When Mary Elizabeth Evangeline Bourland was born on 15 November 1821, in Monroe, Mississippi, United States, her father, Judge James Spears Bourland, was 23 and her mother, Mary Hudspeth, was 23. She married Pleasant Green Thomas on 19 December 1839, in Itawamba, Mississippi, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 2 daughters. She died on 16 September 1848, in Itawamba, Mississippi, United States, at the age of 26, and was buried in Bourland Cemetery, Itawamba, Mississippi, United States.