Our Story

I am Thomas The Forgotten and this is

a story of my ancestors...

There once was a Hughes named Thomas,

he gave his cousin the marriage promise;

Her name was Bridget, of the royal clan O'Neill,

And together they laid this history upon us.

Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire

In the 18th century, a voyage to America took more than a month on ships that were packed with up to 300 people, and they had no "Irish spring". If you died, you were buried at sea. The Hughes' were fortunate to have survived an Atlantic voyage. There ship took them up the Potomac River and they landed in Virginia around the year 1739. This is where they began their search for a place to call home. They would become 'pioneers'. First they had to pioneer this new frontier for the Dark-Side so they could get some land...THEN they would join a revolution against the the Dark-Side, and they would get some more land...THEN they would continue to pioneer the new frontier all the way to California and...well, you get it. We would have to fight everyone... the natives, the Dark-Side, the French, the Americans. It was too late to turn back, that ship had sailed (sigh). And so it was, Thomas and Bridget Hughes braved an Atlantic voyage so they could get away from Ireland and unleash their three Hughes-boys on the New World...and the rest is history.

Now keep in mind that the name "Thomas" was given to every other Hughes-child born...ever...or it feels that way when your researching our family history. Since I like using nicknames, I will use them to try and make sense of my lineage. So Thomas-The-Irishman and Bridget settled their family in an area called Loudoun county, Virginia for over 25 years. I think we didn't make much of an impression, at that time, because I found no stories of us. Around 1767, several families migrated together to an area that they would call 'Muddy Creek'. This was unsettled country in today's southwest Pennsylvania and it was here that stories about the Hughes' were better documented so that I might someday find it on the internet. First off all, it was a Hughes who named 'Muddy Creek'...or was it? Well, I'll tell you about it. Native Americans created a vast network of walking paths throughout the wilderness used for traveling, hunting, and war. A couple of pioneers, John Swan and Thomas Hughes, would hunt an area known today as Greene County. For theses guys, a hunting trip would last a month or more living in the wilderness trading with others at various trading posts in the area. On one such expedition, John's horse stumbled as he crossed a creek. Some say that John fell into the creek and proclaimed, "muddy little creek!". Others claim that John's horse splashed Mr. Hughes and it was he who cursed at the creek. So who named Muddy Creek? I have concluded that it was the horse. The horse created the muddy situation, so the horse should get some credit...someone get me that horse's name. The incident became an ongoing joke between the two men, which is why the name...stuck. Two-hundred and fifty years later, it's still called Muddy Creek and the Hughes' were among it's first settlers. They blazed property lines to mark their territory during a hunting expedition. Then the following spring they would return with their families and plant crops and build homes . The families assembled their "immigrant train" numbering more than fifty, and hit the twelve-foot wide trail for a 75 mile trip from Cumberland, Maryland to southwestern Pennsylvania. This stretch of trail was known as Braddock's Road, now it's called US-40, and it delivered the pioneers to their new wilderness paradise on a "muddy little creek"...uh...where they needed to live in forts to survive.

Not only was this part of Pennsylvania a hotbed of natives but the settlers didn't get any assistance or protection from the government located far across the state in cushy-Philadelphia. Therefore, in the summer of '76, we tried to start our own 14th colony of Westsylvania complete with it's own government. God Bless Westsylvania! But the 2nd continental congress was like, "that's illegal and treasonous and you's guys must stop!" and they made laws to prevent it...bunch of babies. So there were ONLY 13 colonies and the settlers of Muddy Creek found themselves surrounded by natives while Pennsylvania and Virginia fought over where borderline was between their territories, which eventually resulted in the Mason-Dixon line.

