Thomas Franklin Lucas

Thomas Franklin Lucas was born in what is now Logan County on April 14, 1831. He married Mary Jane Buckles, a daughter of Robert and Mary "Polly" Birks Buckles [and my 4g grandparents], about 1852/53 [records lost in courthouse fire]. Thomas was the son of John T. and Sarah Bowman Lucas [both siblings of my 4g grandparents James and Hannah Bowman Lucas].

Thomas Franklin Lucas died on February 19, 1855, and was buried at Steenbergen. His widow married as his second wife Abner Copeland, a son of William and Sarah Lucas Copeland, and moved to Iowa and then Missouri.

When I asked for probate papers on Thomas Lucas, son of James and Hannah Bowman Lucas, I guess it is not a stretch that I was sent the probate file - or rather a portion of it - for this Thomas Lucas.

Thomas Lucas and Wives

The Thomas Lucas Family at Lake Bank Cemetery

The stone on the far right, the tall stone, is that of Thomas Lucas. Thomas had three wives and 17 children. The first wife was Mary Turner. She had 11 children before she died in 1855. Her stone is on the far left. The next stone belongs to her son George. Mary was the maternal grandmother of Lillie Margaret Wood Ryan and sister of Spencer Turner.

Seven of the children were under 15 at the time of her death. This might explain why seven months later Thomas remarried to the widow Harriet Gambrel Lanham. Harriet was 38 and apparently without children. Thomas and Harriet had two daughters before she died in 1867. Her stone is third from the left. Five months later he married the widow Charlotte Bowman East who had three children. Charlotte and Thomas were first cousins through his mother Hannah Bowman. I don't know what happened to her first three children but the happy couple had three children before Thomas died in 1874 leaving a pregnant widow. That child died about six weeks after birth.

Charlotte soon moved to Kansas where she died in 1908 and was buried in Sumner County.

Although his father died when he was 13 Thomas was not a poor man. This may account for his ability to find a new wife so speedily each time.