...Virginian descent. By ancestry, he was, on the father's side, Welsh; French, on that of the mother. He was not of the old Virginia stock. Born in the southeastern portion of the State, near the North Carolina line, we are told that his family, dwelling on a goodly home property, was well to do and eminently respectable; but, it is added, there were no cavaliers in the Thomas family, and not the remotest t...