J. E. Thomas

J. Edmond Thomas Born: De­cem­ber 6, 1860, Cal­houn Coun­ty, Ar­kan­sas. Died: Ap­ril 30, 1946, Fort Worth, Tex­as. Buried: Green­wood Ce­me­te­ry, Fort Worth, Texas. Note: Some sourc­es give his first name as John; his tomb­stone says James. Thomas was the hus­band of Court­ney Lee Wig­ley and Pearl Hat­chett (mar­ried 1923) In 1874, his fa­mi­ly moved from their farm in Tex­as to Ar­kan­sas. His fa­ther died lat­er that year.

As the old­est son, he had his hands full sup­port­ing the fa­mi­ly, but he ma­naged to be­gin at­tend­ing a vo­cal school at age 17, un­der Pro­fes­sor T. A. Bridg­es. He lat­er stu­died un­der Ho­ra­tio Pal­mer and George A. Good­rich.

He be­gan a full time mu­sic ca­reer in 1890, and with Frank­lin Ei­land and John M. Greer, and helped found the Trio Mu­sic Com­pa­ny in Wa­co, Tex­as, in 1892. He went on to es­tab­lish the Quar­tet Mu­sic Com­pa­ny in Fort Worth, Tex­as.

A teach­er, com­pos­er, mu­sic com­pil­er, and pub­lish­er for ov­er 44 years.

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