in the study of Sanscrit. Persian, and other oriental languages, and in 1858 he passed four months in Egypt in the study of Arabic. He has contributed to journals, and is the author of the system of pronouncing geographical names in "Baldwin's Pronouncing Gazetteer " (Philadelphia, 1845); the geographical and biographical vocabularies in several editions of Webster's Dictionary; and "Travels in Egypt and Palestine " (Philadelphia, 1853). With Thomas Baldwin he edited " A New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States" (1854) and "Lippineott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World " (1855), and he edited alone a "Comprehensive Medical Dictionary " (1864) and a " Universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology " (2 vols., 1870-'l).
THOMAS, David, manufacturer, b. near Neath,
Glamorganshire, Wales, 3 Nov., 1794 : d. in Cata-
sauqua, Lehigh co., Pa., 20 June, 1882. He was
employed in the business of manufacturing iron
after 1812, and in 1839 came to this country and
built the first of the furnaces of the Lehigh Crane
iron company. He remained with this company
till 1854, when, with his sons and others, he or-
ganized the Thomas iron company, and built two
blast-furnaces at Hokendauqua. They were at
the time the largest and most productive anthra-
cite blast-furnaces in the country. Afterward
other furnaces were built by the company, and
successfully operated. He was one of the proprie-
tors of the Catasauqua manufacturing company
which was organized to roll plate- and bar-iron,
for many years served as its president, and was
an owner of the Lehigh fire-brick works at Cata-
sauqua. Mr. Thomas was the first in this country
to make the manufacture of anthracite pig-iron
commercially successful, and was the first person
in the world fully to realize the value of powerful
blowing engines in the working of blast-furnaces.
He supported the cause of the Union during the
civil war. In 1866 he was an unsuccessful Repub-
lican candidate for congress.
THOMAS, Edith Matilda, author, b. in Chat-
ham, Medina co., Ohio, 12 Aug., 1854. She was
educated at Geneva (Ohio) normal institute, has
contributed largely to periodicals, and has pub-
lished in book-form " A New Year's Masque, and
other Poems" (Boston, 1885); "The Round Year"
(1886) ; and " Lyrics and Sonnets" (1887).
THOMAS, Edward Harper, clergyman, b. in
Philadelphia, Pa., 11 April, 1811 ; d. in Lancaster,
Pa., 18 Sept., 1869. He was apprenticed at the age
of nine years, but succeeded by self-application un-
der great difficulties in his early life in securing a
good education. In 1830, having become a mem-
ber of the Church of God, a religious denomina-
tion organized by Rev. John Winebrenner, he
was ordained to the work of the ministry, and for
more than twenty years served as an itinerant.
In 1854 he took editorial charge of the " Church
Advocate," the official paper of his church, and
removed to Lancaster, Pa., where he resided until
his death. — His son, Robert Harper, journal-
ist, b. in Philadelphia, 28 Jan., 1834, received a
good English education, served as aide with the
rank of colonel on the staff of Gov. Andrew G.
Curtin, and was commissioner of internal revenue
from 1862 till 1866. In 1870 he purchased the
." Valley Democrat," of Mechanicsburg, changing
the name to the " Independent Journal," and sub-
sequently to the "Farmer's Friend and Grange
Advocate." He was commissioner from Pennsyl-
vania to the World's industrial and cotton centen-
nial exhibition at New Orleans in 1884-'5, and also
to the American exposition at London in 1887.
THOMAS, Elisha Smith, P. E. Bishop, b. in
Wickham, Mass., 2 March, 1834. He was gradu-
ated at Yale in 1858, and at Berkeley divinity-
school, Middletown, Conn., in 1861, was ordered
deacon in June, 1861, and priest soon afterward.
He was at once put in charge of St. Paul's church,
New Haven, where he remained three years. In
1864 he was elected rector of Seabury Hall, Fari-
bault, Minn., and professor of Old and New Tes-
tament exegesis there. On the resignation and
removal of Dr. James L. Breck, he succeeded him
in the secretaryship of the Seabury mission. He
spent the year 1869 abroad, studying the Se-
mitic languages and attending lectures on New
Testament exegesis. On his return he was elected
rector of St. Mark's church, Minneapolis, Minn.,
where he remained five years. On 1 July, 1876, h~
became rector of St. Paul's church, St. Paul, Minn.
He was deputy from the diocese to three succes-
sive general conventions, and also a member, and
for several years president, of the diocesan stand-
ing committee, trustee of the Bishop Seabury
mission, and of St Mary's Hall and the Breck
mission and farm. He was instrumental in found-
ing two missions in connection with his own parish,
and built mission churches at Warsaw and Morris-
town. He was consecrated assistant bishop of
Kansas, in St. Paul's church. St. Paul, Minn., 4
May, 1887, and received the degree of D. D. from
Yale the same year.
THOMAS, Francis, governor of Maryland, b.
in Frederick county, Md., 3 Feb., 1799 ; d. near
Frankville, Md., 22 Jan., 1876. He was graduated
at St. John's college, Annapolis, studied law, was
admitted to the bar in 1820, and began practice in
Frankville. He was a member of the state house
of representatives in 1822, 1827, and 1829, being
speaker the last year, was elected to five consecu-
tive congresses, serving from 5 Dec, 1831, till 3
March, 1841, was president of the Chesapeake and
Ohio canal company in 1839-'40, and governor
of Maryland in 1841-'4. During his canvass for
the governorship he fought a duel with William
Price. He was a member of the State constitutional
convention in 1850, and was instrumental in hav-
ing a measure adopted that weakened the power of
the slave-holding counties. He was again in eon-
fress from 1861 till 1869. During the civil war
[r. Thomas supported the Union cause, raised a
volunteer brigade of 3,000 men, but he refused a
command. He was a delegate to the Loyalist con-
vention of 1866, and subsequently opposed Presi-
dent Johnson. He was appointed collector of in-
ternal revenue for the Cumberland district, and
served from April, 1870, till he was appointed min-
ister to Peru, 25 March, 1872. He held this post
till 9 July, 1875, and afterward retired to his farm
near Frankland, where he was killed by a locomo-
tive while walking on the railroad-track.
THOMAS, Gabriel, author, lived in the 17th
century. He was a member of the Society of
Friends, and resided in Pennsylvania and western
New Jersey from 1682 till 1697. He wrote "An
Historical and Geographical Account of the Prov-
ince and County of Pennsylvania and of West New
Jersey" (London, 1698). A lithographed fac-simile
of the book was printed privately by James Austin
Brady (New York, 1848).
THOMAS, Sir George, bart., royal governor of Pennsylvania, b. in England about 1705; d. in London, England, 11 Jan., 1775. He was a wealthy planter of Antigua and a member of the council of that island, and in 1737 was appointed governor of Pennsylvania. He was detained in England in defending the proprietary rights against the claims
