Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/99

Rh New York, " Forgotten Cares " (1877) ; " Song of the Sea " (1881) ; " The Old Farm-House " (1884) ; " The Pets " (1885) ; and several landscapes at the Mechanics' fair, Boston, in 1878.

THOMAS, Abel Charles, clergyman, b. in Exe- ter, Pa., 11 June, 1807; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 28 Sept., 1880. His grandfather, Abel Thomas, was a Quaker preacher. The grandson was educated at Lancaster, Pa., and at an early age entered the ministry of the Universalist church. He was first established for ten years over the Lombard street church in Philadelphia, to which, after a few years in Lowell, Mass., Brooklyn, N. Y., and Cincinnati, Ohio, he returned, remaining for seventeen years. With the Rev. Thomas B. Thayer he wrote the " Lowell Tracts," in 1840-42, during the crusade against Universalism in Lowell, and organized " The Lowell Offering," whose sole conti'ibutors and editors were the mill-operatives. He was the author of "Allegories and Divers Day-Dreams" (Lowell, 1841); an "Autobiography" (Boston, 1852) ; and " A Centenary of Universalism " (Philadelphia, 1872). He prepared " Hymns of Zion," with music (Philadelphia. 1839) ; " The Gospel Liturgy " (1857) ; and " The Christian Helper, or Gospel Sermons " (1857). He published also many tracts, sermons, and discussions, among the last, " Discussions on Universalism," with Rev. Dr. Ezra S. Ely (New York, 1835), and he was connected editorially with many papers of his denomination. — His wife, M. Louise Palmer, b. in Mount Holly, N. J., about 1830, is a daughter of Judge Strange N. Palmer, of Pennsylvania. She received a classical educa- tion and read Blackstone with her brother, Robert M. Palmer, who was U. S. minister to the Argen- tine Republic in 1861-'2. For many years, owing to the failing health of her husband, Mrs. Thomas managed a large estate near Philadelphia. This gave her an opportunity to educate eighteen chil- dren, eleven being taken from the colored orphan asylum of New York city. She has been president of the Woman's centenary association of the Uni- versalist church since 1880, and in 1886 was elected president of Sorosis, a woman's club in New York. She is also treasurer of the national council of women. Since 1873 she has been editor and pub- lisher of the tract department of the Universalist church, in Philadelphia, Pa.

THOMAS, Amos Russell, physician, b. in Watertown, N. Y., 3 Oct., 182G. He acquired his education while working on a farm, taught school, and was graduated at Syracuse medical college in 1854. He removed to Philadelphia, was appoint- ed to the chair of anatomy in the Penn medi- cal university, and also was lecturer on artistic anatomy in the Pennsylvania academy of fine arts for fifteen years. In 1863 he received a similar appointment in the School of design for women. During the civil war he volunteered and served as army surgeon. In 1867 he connected himself with the Hahnemann medical college of Philadelphia, of which he is now the dean. He has contributed numerous papers to medical literature, is the author of " Post-mortem Examinations and Morbid Anat- omy" (Philadelphia, 1870), and general editor of the " Homoeopathic Materia Medica."

THOMAS, Charles, soldier, b. in Pennsylvania about 1800 ; d. in Washington, D. C, 1 Feb., 1878. He entered the army and became a lieutenant of ordnance, 13 Aug., 1819, assistant quartermaster in May, 1826, captain in April, 1833, quartermaster with the rank of major in July, 1838, and brevet lieutenant-colonel for meritorious-services in Mexi- co, 30 May, 1848. He was promoted lieutenant- colonel and deputy quartermaster-general, U. S. army, in May, 1850, colonel and assistant quarter- master-general in August, 1856, and brevet major- general, 13 March, 1865, for meritorious services during the civil war. He was retired from active service in July, 1866, after having been in the army for more than forty-five years.

THOMAS, Cyrus, ethnologist, b. in Kingsport, Tenn., 27 July, 1825. He studied law, and fol- lowed that profession until 1865, holding in 1850-'3 the office of county clerk of Jackson county, 111. In 1865 he entered the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran church, but in 1869 he joined the scien- tific corps of the geological and geographical sur- veys of the territories under Ferdinand V. Hayden. He was elected professor of natural sciences in the Southern Illinois normal university in 1873, and in 1876 was appointed state entomologist of Illi- nois. A year later he became a member of the U. S. entomological commission, and since 1882 he has been archaeologist to the U. S. bureau of eth- nology. He is a member of scientific societies, and has contributed to the " Evangelical Quarterly Re- view," " American Antiquarian," and other jour- nals. His work for the government has appeared in the reports of the survey, the entomological commission, and the ethnological bureau, and in- cludes "Synopsis of the Acridida> of North Ameri- ca" (Washington, 1873); "Reports of the State Entomologist on the Noxious and Beneficial In- sects of Illinois'' (5 vols., 1876-'80); in part "Re- ports on the Rocky Mountain Locust" (2 vols., 1878-'80); "Study of the Manuscript Troano" (1882) ; " Notes on Certain Maya and Mexican Manuscripts " (1884) ; and " Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of the United States " (1888).

THOMAS, David, engineer, b. in Montgomery county, Pa., in 1776 ; d. in Cayuga county, N. Y., in 1859. He was of Quaker parentage. Removing to the vicinity of Aurora, Cayuga co., in 1805, he was appointed chief engineer of the Erie canal west of Rochester, and subsequently he became principal engineer of the Welland canal, Canada, He was distinguished as a florist and pomologist, and by his writings rendered great services to scientific agriculture. He contributed extensively to the " Genesee Farmer " and published " Travels in the West " (Auburn, 1819). — His son, John J., agriculturist, b. near Aurora, Cayuga co., N. Y., 8 Jan., 1810, was almost entirely self-taught. He studied the botany of the neighborhood in boy- hood, making an herbarium of 1.300 species, in 1834 became associate editor of the " Genesee Farmer " at Rochester, and when that journal was merged in 1853 in the " Country Gentleman," at Albany, he became connected with the latter, where he still continues (1888). He was horticultural editor of the " Albany Cultivator" in 1841-'53, contributed to the " Transactions " of the New York state agricultural society in 1841-7, and to " The Farm " (New York, 1858), and edited the "Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs " (9 vols., Albany, 1855-'81). He has published " The American Fruit Culturist" (Albany, 1845); "Farm Implements, and the Principles of their Construction and Use" (New York, 1854); and "Farm Implements and Farm Machinery" (1869). He received the degree of A. M. from Haverford college, Pa., in 1876. — Another son, Joseph, b. in Cayuga county, N. Y., 23 Sept., 1811, was educated at Yale and at Rensselaer polytechnic institute, Troy, N. Y., and was graduated as a physician in Philadelphia, engaging in practice in that city. He was for some time Professor of Latin and Greek in Haverford college, a., and also taught privately. In 1857 Dr. Thomas visited India, and spent fourteen months