Felix, John Hugh, and Thomas were the three sons of Thomas-the-Irishman. Felix Hughes, the oldest, was born around the year 1723, before the immigration to America. He married Cynthia Kaighn in Virginia around 1750 and they had 4 sons and 2 daughters. They were part of the wagon-train to Pennsylvania and built a block-house/fort on one of the three adjoining tracts of land belonging to the Hughes' along Muddy Creek. With that done, Felix would go to work establishing religion in the area. According to the American Catholic Historical Society, Felix was “The pioneer catholic of western Pennsylvania”. He was a devout Catholic and was "chosen to lead a small delegation to St. Joseph's church of Philadelphia as representatives of Catholics residing in the Monongahela River Valley". They asked Father Ferdinand Farmer to visit them occasionally, and “afford them an opportunity of receiving a consolidation of religion”. Way to go Felix! The-Catholic-Pioneer! Hangin' with the Father in the city of brotherly love! Felix-the-catholic continued his journey as a catholic-pioneer when he escorted his daughter, Elizabeth, and her family to their new home in Kentucky around 1780. They rafted the Monongahela River to Pittsburg where it fed the the Ohio River which would take them to Kentucky. During the long trip, a group of natives opened fire on the raft and killed Elizabeth's husband, William Hunter. This left one man, Felix, defending the women and children from the natives while raftin' down a river. Hero Felix got his ear shot off in the battle, but somehow he managed to safely return his daughter back home to her mother. After some time, they would try again. He would escort Elizabeth and her children to their new home in Kentucky where he remained for one year. When he returned to Pennsylvania, he would 'settle down' and keep the preachin' closer to home for the remainder of his life. He had four sons and three daughters. Three of his sons, James and Thomas and John, all fought in the Revolutionary War. John was the youngest and was killed by the natives. Older brother, Barnet, apparently went to Kentucky and "fathered many children"...hmm.

First son James was a devout catholic like his father. He may have been the first school teacher in the area and was also the first commissioner of Greene county. Commissioners get to have their photo taken. This one was taken in 1798. His great grandson, Thomas, compiled "My Family Memoirs". James appears to have been a fine upstanding citizen who probably made his father proud

On the other hand, the number 2 son of Felix appears to have been a rebellious one. Born in Loudoun County Virginia in 1749, Thomas-the-rebelliouswas well educated and a craftsman and achieved the rank of Major with the Frontier Rangers during the American Revolution. Then he was supposedly asked to "take a reduction in rank to Captain so we could divide our forces and cover more area". He reluctantly agreed, “for the good of the service".

In 1795 Baltimore sign painter and miniaturist Frederick Kemmelmeyer painted this rousing canvass of Washington reviewing the troops near Fort Cumberland, Maryland, before their march to western Pennsylvania to suppress the "Whiskey Rebellion" of protesting farmers. Washington led the troops all the way to Bedford County. Learning that the rebels had disbanded, he then turned over their command to General Harry Lee and returned to Philadelphia.

Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbish, 1963.

Washington pardoned the rebels for their crimes, which made everyone...less unhappy. The rebels would pay the tax until Thomas Jefferson came to power and repealed 'The Whiskey Tax' in the early 1800's. To show his allegiance to the new administration, Thomas-the-rebellious named his township 'Jefferson'. This annoyed his neighbor, and fellow soldier, Colonel Heaton. Heaton supported the federalists and named his neighboring township 'Hamilton'. Let the feudin' begin! Jefferson township vs. Hamilton township. After years of fist-to-cuffs between the Hughes' and the Heatons, the government decided to combine several townships in this county under one name...wait for it..JEFFERSON. The Hughes' were right! The Heatons were wrong! Hamilton township was no more! CHEERS to Monongahela Rye Whiskey from your local distillery!

The darker side of Thomas was a pioneer of coal mining in Greene county and used slaves to build both his coal mine and his family home. The slaves mined the coal and would gain their freedom after a certain amount of production. Maybe this helped him sleep at night. And maybe his son, Thomas Jr., was trying to atone for his father's indiscretion when he helped free slaves using his dad's house and coal mine as part of the underground railroad! As a result of the tomfoolery of these two Thomas', 'The Hughes House of 1814' made the list of America's historical landmarks.

That was one of the more interesting parts of this story of my ancestors.. Unfortunately, It is one of the more fabricated parts of this story as well. The part where slaves, owned by Thomas Hughes, built this house has been verified by official documentation of that era. However, the whole "underground railroad" part cannot be verified by any official documentation. These underground railroad claims were conjured up through brochures and pamphlets and local news paper articles dating back to the 1950's that resulted in this house being added to the national registry of historical landmarks. It has since been removed from that list, but not before helping to improve tourism in the area and allow access to federal funding for very expensive renovations only to end up being auctioned off to 1 of the only 2 bidders for $54,000 in 2012. The aforementioned renovations cost the taxpayers over $500,000! A local researcher digging into to this hornswoggle contacted a Georgetown University Professor, who is known for his research of the underground railroad in this area, referred to these story's of the Hughes house of 1814 being involved with the underground railroad as "preposterous".

