"That first winter was very severe; snow was about three feet on the level, and it was bitter cold. "

"It was an especially hard life for these people who had been raised in the city where they could go to the market and get most everything they needed. Here there were no stores. Over the mountain to Franklin (24 MILES) was the closest market place so that people had to make the best of what they had."

In the fall of 1870 Thomas started
building a log house on his farm outside Paris.

"In those days, all the men were advised to take up land to farm that they might provide a living for their families. There wasn't much else for a man with a family to do, so he must turn to the soil to provide the necessities of life. But Thomas was not a farmer. He had been raised in the city all his life and his knowledge of farming was very limited."

Thomas recorded "Grasshoppers took my crop -  1871"