The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-01-23
OLD GOV. THOMAS AND H1s QUEER CAREER

Three men of the family name of
Thomas have figured prominently in
the history OF Maryland = Phillip
E., who was the organizer and
first president of the Baltimore end
Ohio Railroad Company; Francis,
who was governor and congressman,
and Philip Francis, who was gov
ernor, secretary of the United States
Treasury, and who was elected to the
United States Senate at the close of
the war, but who was refused his
seat because of his pro- Southern SYM
pathy.
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 a peculiar
career, and the career of no man in
public life in the United States has
its parellel. He withdrew from con-
tact with the world at the zenith Of
his power, remained hidden in his
hermit home in the mountains of Gar
rett, then Allegany county, for many
years and then emerged from his re-
treat into public life again, being
elected to Congress.
The burning of that hermit home
few nights ago recalls the strange
vicissitudes in its former occupants S
career. Here are some of the strik-
ing incidents, events and achieve
ments:
President of the Chesapeake & Ohio
canal in 1889.
Governor of the State from 1S4I to
1874.
Member of the National House of
Representatives for 18 years, or nine
terms, serving FIVE terms as Demo
crat and four terms, during and after
the Civil War. as Republican.
Member ofthe State Constitutional
Convention in 1850.
Collector of internal revenue.
Minister to Peru.
His investigation of the old United
States Bank led to its downfall and
caused President Andrew Jackson to
entertain a high regard for him.
AS member Of Congress he was
instrumental 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 emu
merated to illustrate his varied and
useful career.
But of all the vicissitudes which
mark his career, that which most
shaped his course after he reached
middle life was Thomas quarrel with
his wife (they were never happily
mated, } quarrel which robbed him
of the Democratic nomination for Vice
President, when that honor went to
Dallas in 1874, for the nation would
not tolerate the scandal which the
domestic trouble had caused. There
were even whisperings of the hus-
bands cruelty, of lashings and OF
beatings.
It was domestic tragedy, TRACE
dy which drove Thomas into the soli-
tude of the fastnesses of the Allie
ghenies, where he sought to hide his
face from the gaze of his fellow man.
There in the home just burned he
passed miserable existence for years,
a lone existence which began with a
tragedy and which ended in tragedy,
for while standing on the tracks of
the Baltimore & Ohio railroad during
the early seventies he was struck by
a locomotive and killed.
His life was embittered by the alb
sence of a solace granted to his wife
"a divorce. He was compelled to
live dreary, monotonous life, wife
less and childless.
And then he again came forth from
his mountain home into the full glare
of public life, with his faculties un-
impaired, his eye undimmed, his pa
triotism fully aglow, he confessed the
pitiable tale that he had lost his rea-
son when he quarreled with his wife
that his domestic misery was blank
in his memory, and, alas she had
married again.
It was the Civil War, the call to
arms, the rekindling Of the embers of
his patriotism, that drew Francis
Thomas from his solitude and i'm
PEELED him again to the front, a leader
of men, sculptor Of events in TEN
pestuous times.-Hage, stoam Mail.