local undertaker. Earl made sure Wilma was taken care of by keeping a roof over her head. Earl also made sure his former employee; Charles Bailey had a roof over his head at the E. E. Thomas building.

When I was old enough, Mae and Wilma paid me for the job of mowing their yards. As a teenager, this allowed me to return the money to Alexandria's local economy by buying my lunch at Bob's. I was a growing boy fueled by Pepsi, hamburgers, and a box of Cracker Jacks on a daily basis.

I remember Earl for other reasons. Earl was a kind, generous man. From time to time, he would give me coins. I had no idea what to do with them back then, and honestly, I still don't today but to keep them. I have never even looked up their worth. Why would he do this? Earl was a kind, generous man. Bon temps, my friends... good times.