Introduction

Biography

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, his works in­clude:

Works

• The Pro­mised Crown (Ole­tha, Tex­as: James E. Tho­mas, 1892)
• The Call, with W. C. Fra­zier & Tho­mas Cobb
• Elysian Songs
• The Har­vest­er, with Tho­mas Cobb
• The Gos­pel in Song, with Tho­mas Cobb
• New Ho­san­nas, with New­ton All­phin et al. (Fort Worth, Tex­as: Quar­tet Mu­sic, 1906)
• Requested Songs New and Old, with James W. Fer­rill (Fort Worth, Tex­as: Quar­tet Mu­sic, 1932)
• Thomas’ An­a­ly­ti­cal The­o­ry of Mu­sic