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biography
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Thomas, Albert G., coal dealer and contractor, and one of the promising
young business men of New Orleans, is a son of George Washington and Mary
Ella (Dias) Thomas, and was born in Pittsburg, June 6, 1881. George W.
Thomas was born in Pittsburg, March 21, 1857, and is still living there, a
dealer in bituminous coal. He is a son of George Thomas, who was born in
Wales and when quite a young man came to America with his father, who
settled in the Monongahela valley. George Thomas and his father were both
in the coal business, so that G. W. Thomas is the third and A. G. Thomas is
the fourth generation of the family to follow this calling. Mary Ella Dias
was born near Pittsburg in the Monongahela valley, in 1858. She was the
daughter of Joseph and Mary J. (Duncan) Dias. Joseph Dias was a farmer who
later engaged in the iron business. The Duncans were farmers. Mr. and
Mrs. G. W. Thomas were the parents of the following children: Charles
Fremont, Albert G., Minerva Griffith, Iva Jane and Anna Mary. Albert
G. Thomas his father, and grandfather, all sent coal from Pittsburg to New
Orleans. George Thomas floated coal down the river on barges before there
were any steamers, and sold the coal with the barge. There are some men in
New Orleans who made a large amount of money buying barges after they were
unloaded some selling for as low a price as $20. A. G. Thomas spent his
youth in Pittsburg, where he attended public school until 16 years of age.
He then went to the Western University of Pennsylvania, at Pittsburg, and
took civil and mechanical engineering, graduating in the civil engineering
course with a degree of B. C. E., in 1900. He followed engineering
(principally mining engineering) for about 2 years, and then engaged in the
coal trade with his father in Pittsburg. In 1904 he was sent to New
Orleans to take charge of the operations here and continued this line until
1906, when the business was absorbed by a trust, the Monongahela River Coal
Co. In 1907 Mr. Thomas engaged in the coal and dredging business for
himself. The dealing in coal consists of buying and selling that product
at wholesale, the trade extending throughout the South and Southwest as far
as Houston, Tex. Much of this coal comes from Pittsburg by river and some
from Kentucky, by both river and rail. There is also a large amount which
comes from Alabama and is shipped mostly by rail. The dredging operations
consist of contract work for the reclamation of meadow land, and also for
channels to make some streams navigable. He now has 5 dredges at work, and
has contracts for reclaiming a considerable tract of land on the west bank
of the Mississippi south of New Orleans, and also some on Lake
Pontchartrain for the New Orleans Land Co.
Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events,
Institutions, and
Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form, volume 3, pp. 429-430. Edited by Alce
Fortier, Lit. D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.
Contributed by Mike Miller.
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