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From: Archives <>
Subject: Oh-Clark Co. Bios (Thomas)
Date: 12 Sep 2005 17:32:00 -0000


Clark County OhArchives Biographies.....Thomas, John H. October 4, 1826 - January 23, 1901
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Author: From: “A Standard History of Springfield and Clark County, Ohio, Volume II” Prepared Under the Editorial Supervision of Dr. Benjamin F. Prince, President Clark County Historical Society, The American Historical Society Chicago and New York, 1922

John H. Thomas, who died at his home in the City of Springfield on the 23d of
January, 1901, was a man whose character and achievement marked him as one of
the leading citizens of his home city and country and as one of the essentially
representative men of Ohio.
Mr. Thomas was born at Middletown, Maryland, October 4, 1826, and was a son
of Jacob and Sophia (Bowlus) Thomas. As a youth he was given exceptional
educational advantages, as gauged by the average standards of the day, and in
1849 he graduated from Marshall College at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. In 1861,
he became a student of law in the office of Hon. S. W. Andrews at Columbus,
Ohio, and later continued his technical studies under the preceptorship of
William White, who was at the time one of the ablest and most influential
members of the bar at Springfield. After his admission to the bar, Mr. Thomas
was engaged in the practice of his profession at Springfield about two years,
and gained secure place in the confidence and esteem f this community, the
while he made an excellent record in the work of his profession. His
popularity was indicated by his election to the office of county recorder of
Clark County within a comparatively short time after he had here established
his residence, and he was the incumbent of this office at the time of the
inception of Springfield’s remarkable development as an industrial center. His
practical provision of future possibilities enabled him to take advantage of
opportunities here presented ina business way. He became senior member of the
firm of Thomas & Mast, in which his coadjutor was the late P. P. Mast, and they
were among the first here to engage in the manufacturing of agricultural
implements – a field of enterprise in which Springfield has become one of the
leading industrial centers of the United States. Mr. Thomas retired for the
firm in 1872, after the enterprise had been developed into one of important and
prosperous order, and in 1874 he resumed his active alliance with local
manufacturing interests by organizing a firm in which his sons, William S. and
Findley B., became his associates. The business has been continued with
unequivocal success during the long intervening years, and in the manufacturing
of all kinds of agricultural implements the Thomas Manufacturing Company is
today one of the important industrial concerns of Springfield.
Mr. Thomas was significantly a man of thought and action, and his
versatility of talent led to his benignant influence being extended prominently
into civic and political avenues. In 1868 he was the democratic nominee for
representative of this district in the United States Congress, but was unable
to overcome the great and normal republican majority in the district. When
United States senators were elected by the Legislatures of the respective
states, Mr. Thomas became a candidate for the office, his successful opponent
having been the late Hon. Calvin S. Brice.
Mr. Thomas became a man of wealth and influence, but he ever had a high
sense of personal stewardship and realized the objective responsibilities which
success imposes. Thus he was most liberal in the support of Charitable and
philanthropic agencies and in this connection one of the most noteworthy of his
benefactions was his financial gift which made possible the establishing and
maintaining of the Mitchell-Thomas Hospital at Springfield.
In 1854, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Thomas and Miss Mary Bonser,
the daughter of Hon. Jacob Bonser, of Chillicothe, Ohio, and she preceded hom
to the life eternal. They are survived by four children: William S., Findley
B., Nellie (Mrs. Augustus N. Suimmers) and Mabel (Mrs. L. P. Matthews.)


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