(sigh) I wonder if they are selling snake oil out of the house now.

James Hughes was a younger brother of Thomas Jr. He is my great-great-great Grandpa Hughes, son-of-Thomas (the rebellious), son-of-Felix (the catholic), son-of-Thomas (the Irishman), son-of-Phelime (?). Are we clear? Okay, so what about James Hughes? Was he a great hunter, pioneer, or soldier? Maybe a messenger of religion, or leader of rebellions? Maybe he invented something...yeah?...no. This James Hughes was born in 1788, in PA, and died in 1861, in PA. He married Margaret Hiller (1794-1833) and they raised seven children and they were farmers. You might say they just wanted to be regular folks livin'-the-dream. How about that, James-the-Average was just a normal person. Not an easy accomplishment for a Hughes boy...good job, James.

William Hiller Hughes(1821-1897) was son-of-James (the average), son-of-Thomas(the rebellious), son-of-Felix (the catholic), son-of-Thomas(the Irishman), son-of-Phelime(?). William tried to be normal like his father. He learned carpentry and worked on father's farm until age 24 when he married his Honey, Margaret Hill. Three years later they moved to Clark county Missouri, and soon after, Margaret died leaving 2 children. In 1851, William remarried to Eliza Jane Dye. The Dye's were pioneers of Scotland county Missouri, so William bought 200 acres there. But after two years, William Hiller could not avoid the call of the frontier. He could probably hear the voice of his Uncle Rememberance Hughes calling to him...seek gold! Uncle Rememberance, son of Thomas-the-rebellious, found a big golden nugget back in the 1830's and was able to start a ferry business. Then a big flood destroyed his ferry business. Other Americans claimed that such misfortune was very common among the Irish and so the phrase "the luck of the Irish" was coined to imply bad-luck...that you brought upon yourself. Allow me to explain. A person struck by lightning can be said to have bad luck, however a person struck by lightning because they chose to play golf in a lightning storm...probably an Irishman...and I probably played golf with 'em. In spite of all this nonsense about the "luck of the Irish", William Hiller and Eliza Jane decided to try their luck at gold mining. They loaded up their 3 kids, put on their pioneering boots, and headed west.

They teamed up with the family of W.H. Wiedman of Jackson county Iowa and headed into the frontier. In April of 1853, “outfitted with 3 teams apiece”, they traveled to Kanesville, Iowa where they crossed the Missouri River and hopped on the 2,000 mile long “Emigrant Trails” heading west. They made many river crossings, some of which didn't go so well. Just outside of Kanesville, at the Elkhorn River crossing, they experienced a traffic jam. Most pioneers would head west in the Spring time using the Emigrant Trails and hoped to reach their destination before winter. This sometimes created a bottleneck at the Elkhorn River ferry, causing major back-ups. When the Hughes' arrived at the Elkhorn, there were “thousands” of people waiting to cross. The Hughes' were patiently waiting their turn when a wicked hail storm blew through forcing the pioneers to scatter as the river flooded the banks. After EIGHT DAYS of flood clean-up, they got the ferry running and the journey continued. Then there was the Platte River. Since the Emigrant trails ran along this river, everybody used it for their water source while traveling. This caused many illnesses and deaths. After six months of travel, in September of 1853, the Hughes family safely arrived in Sonora California and went to mining for gold at “Shaw's Flats”.

After two years, William-the-gold-miner had not yet struck-it-rich. Reality set-in and it was back to farming. Farming is probably what William did best, but at least he tried his luck at gold mining. By 1870 he owned about 2300 acres, including the land where the village of Ripon was established. Originally, Ripon was named Stanislaus City by William. But a man from Ripon, Wisconsin didn't like the name. He renamed the town by establishing a store and post office and applying to the government for the name change. I may be mistaken, but I think I don't like him...must be genetic. Many folks continued to call it Stanislaus city, bet they didn't like him either. William sold off much of the land and he built a nice home for Eliza Jane, and their 13 kids, in 1874 for $2000 where they lived happily ever after...hopefully.

