Marin-Sonoma County CA Archives Biographies.....Ables, Thomas J. 1835 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 6, 2007, 4:24 pm

Author: Alley, Bowen & Co. Publishers (1880)

  Thomas J. Ables, Whose portrait appears in the body of this history, was born
in Guernsey county, Ohio, January 28, 1835, where he was educated in the common
schools of that State. He commenced teaching a school when only seventeen years
of age, and remained in Ohio until 1857, in which year he started across the
plains for California, in company with two uncles and his brother Benjamin
Ables. After leaving Ohio, Mr. Ables went to Booneville, in Missouri, where the
necessary preparations were made for the trip to the Golden State. Here he made
a contract to drive loose cattle, receiving in payment for this labor his board,
as his funds were insufficient to enable him to succeed in any other way, having
but forty dollars when leaving his native State. He left Booneville on May 8,
1857, and reached Bloomfield, Sonoma county, October 10th of that year. Here he
again resumed the business of teaching in the then Union District, Green valley,
where he remained for fifteen months, after which he taught for one term of four
months in the Iowa District. In the Fall of 1858 he and his brother bought two
hundred acres of land in Tomales township, which they occupied about the
beginning of 1859. Benjamin Ables carried on the farm, and the subject of this
sketch still continued the profession of teaching. In the year 1860 he was
nominated by the Republican party as Superintendent of Schools for Marin county,
to which office he was elected by a majority of twenty-five, he being the only
successful candidate on the ticket. The schools of the county, up to th