Philles Thomas

Philles Thomas was born on the Lowood place, owned by Dave Miles, between Brazoria and Columbia, Texas. She was a small child during the war. She never knew her father. Her mother told her he had been sent to work for the Confederate army, building earthworks at Galveston, and was killed when a railroad car loaded with rocks ran him down while he was watching Union shells fall from the ships.

After freedom her mother married Bill Bailey and moved to another Miles property, where they sharecropped. Philles stayed and helped until she was seventeen. She said times were hard and freed people had to learn to take care of themselves, but they were better off free. "When my chillen am young'uns dey's on my lap," she said, "and when dey's growed up, dey's on my heart."

She married William Thomas in Galveston, where he worked as a dockworker; his own story appears on this site as William M. Thomas. They farmed, then moved to Fort Worth, where he worked as a mortar man until his back gave out. They raised ten children, five of whom were living when she was interviewed. She told, with humor, how she talked her husband out of voting after he admitted he couldn't read the ballot. She ended her interview by singing hymns and threatening to start dancing.