The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1904-03-04
OLD GOV. THOMAS AND HIS
QUEER CAREER.

Three men of the family name of
Thomas have fgued prominently in
the history of Maryland-Philip E.,
who was the organizer and first pres
ident of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road Company. Francis, who was gov
ernor and congressman, and Philip
Francis who was governor, secretary
of the United States Treasury, and who
was elected to the United States Sen.
ate at the close of the war, but who
was refused his seat because of his
pro Southern sympathy.
Of this trio of Thomases, none of
whom was related to the other, Fran
els Thomas was in his day the most
noted, not only because of his achieve.
ments, but also because of his strange
characteristics. His was peculiar
career, and the career of no man in
public life in the United States has its
parallel. He withdrew from contact
with the world at the zenith of his
power, remained hidden in his hermit
home in the mountains Of Garrett, then
Allegany county, for many years and
then emerged from his retreat into
public life again being elected to Con-
gress.
The burning of that hermit home
few nights ago recalls the strange vi
cissitudes in its former occupants Ca
reer. Here are some of the striking
incidents, events and achievments.
President of the Chesapeake & Ohio
canal in 1874.
Governor of the State from 1841 to
1914.
Member of the National House OF
Representatives for lS years, or nine
terms, serving five terms as a Demo
crat and four terms, during and after
the Civil War, as Republican.
Member of the State Constitutional
Convention in 1850.
Collector of internal revenue.
Minister to Peru.
His investigation of the old United
States Bank led to it's downfall and
caused President Andrew Jackson to
entertain high regard for him.
As member of Congress he was
instr umental in having the United
States Naval Academy located in An
napolis.
These events are not named in
chronological order nor in the order of
their Importance. They are enumer-
ated to illustrate his varied and USE
ful career.
But of all the vicissitudes which
mark his career, that which most shap-
ed his course after he reached middle
life was Thomas quarrel with his wife
(they were never happily mated q
quarrel which robbed him of the Dem
ocratic nomination for Vice President,
when that honor went to Dallas in
1874, for the nation would not tolerate
the scandal which the domestic trou-
BILE had caused. There were even
whisperings of the husbands cruelty,
of lashings and of beatlngs.
1t was domestic tragedy, a TRACE.
dy which drove Thomas into the soil
tude of the Businesses of the ALE
ghenies, where he sought to hide his
face from the gaze of his fellow-men.
There in the home just burned he
passed miserable existence for years,
a lone existence which began with
tragedy and which ended in tragedy,
for while standing on the tracks of the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad during
the early seventies he was struck bya
locomotive and killed.
His life was embittered by the alb
sence of solace granted to his wife
"a divorce. He was compelled to
live dreary, monotonous life, wifeless
and childless.
And then he again came forth from
his mountain home into the full glare
OF public life, with his faculties unim-
paired, his eye undimmed, his patri-
otism fully aglow, he confessed the pit
liable tale that he had lost his reason
when he quarrelled with his wife; that
his domestic misery was blank in his
memory, and, alas! she had married
again.
1t was the Civil War, the call Of
arms, the rekindling Of the embers of
his patriotism, that drew Francis
Thomas from his solitude and impelled
him again to the front, a leader of men,
sculptor of events in tempestuous
times-Hogerstown MuA.
"Sal, will you dance this dance with
me?"
"No, Bill, done promised jim"