Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/144

 THOMAS

THOMAS

Times (IS'JO) ; Prehistoric Works East of the Rocky Mointtaiits (ISOn: ^foH)ll^ Explorations of the Bureiiu of Ethnoloyy (18'J4) ; Jntroductioa to American Archivology ; Numeral Systems of the Me^cican and Central American Tribes (1901); The Mayan Calemlar Systems {VMl) ; and contri- butious to the Erangdical Quarterly Review and to the American Aiiti<ii(arian.

THOMAS, Edith Matilda, autlior, was born in Clmtham, Mtnlina county. Ohio, Aug. 12, 1854; daughter of Frederick Cliarles aiul Jane Louisa (Sturges) Thomas ; granddaughter of James and Cyntliia (Kellogg) Thomas and of Samuel Jay and Matilda (Cook) Sturges, and a descendant on her maternal grandinotlier's side, from Francis Cook, a MayHower pilgrim, and on lier father's side from the Wclsli family of Thomas. Slie removed with her i)arents at an early age to Kenton. Ohio, sub- sequently to Bowling Green, Ohio, and after her father's death in 18G1, to Geneva, Ohio, where she was graduated from the Normal school in 1872, She taught school for a brief period and then gave her attention entirely to literary work. Through the influence of her friend, Helen Hunt Jackson, she became a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and the Century. She removed to New York city in 1888. and to West New Brighton, Staten Island, in 1890. Slie is the author of : A New Year's Masque, and other Poems (1885) ; Tlie Round Year, prose (1886) ; Lyrics and Sonnets (1887) ; The In- verted Torch (1890) ; Fair Shadow Land (1893) ; In Sunshine Land (1894) ; In the Young World

(1895) ; A Winter Swallow, with other Verse

(1896) ; The Dancers, poems (1902.) THOMAS, Eiisha Smith, second bishop of

Kansas and 142d in succession in the American episcopate, was born in Wickhara, Mass., March 2, 1834. He was graduated from Yale, A.B., 1858, A.M., 1861 ; attended the Berkeley Divinity school. Middletown, Conn. ; was ordered deacon in June. IsGl. and ordained priest in the same year, assuming charge of St. Paul's church. New Haven. Conn. He was rector and professor of biblical exegesis and Hebrew at Seabury Divinity school, Faribault, Minn., and on the resignation of James Lloyd Breck he succeeded to the office of secretary of the Seabury Mission. He studied abroad in 1869 ; was rector of St. Mark's church, Minneapolis, Minn., 1869-74 ; of St. Paul's church, St. Paul, Minn., 1876-87, and was consecrated assistant bishop of Kansas, May 4, 1887, by Bishops Whipple, Vail and Tuttle, assisted by Bishops Brown, Kninkerbacker and Gilbert. He succeeded the Rt. Rev. Thomas Hubbard Vail as bishop of Kansas in 1889. The honorary de- gree of D.D. was conferred on him by Yale in 1887. He died in Salina, Kansas. iMarch 9, 1895. THOMAS, Francis, governor of Maryland, was born in Frederick county, Md., Feb. 3, 1799; son

of Francis and Grace (Metcalfe) Thomas ; grand- son of William Thomas ; great-grandson of Hugh and Betty (Edwards) Tliomas, and of Scottish descent. He matriculated at St. John's college, Annapolis, Md., in the class of 1811, but as the college was suspended until 1822, was not grad- uated. He was admitted to the bar in 1820, and practised in Frankville, Md. He was a represen- tative in the lower house of the state legislature, 1822, 1827 and 1829, serving as speaker in the latter year, and was a Democratic representative from Maryland in the 22d-26th congresses, 1831-

41, serving during one term as chairman of the judiciary committee, his report resulting in the settlement of the Ohio-Michigan boundary line. He was president of the Cliesapeake and Ohio canal. 1839-40 ; governor of Maryland. 1841-44, fighting a duel during the canvass with William Price, and in consequence of his anti-repudiation policy was the defeated candidate for re-election. He was married to Sallie Campbell Preston, daughter of Gov. James McDowell of Virginia, from whom he afterward obtained a legal separa- tion. He was a delegate to the state constitu- tional convention in 1850, and was actively in- fluential in mitigating the political strength of the pro-slaverj' counties ; recruited a volunteer regiment of 3000 men in 1861, but declined the command, and was a Union Republican repre- sentative from Maryland in the 37th-40th con- gresses, 1861-69, where he made a strenuous effort to procure a Republican form of government for Maryland, which materialized in the constitution of 1867. He was a delegate to tlie Loyalist con- vention in Philadelphia, Pa., 1866 : was collector of internal revenue for Cumberland district, 1870-72, and minister to Peru from March 25, 1872, to July 9, 1875, when he retired from public life and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits at his farm near Frankville, Md., where he was killed by a locomotive, while walking on the rail- road track. .Jan. 22. 1876.

THOMAS, Qeorge Henry, soldier, was born in Southampton county, Va., July 31, 1816. He be- gan to study law in 1835, but abandoned it to ac- cept an appointment to the U.S. Military acad- emy, from which he was graduated and promoted 2d lieutenant, 3d artillery, July 1, 1840. He served during the Seminole war in Florida, 1840-

42, being bre vetted 1st lieutenant, Nov. 6, 1841, for gallantry and good conduct in this war ; was on garrison and recruiting service. 1842-45, be- ing promoted 1st lieutenant, April 30, 1844 ; took part in the war with Mexico, and was brevetted captain, Sept. 23, 1846, for gallant conduct at Monterey, Mex., and major, Feb. 23, 1847, for Buena Vista. He was engaged in the Seminole Indian war, 1849-50 ; was instructor in artillery and cavalry at the U.S. Military academy, 1851-