Statewide County WI Archives Biographies.....THOMAS, JOHN W. 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Tina Vickery tsvickery@adelphia.net March 17, 2007, 2:55 pm

Author: Published Under the Direction of Halford Erickson, Commissioner of Labor and Industrial Statistics, 1903.

STATE OFFICERS.

RAILROAD COMMISSIONER.

JOHN W. THOMAS (Rep.), of Chippewa Falls, was born in Wales,
March 31, 1846, coming to this country with his parents in
1849. His first residence was in Tioga county, Pennsylvania.
He received a common school education. He was left an orphan
at the age of seven, and he came to Wisconsin, in 1857 with
a family of friends with, whom he settled in the town of
Anson. He is a farmer and dairyman by occupation, and
received first premium on wheat and dairy butter at the
world's fair. He enlisted in February, 1864, in the Thirty-
Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers, serving to the end of the war.
He participated in the brilliant service of his regiment in
Grant's campaign of 1864, before Richmond and Petersburg. He
was town clerk seven years, secretary of the school board
for three years, and served four years' as town treasurer,
two years as supervisor and ten years as town chairman. He
was chairman of the county board for two years, was elected
county treasurer in 1884, and was defeated for reelection in
1886 by a small majority, receiving over five hundred votes
more than Governor Rusk in the county. He was president of
the Chippewa county Agricultural Society in 1883, and has
served eight years as secretary. He was treasurer of the
Eagle Point Insurance company two years and director for 21,
which position he now holds. He has become by his long
service and intimate connection with local affairs, an
expert in town and county matters'. In 1897 he was appointed
by the governor a member of the State Board of Agriculture,
and reappointed in 1899 for three years. He was elected to
the assembly in 1894, re-elected in 1896 and in 1898 and
again in 1900 for a fourth consecutive term. During his
service in the assembly he was a member of the committee on
Railroads, serving as chairman the last two terms and was
the author of several laws to regulate railroads. He was
elected railroad commissioner in 1902, receiving 189,905
votes against 138,119 for W. A. Redner (Dem.), 9,428 for
John W. Evans (Pro.). 17,197 for Oscar L. Dowry (Soc. Dem.),
and 866 for August Simons (Soc. Lab.).

Additional Comments:
The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin. Compiled and
Published Under the Direction of Halford Erickson,
Commissioner of Labor and Industrial Statistics, 1903. 1069
- 1117.

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