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Below is a family biography included in The History of Greene County, Illinois published by Donnelley, Gassette & Loyd in 1879.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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THOMAS, A. PROF. insurance agent, liberal lecturer and public reader, was born in Mead Co., Kentucky, on the 6th of April, 1826; the second child of Benjamin and Hepsibah Thomas. At the age of two years his parents emigrated from Kentucky and settled at the Saline Salt Works, Gallatin Co., Illinois; it was here our subject passed his boyhood upon a farm, where it was frequently his lot to plow all day with a yoke of unruly steers. During the winter season he acquired a liberal education in the common rough, round log cabin school house. When war was declared between the U. S. Government and Mexico, Mr. Thomas, then in the flush of early manhood, enlisted in the 14th U. S. Infantry Regt. at Shawneetown, Gallatin Co., Ill., under the command of Col. Truesdell. On reaching the scene of carnage he afterwards became a participant in those battles so famous in history as Cherubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chepultepec. When the war closed he returned to Illinois and settled in Brown County, afterwards proceeding to Pike County, he became a teacher of district schools; locating in Scott County during the Spring of 1849. On the fifth of October, 1851, he was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Anderson, a daughter of Andrew Anderson, of Delaware. March, 1856, Mr. Thomas became a resident of Greene County, locating at the village of Wilmington, where he was destined to play a prominent part in its growth and development, and for the long period of time in which he has lived here he has proved himself a wide-awake business man, and has gained considerable local celebrity as a public reader and lecturer. The marriage of Mr. Thomas to Miss Anderson was blessed with five children, two of whom are living, whose names in order of birth are: George and Charles; children not living: Eugene, Josephine, and Julia.

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This family biography is one of 744 biographies included in The History of Greene County, Illinois published in 1879.  View the complete description here: The History of Greene County, Illinois

View additional Greene County, Illinois family biographies here: Greene County, Illinois Biographies

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