BIO:  William F. THOMAS, Straban Township, Adams County, PA

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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Page 512

WILLIAM F. THOMAS, farmer and stock grower, P. O. Gettysburg, was born near East 
Berlin, Adams Co., Penn., September 17, 1834, son of Isaac C. Thomas, who was 
born April 10, 1807, and Anne Riffle, who was born February 29, 1809.  Isaac C. 
Thomas had, by his first wife, six children:  Sarah A., born September 23, 1829; 
Mary Jane, born September 23, 1830; William F.; Isaac R., born January 28, 1836; 
Joseph, born May 19, 1838; Catharine, born August 14, 1840.  By his second wife, 
Sally Riffle, who was a sister of his first, there was but one child-Lydia Ann-
born February 9, 1842, married to Adam Bupp, now with her mother near East 
Berlin.  Isaac C. Thomas was a Whig in politics, a member of the Catholic 
Church.  He died March 11, 1856.  William F. Thomas, in his early day, learned 
the mason trade, and went to Fulton and Schuyler Counties, Ill., in 1853, and 
worked at the mason trade one year.  In 1854 he went on the Ohio and Mississippi 
Rivers as second engineer one year, and had to leave the boat on account of 
illness of his father, who died March 11, 1856, and since that time Mr. Thomas 
has remained in Adams County.  In 1859 he married Susanna Yoe, who bore him 
fourteen children, all of whom are living at home:  Joseph I., born August 10, 
1860; Mary A., born August 15, 1861; William F. Thomas, Jr., born October 17, 
1862; Henry Edwin, born December 17, 1863; Jacob L., born February 1, 1865; 
George A., born March 11, 1867; Lydia Jane, born August 1, 1868; Sara Catharine, 
born June 24, 1870; Susanna Ellis, born January 25, 1872; James Adam, born March 
4, 1873; Amanda Ella, born December 25, 1874; John Andrew, born January 1, 1877; 
Eliza Anna, born July 2, 1878; Theodore Pius, born December 17, 1879.  The 
family are all members of the Catholic Church.  In politics Mr. Thomas is a 
Democrat.  He was elected director of the poor in 1884, and has now served three 
years.  Since residing permanently in Adams County he has followed agricultural 
pursuits successfully, and is the owner of some very fine stock, making a 
specialty of Hereford cattle.