An Illustrated History of Central Oregon, Western Historical Publishing Company,
Spokane, WA. 1905, page 260-261.

ALVIN A. THOMAS, deceased. Among the worthy pioneers of the great state of
Oregon, the name of Alvin A. Thomas appears well up in the roll of honor. He was
a man of stanch Christian character and lived the faith that makes faithful and
manifested in his career the principles of Christianity in every day life. He
was born in Michigan on October 6, 1837, the son of Laren L. and Mary A.
(Mathews) Thomas, natives of the eastern part of the United States. The mother
died when this son was small. The father died in Marion county, Oregon. Our
subject was educated in Michigan and Oregon whither he came with his father, who
had married Eliza Spoors. Settlement was made in Marion county and they took a
donation claim, where the father remained until his death. His widow still
resides there. The date of this journey across the plains was the forties. Our
subject was reared principally in the Willamette valley and there on April 12,
1860, he married Miss Mary J. Quinn, the wedding occurring in Clackamas county.
Mrs. Thomas' parents were Joseph and Polly (Walker) Quinn. They were married in
the east and crossed the plains in 1852. The father suffered terribly from the
cholera, but survived. The mother was born in Orange county, Indiana, on
November 10, 1822, and died in Clackamas county, on August 7, 1888. Mrs. Thomas
was born in Indiana and well remembers the trip across the plains. After her
marriage in Clackamas county she and her husband resided there until 1900, July
4, when they came east of the mountains and since then she has resided with her
daughter, Mrs. Sigman. At Dufur, on March 22, 1904, Mr. Thomas was called to
depart from the scenes of his earthly labors and enter into the realities of the
world beyond this wilderness way. He died as he had lived, a true Christian, and
all knew that a good man had that day been taken from among them. He was buried
with becoming ceremonies and his remains rest in the Dufur cemetery. He had for
many years been a member of the Christian church as his widow is now and they
supported the faith with zeal. To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas six children have been
born; Margaret E., the wife of Alvin Sigman, who is mentioned elsewhere in this
work; Polly A., the wife of Cyrus Covey, on a farm nearby; Walter A., a teamster
at Boyd; Lorenzo M., a farmer near Prineville; Charles K., at Dufur; and William
H., who died March 1, 1884, aged eighteen. Mrs. Thomas' mother bore sixteen
children; she was a woman of whom it may be said, because of her Christian life,
that she was a real "mother in Israel."

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2005 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. 
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.