Francis Marion Hughes, son-of-William(the gold miner), son-of-James(the regular), son-of-Thomas(the rebellious), son-of-Felix(the catholic), son-of-Thomas(the Irishman), left California and settled some prime prairie land in northeast New Mexico in 1907. He quickly built a store /post office and applied to the government for the official name of “Solano” in honor of the local mail carrier Cipriano Solano...? Oh well, WE NAMED IT AND NOBODY IS GONNA CHANGE IT. It was just a train-stop-town between Tucumcari and the coal mining town of Dawson, near Raton, which was booming when Solano was established. This is where my grandfather, Edwin Harrison Hughes, would spend the rest of his life. There was miles of flatland to farm and so we plowed, and Solano grew, and all was good for the 500 residents of this small town. By the 1920's, farmer's were introduced to tractors and now could really do some damage...and they did. They stripped the land so bad it create THE DUST BOWL, which is what my father was introduced to as a young boy. Then a few bad mining accidents closed the Dawson coal-mine in 1950. Dawson became a ghost town, and train-stops such as Solano became dust in the wind. The Hughes kids would need to put on their 'pioneering boots', but this time the frontier was pretty-much pioneered...so now what?

Edwin-The-Farmer had 3 sons and a daughter. His oldest son, Edwin Ross Hughes, married his high school sweetheart, Tiona Lucinda Smith. They went to college were Ed became a doctor, then zig-zagged around the country spreading good health and Hughes-children along the way. After having seven children, and living in several of the 50 United States, Edwin-the-Doctor, a.k.a. 'Fathead Ed', settled down. In 1972, they found an area in south Alabama called Mobile. This town would surely provide challenges worthy of a Hughes family. Ed and his Spanish wife would spend the rest of their lives helping this community by offering medical assistance and education. Ed was a pediatrician and would eventually become the director of the medical program at the University of South Alabama, while Tiona was a red-cross nurse at whatever public schools her 4 kids were enrolled in. I was born in Arkansas, but it was here in southern Alabama that I was unleashed.

I am Thomas Michael Hughes, the sixth child of Edwin And Tiona, born 04 October 1963. My younger sister is Malachy Irene, born 09 September 1966, and we are the forgotten ones. They forgot to mention us on any of the Hughes genealogy trees, graphs, tables, or diagrams with pictures and circles and arrows. I received an honorable mention as the husband of Melinda Lou Hughes in the genealogy of her mother's family, the Sassers. I now stake my claim as a Hughes, here before you all, forever more, on the internet...until the power goes out. I am Thomas-The-Forgotten and I am...not quite the pioneer that my ancestors were. However, in 1987 I quit school, marry my honey, loaded-up our wagon (Honda Civic) and migrated 400 miles to the east until we reached the Atlantic ocean. This is where my wife would settle me...gradually. In 1992, we claimed our stone house on a dirt road with a well and a septic tank where we have been feudin' with our neighbors raising abandoned pets for 22 years...

The Hughes' trail around America from Thomas-the-Irishman to Thomas-the-Forgotten:

Virginia (1739), Pennsylvania (1767), Missouri (1849), California (1853), New Mexico (1907), Alabama (1971), Florida (1987).

Hmmm, in 1987 Thomas Hughes settled on the east coast of America 250 years after Thomas Hughes settled on the east coast of America.

The descendants of Thomas-The-Irishman blazed a trail around the United States of America, and left a few marks along the way. I believe this country is better for it. We made excellent pioneers. We were tough, fearless, and smart enough. I enjoyed learning their story, and I enjoy drawing comparisons to them. Perhaps I, Thomas-the-forgotten, shall honor of my ancestors by migrating to old lands, as there are no new lands left. Perhaps my wife, Melinda Lou, and I shall change our surname to...O'Neill, and we will sail to Ireland to share tales of the Hughes' great American quest and teach them to drink ice cold beer and watch American Football! TOUCHDOWN!

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”― Hunter S. Thompson