Biographical Sketch of William A. Thoms, Greene County, Missouri,
North Springfield

>From "History of Greene County, Missouri," St. Louis: Western
Historical Company, 1883.

**********************************************************************

Few men of the day have been more uniformly successful, or had their
business qualifications more generally acknowledged than Mr. William
A. Thoms.  He is a native of Ypsilanti, Michigan, born December 28th,
1848.  At the age of nineteen, he began learning telegraphy, in the
office of the Michigan Central railroad, in his native town, in which
he spent one year.  He then engaged in farming, but only continued 
about a year and a half, when he concluded that the theory of farming
was good, but to make it a success required a great deal of hard labor
and that it was too slow a business for an ambitious young man.  Going
to Indianapolis, he accepted a position as operator in the office of
the C.C.C. and I. railroad, and from then until 1872 was constantly
employed in Indiana and Illinois, part of the time as train dispatcher.
In February, 1872, he came to North Springfield and accepted the posi-
tion of train dispatcher on the St. Louis and San Francisco railroad, 
and five years later was appointed station agent.  On the 11th of Nov-
ember, 1879, he was promoted to the position of superintendent of the
Kansas division, holding this until 1881, when he was transferred to
the Missouri and Arkansas divisions, which he has charge of at this
writing.  On November 6th, 1877, Mr. Thoms was married to Miss Ella
Evans, of Springfield.  He is a member of St. John's Commandery No. 20,
Knights Templar, and also of the A.O.U.W.  Still young, in perfect
health and the vigor of manhood, having a large and varied experience
in railroading, his future promises to be as useful as his past has
been active and successful.

====================================================================
     USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing
         free information on the Internet, data may be used by
         non-commercial entities, as long as this message
         remains on all copied material. These electronic
         pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit
         or for presentation by other persons or organizations.

         Persons or organizations desiring to use this material
         for purposes other than stated above must obtain the
         written consent of the file contributor.

         This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
         Archives by: Joe Miller <mio@netins.net>
		      Penny Harrell <Incog3678@aol.com>

====================================================================