Born and raised Thomas J. Breakwell was born on 31 May 1872, in the town of
Woking in southern England, and was the youngest of five children. His father, Edward Breakwell, sold domestic ironware and was an herbalist. In the 1860s Thomas' father had joined the
Primitive Methodist church and it is almost certain that this was the religious tradition that Thomas was exposed to while growing up. Thomas was educated in a public school. He later testified he lived in Chicago two years and then moved to New Orleans, It shows him employed with Flower, King & Putnam at 214 Gravier and residing at 212 Carondelet, both in downtown New Orleans. The Flower, of Flower, King & Putnam, was
Walter C. Flower. Flower was of a plantation family which was in
cotton production and who was also involved with the
March 14, 1891 New Orleans lynchings of 11 Italians and would go on to be
mayor of New Orleans from 1896 to 1900. The intersection of Gravier and Carondelet was the
New Orleans Cotton Exchange. Breakwell would later remark that his employment depended on the trade of cotton and
child labor such as in the textile mills of the time at which he felt sorrow. The source is not stated but he was staying at the Hotel Royal. It might have been one of the new boarders published a few days before. The article was echoed in other newspapers in the country for months. Accounts of his interests later do mention
theosophy, (though which kind of it, is not defined.) 1894 was the year of new activity of theosophy in New Orleans. In February
Anna Eva Fay came to town, followed by
Constance Wachtmeister, and on 1 May an association was formed, which began to hold meetings, and advertise. It is not stated when this happened in later accounts but Breakwell reported that there was a three-month period when he felt "I was continually in communion with God." Breakwell was similarly visible in the city directory in 1895, The
1895 New Orleans dockworkers riot took place that spring. Breakwell is also noted taking a return trip from England on the
SS New York in August classified as a stenographer. This position with Flower, King & Putnam allowed him enough income and vacation time to visit his family in England and to travel in Europe. One of the witnesses produced to vouch for Breakwell was John S. Waterman. Waterman was an organizing member of the New Orleans chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Another notable event in New Orleans was the
Robert Charles riots. And as a new-ish citizen, the first elections he could have voted for were the
elections in Louisiana of the
1900 United States elections. For Breakwell 1900 also marked a change in employment – now he worked for W. C. Craig & Co., still working in the main trade of the era of cotton, at 822 Gravier as a bookkeeper. W. C. Craig was a family connection with the Flower family of Vicksburg, Mississippi, with links to Louisiana but was mainly in North Carolina. == Discovery of the Baháʼí Faith ==