Statewide County WI Archives Biographies.....THOMAS, JOHN W.
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Tina S. Vickery tsvickery@gmail.com October 21, 2007, 7:42 pm

Author: Halford Erickson

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. MEMBERS OF THE FIFTY-EIGHTH
CONGRESS. UNITED STATES. STATE OFFICERS.


RAILROAD   COMMISSIONER.

JOHN W. THOMAS (Rep.), of Chippewa Falls, was born in
Wales, March 31st 1846, coming to this country with his
parents in 1849.   His first residence was Tioga county,
Pennsylvania.    He received a common school education.
Ha 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-six Wisconsin Volunteers,
serving to the end of the war. He participated in the
brilliant service of his regiment in Grants 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
an 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, and re-elected in 1904, receiving
248,499 votes against 148,887 for Ed. L. Lanton (Dem.),
27,509 for Harry E. Briggs (Soc. Dem.), 11,285 for Fred O.
Tarbox (Nat. Rep.), 9,581 for David Wood (Pro.), and 266
for Carl Gross (Soc. Lab.).

Additional Comments:
Erickson, Halford.  The Blue Book of the State of
Wisconsin. Madison: Democrat Printing Co., State Printer,
1905.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/history/bluebook/1905/bios/thomas350nbs.txt

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