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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS
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PUTNAM COUNTY, OHIO
History & Genealogy
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BIOGRAPHIES
 Source:
A Portrait and Biographical Record of Allen & Putnam
Counties, Ohio
Containing Biographical Sketches of Many
Prominent and Representative Citizens,
Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the
Presidents of the United States
and Biographies of the
Governors of Ohio
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Publ. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co.
1896
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A. Z. THOMAS |
HON. AMOS
Z. THOMAS, who is the present judge of the
probate court of Putnam county, has been an honored
resident of Ottawa since the month of June, 1866.
Judge Thomas is a native of Trumbull county,
Ohio, and was born Nov. 29, 1829, a son of
DAVID M. and Elizabeth (Fry)
THOMAS, who were born in Montgomery and Perry
counties, Pa., respectively. On his father's
side the judge is of Welsh descent, his
great-grandfather having come to America in a very
early day, and settled in Virginia. John
Thomas, the judge's grandfather, was born and
reared in the Old Dominion, and in an early day
moved to Montgomery county, Pa., where he engaged in
farming. He had a family of seven children,
all of whom, with the exception of the father of the
subject, lived and died in the latter state.
One of the sons of John Thomas, whose name
was also John served with distinction in the
war of 1812. David M. Thomas, the
judge's father, moved to Trumbull county, Ohio, in
early manhood, and became the head of a family of
six children, whose names are as follows:
Julia A., deceased wife of Frederick Cratsley;
Elizabeth, widow of Elam Bentley; Amos
Z.; Hanna, deceased, Mary J., wife
of Amos Bentley, and David L.,
who died at the age of thirty years.
The mother of these children was a daughter of
Joseph Fry who was born in Chester county, Pa.
Mr. Fry afterward located near Millerstown,
in his native state, where he married and where for
some years he carried on the tailor's trade.
He reared a family of nine children, seven sons and
two daughters, whose names, in the order of birth,
were as follows: Henry, Daniel,
Joseph, Abraham, Frederick,
Mary, John, Elizabeth and David.
Of these sons Daniel, Joseph,
Abraham and Frederick served in the
war of 1812, and earned the reputation of brave and
gallant soldiers. Joseph was killed
while in the service; Abraham moved to
Lafayette, Ind., where he became a prominent factor
in political circles, having served as treasurer of
Tippecanoe county, that state, besides holding other
positions of public trust.
Judge Amos Z. Thomas’s early experience was upon
the home farm in his native county, where he
remained until his eighteenth year, at which time he
began a course of study preparatory to entering
college. In 1854 he became a student of
Meadville college, Pa., from which he was graduated
in June, 1859, in a class of seventeen, and for two
years thereafter taught in the academy at
Carrollton, Ohio. In the meantime, having
selected law as his profession, Mr. Thomas
began studying the same at Warren, Ohio, with
Messrs. Burchard & Moses, and he
was admitted to the bar in that city in 1865.
Several years after finishing his professional
studies, Mr. Thomas was engaged in
teaching, and he continued educational work for some
time in Putnam county, to which part of the state he
removed in 1866. In 1870 he effected a
co-partnership in the law, at Ottawa, with
Stansberry Sutton, under the firm name of
Sutton A. Thomas, and after the death of his
partner, in 1879, the judge practiced alone until
becoming associated with W. W. Sutton.
The firm of Thomas & Sutton continued
until 1891, in which year Mr. Thomas
withdrew, in order to enter upon his official duties
as judge of the probate court, to which position he
was elected in the fall of 1890. The ability
with which Judge Thomas discharged his
official functions was duly appreciated by the
citizens of the county, who, in 1893, honored him by
re-election to the same position, which he now
holds. He has served as a member of the board
of school examiners, was for some time active in
promoting the municipal legislation of Ottawa as a
member of the city council, and has represented his
county in various political conventions. He is
a representative democrat, a leader of his party in
Putnam county, and was chosen alternate delegate to
the democratic national convention at Saint Louis in
1888. From the time he adopted law as a
life-work Mr. Thomas has been devoted
to it, and his chief aim has been to adorn the
profession. He has always been a close and
careful student of law, going into wide research for
authorities. As a judge, he is popular alike
with lawyers and litigants and few, indeed, have
been his decisions which have met with reversal by
the higher courts.
