John Charles Thomas in Opera and Song (rec 1932-42)

"If I had to choose the four greatest voices I've heard, I would list Thomas along with Caruso, Rosa Ponselle, and Ezio Pinza ..." Frank Chapman, Opera News, 1961

John Charles Thomas was born in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1891. His father, Reverend Milson Thomas, was a Welsh coal-miner's son who emigrated to America with his parents in 1867. Dorothy Schnabel, his mother, was the daughter of German immigrants who had settled in Amish country. Following his father, a Methodist Episcopal circuit minister, Thomas began singing in churches and camp meetings. He later recalled that his mother used to wrap him in a buffalo robe and put him under a pulpit to sleep. Young Thomas made his singing debut in 1895 at the age of four-and-ahalf in a small Pennsylvania country church where his father was substituting for another minister and, for a time, thought of following in his father's footsteps as a clergyman.

After making their way through a succession of schools from Paw Paw, West Virginia to Baltimore, Maryland, Thomas enrolled in the Mont Street College of Homeopathy to pursue a career in medicine. A summer job driving an American Express Company wagon drawn by an elderly white horse led him to the annual Lutheran Reunion encampment at Pen-Mar Park, located on a mountaintop near Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. After introducing himself as a conductor Thomas organized a 200 voice choir and presented a series of Sunday afternoon concerts featuring himself as soloist.