The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1871-12-28
OBITUARY.,

DIED-1n Yankton. Dakota Territory.
at O'Clock A. NJ, on Thursday. Dec.
18th, 1871: COLONEL THOMAS A. II.
EDWARDS, aged IS years, 7 months, and
20 days.
The deceased was born inside the fort,
at Fort Wayne, Wayne county, Indiana,
on the 24th day of April, A. D. 1906.
Soon after, his father, who was an
Army Surgeon, removed to Detrois,
Mich, and when the subject of this no.
tice was about six years of age, he to-
gether with his father and family, be-
came prisoners of war, by the surrender
of Detroit by Gen. Hull, to the British,
during the war of 1912. At the age Of
Is, during the administration of Presi-
dent Monroe, he entered the West Point
Military Academy, and within six months
of the expiration of his cadetship was
obliged to abandon the profession he had
chosen, owing 70 a serious optical disease,
which impaired his vision. He then re-
turned to the home of his parents in
Detroit. He was commissioned Colonel
of militia by the Governor of Michigan,
at the age of 25, and took an active part
in the Black Hawk war, during which
he met, for the first time, the late Presi-
dent Lincoln, at Chicago, who also had
joined the volunteer forces then engaged
il quieting The Indian difficulties. The
restoration Of peace, found Col Edwards
again at home in Detroit He was a
nephew of Gen. Lewis Cass, of Miehi-
gan, and during that gentleman's Su-
perintendency of the Indian Affairs in
the Northwest, acted as his Private Sec
rotary.
In the year 1929, Col. Edwards was
married at Edwardsburg, Cass county,
Indiana, a town which he had himself
laid out, and which took its name from
his. Subsequently, he removed to St.
Joseph, and still later to Kalamazoo,
Mich, engaging with good success in
| mercantile pursuits, but eventually met
with severe embarrassment caused by the
insecurity and worthlessness of the State
currency, which came to be known as
wildcat money" Leaving Michigan
in 1914, he moved to Manitowoc, Wis
| consin. Here he became connected to
some extent with political matters, and
held the Office Of Sheriff Of the county
for number of years. During his resi-
dence in Wisconsin, he joined the indie
dependnt Order of Odd Fellows, aud be-
came quite an active and prominent mem
Der Of that worthy order.
He came to Dakota, settling in Yank-
ton, in the fall of 1867, having been pre-
coded to the Territory by his eldest son,
A. L. Edwards, who is among the oldest
residents Of tho territory.
| Col. Edwards had been connected with
the Protestant Episcopal Church for
more than 80 years, and it is a coirci-
dence worth mentioning that the rites
| which celebrated his admission to that
denomination were performed By the
Rev, DIR. Hoyt, who also conducted the
solemn ceremony Of his funeral.
Col. Edwards vas greatly broken in healtf
when he removed to Dakota, and gradu
ally declined under the encroachments OF
a chronic disease. In his prime, he was
a portly man, and possessed Of strong
physical constitution. He had always
led an exemplary life, and was held in
high esteem in those communities where
his lot in life had been cast, possessing IS
he did. the stlietest integrity, and prac
ticing in daily life the virtues which most
adora the Christian character. His piety
was unostentatious and genuine, and dur.
ing his brief residence here, he had won
a host Of friends, who had learned to re-
spect his worth, and confde unreservedly
in his integrity. He leaves behind him
a memory which his family may be proud
to cherish, and bequeaths to all mode
Of life which We can emulate with profit.