Judge Thomas is a Mason of high degree,
belonging to the Blue lodge and chapter of Ottowa,
and council and commandery of Lima. He was
married in Greene county, Ohio, March 19, 1876, to
Miss Anna R. Hagenbaugh, daughter of John
and Eliza Hagenbaugh, of Fairfield, Greene
county, Ohio. The judge has been successful in
a financial sense, having accumulated a comfortable
competence, including valuable real estate in
Ottawa, and farm property in the country. He
is a self-made man in the true sense of that term,
full of energy and determination, and a list of
Putnam county's representative men would be
incomplete without a mention of his name.
[ It here becomes the melancholy duty of the publishers
of this volume to state that since the above sketch
of Hon. A. Z. Thomas was prepared for
publication, the lamented subject was called to his
final rest, Feb. 11, 1896—dying peacefully at home
on the date mentioned.
Source: A Portrait and Biographical Record of Allen and
Van Wert Counties, Ohio - Part 2 - Publ. Chicago: A.
W. Bowen & Co. - 1896 - Page 551 |
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EVAN
D. THOMAS, a native of Sugar Creek township,
Putnam county, Ohio, and one of the most
enterprising and prominent farmers of the locality,
was born Dec. 14, 1844, and is a son of DANIEL
and Margaret (Lewis) THOMAS, natives of Wales.
These parents came to America in 1841, lived about
one year in Licking county, Ohio, and then came to
Putnam county, and here the father entered land in
Sugar Creek township, but did not live long to enjoy
its possession, as he was called away June 2, 1848,
a member of the Congregational church. There
were born to Daniel and Margaret Thomas two
children the elder of whom, William L., was
born Dec. 3, 1841, and died July 14, 1868,
unmarried, and the younger is Evan D., our
subject. After the death of Daniel Thomas,
his widow, in 1849, married Richard
Roberts, also a native of Wales, who came to
America in 1841 or 1842, bought school land in Sugar
Creek township, Putnam county, Ohio, improved a
farm, and died Aug. 8, 1856, leaving with his widow
one child—Anne E., now the wife of R. N.
Jones, a native of Allen county, Ohio, and also
of Welsh descent; this daughter and her husband are
now living on the homestead with her venerable
mother, who has now reached the ripe age of about
eighty years.
Evan D. Thomas, whose name opens this article,
was in the natural course of affairs reared to
farming pursuits and was educated in the common
school of his district. After the death of
both his father and his step-father he and his
brother, William L., assumed charge of the
homestead and together cultivated it in the interest
of all concerned as long as the brother lived, and
then he, alone, managed the place until his own
marriage, which important event took place Oct. 21,
1880.
with Miss Martha H. Jones, a native of Allen
county, Ohio, and a daughter of Daniel D. and
Martha E. Jones, natives of Wales. In
1881, Mr. Thomas built for himself a
house on eighty acres of land adjoining the farm
owned by his mother, which he had purchased in 1863,
and here he at once began housekeeping on his own
account. To this original purchase of eighty
acres Mr. Thomas has continued to add
until his farm now comprises 418 acres, a large part
of which is in a fine state of cultivation, and the
premises as a whole will be found hard to match by
any other farm of like dimensions in the county.
Here, also, the marriage of Mr. Thomas
with Miss Jones has been blessed by
the birth of two children, viz: Daniel W.,
who was born Sept. 12, 1891, and died Mar. 1, 1893,
and Margaret G., born May 25, 1884. The
parents of Mrs. Thomas came to America
in 1840, were married in Cincinnati, Ohio, whence
they came direct to Allen county, where Daniel D.
Jones entered a tract of land which he
cultivated until his death, in 1862. He was a
republican in politics, a Congregationalist in
religion, and reared a family of seven children, all
living, with the exception of one.
In politics Mr. Thomas is a democrat, has
held the office of township trustee and some of the
minor township offices, but has no desire for public
position of any kind. With his wife he is a
member of the Congregational church, and his daily
deportment shows the sincerity of his belief in its
teachings. He has exhibited more than ordinary
financial ability, possesses a quick perception and
an extraordinarily retentive memory. He has
never had a dread of hard labor, and his success in
life has been phenomenal. With a small capital
derived from the parental estate he made his start
in business and has risen to be what may be called
one of the financial kings of his township. He
has money to loan, and always treats his patrons
with the utmost consideration, demanding but a small
interest and allowing them to retain the principal
as long as they will —and it is a remarkable fact,
that those who have the most transactions with him
are those who speak of him in the kindest terms.
Source: A Portrait and Biographical Record of Allen and
Van Wert Counties, Ohio - Part 2 - Publ. Chicago: A.
W. Bowen & Co. - 1896 - Page 536 |
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