Thomas Family History
General History

A brief history of the Thomas family

It is estimated that between 1890-1915, over 100,000 or one-fourth of the population left Lebanon for a
variety of reasons: fear of the Ottoman rulers, religious persecution, economic uncertainty, etc.  The majority going to the United States were Maronite Catholics from the region of Mount Lebanon.   Although we've not yet found the ship manifests, some time in the late 1890s, Saleem Tanyous   Barakat Rizkallah (aka Samuel Thomas) (1880-1933) left his village of Louiza, near Beirut, and   eventually boarded a ship heading to the U.S.  Making a similar trip was Adla Nahara Rizkallah (1884-1966) from the village of Aarbanyeh, El Metn (Mount Lebanon).  When the distant cousins arrived in New York City, they probably lived with relatives or friends on Washington Street, a popular destination.   Adla found work as a seamstress in a shirtwaist dress factory in New York City. 

There was a Maronite Church in Brooklyn which is probably where they were married.  It was most   likely an arranged marriage and so were those of her sister Nageebe (Geneva/Jenny) to his brother Ameen and, several years later, Adla's niece, Behia Reshdan to Saleem's brother Nageeb (Jim).    There were others in the two families who joined them: Saleem's brother Wadia (Ward), Adla's sister

Freida and brother Massoud (Sam).  While we don't know when they arrived we do know that eventually they all came to settle in Olean, NY.   Adla and Sam Thomas began their family:  Mamie (1898-1963), Cecelia (1900-1990), Edward (1903-1912), Mary (1905 -1906) Louise (1907-1997)  Joseph (1909-1972), Edna (1911-1981) and Florence (1914-1915)

On the outskirts of town there sits an old farmhouse and barn. The dairy cows are gone and the 2-family house was converted into a single family house long ago.  In the back of the house is a set of  steps leading to the cellar.  One of them, now broken and covered with moss, still shows the faint impressions of a date and name: Sam Thomas August 1909.  It was here that Sam & Adla and Ameen & Jenny moved their growing families and began the Thomas Bros. Dairy. 

The Lebanese families of Olean were a very welcoming and close group.  My paternal grandparents, Nagem & Anna Knieser had a large boarding house in downtown Olean where many of the new arrivals lived.  He supplied them with clothing and dry goods and they packed the items into suitcases    & duffel bags and took to the roads peddling their wares to workers in the oil camps and farmers in the area.  (See accompanying story on Massoud (Sam) Nahara).  Anna Knieser was a midwife and one of the many children she brought into the world was Adla's sixth child, Joseph

Cousin Bonnie Thomas Bielski passed on this information related to her by our grandmother, Adla.  A Turkish Muslim soldier stole jewels from some officers and escaped into the hills outside of Beirut seeking refuge.  Although the Barakat Rizkallah family gave him shelter, he grew fearful since they were Christian and he was Muslim so he ran away again leaving behind the bag of jewels.  The family exchanged the jewels for passage on the ship(s) and later, to purchase land in Olean, NY.

In those days, Lebanon was a part of The Silk Road and the Nahara Rizkallah family raised silk worms. The cocoons were harvested & taken to the silk factories in neighboring Salima (home of the  Knieser family) and to Beirut.

In the US, the Thomas and Knieser families were also very close and it was my dad who showed me the step in the back of the farm house, a place he visited often as a child.  Family photos also show two handsome young men, Joe Thomas and Joe Knieser, side by side at social events and from the stories they told, they were friendly rivals when it came to "the ladies."   

Sam & Adla moved their family to Virginia St. in Buffalo, NY after Mamie and Ceil married.   Sam & his brother Ward opened a grocery store and an ice cream parlor.  At some point Ward moved to Massilion, OH and at some other point, Joe Knieser moved in as a boarder.  Adla and the remaining  children continued to run the store after Sam's death in 1933.  

Ameen, Jenny & their children remained in Olean for many years but eventually like Sam & Adla, moved to Buffalo as did most of their children: Nahale, Adele, Louis, John, Jean & Hanna.  Jim and Behia remained in Olean with their family. 

Then there was Aunt Freida Nahara Rizkallah Mansour aka Freida Thomas who also walked the roads as a peddler.  She imported lace and other finery from France.  She saved her money and bought a building on N.Union St. in Olean and lived over the Rexal Drug store with her sons Charlie & Wallid and daughter Anna.  Her daughter Sarah was left in Lebanon.  I know very little about the sons and their families.  Anna married Michael Chemaly, the nephew of the two Maronite priests in Buffalo & Olean. Anna's children are Lorraine, Francis, Odette, Ann Marie (who died recently) and Marguerite who was also left in Lebanon.  I recently met her son on-line and found out that Mike just turned 100.  It was through him and Lori that I found out the name of the Nahara's village and other information on that family  The Barakat Rizkallah Family:Parents: Barakat Tanyous and Huneea   Children to US: Saleem,  Ameen, Nageeb, Wadia Children in Leb.: Eisire, Kahil, Habib, Saleeme, Ratibbe  Nahara Family Parents: Abess & Sarah Children to US: Adla, Freida, Massoud, Nageebe  Children in Leb.: Rasheed -- Daughter: Behia                                      Sons: Amiel & Adeem