Versions of the life of young Thaddeus vary. He was the second child in a family of five and was named Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine, more than likely after the character Thaddeus Constantine Sobieski (Tadeusz Kosciuszko) in an 1803 novel "Thaddeus of Warsaw" by Scottish author Jane Porter. It is confused about his life around the age of ten whether his mother had died and Clovis married Mary Randall, or if Lowe was sent away to another farm during which time his mother died and his father remarried. He apparently did work for another farm owned by the Plaisteds, but whether or not he lived there is uncertain. Clovis and Mary had seven more children, but there is a timeline confusion that may indicate she already had children when she married Clovis.