FRANK J THOMAS

FRANK J THOMAS

Frank J. Thomas, president of the Thomas Fuel & Ice Company, of Atchison, Kansas, is at the head of an industry which represents the investment of a large sum of money and which is of importance to the city in which it is located. The Thomas Fuel & Ice Company's plant was erected in the fall of 1898, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars, its location being near the railroad tracks in order to secure the best shipping facilities. The building is a brick structure, 90 x 90 feet, with a solid stone foundation, and with a floor capacity of fifty thousand square feet. Its ice-making capacity is twenty tons of ice in twenty-four hours. The water supply is from an artesian well, the water being boiled and filtered before it goes to the freezing tanks, and the ice is clear as crystal, perfectly odorless and free from microbes. The plant throughout is supplied with the latest and best machinery, from twelve to fifteen men are employed and three teams are kept constantly in use. Besides the ice product the company handles a large amount of fuel and they also have a large cold-storage business, handing fruit, meats, butter and eggs and in fact all kinds of produce. The above business was established in October, 1898, having been organized by Frank J. Thomas, T. C. Thomas and Ralph Harris, and the officers of the company are as follows: Frank J. Thomas, president; Ralph Harris, vice-president, and T. C. Thomas, secretary and treasurer.

Frank J. Thomas, the president of the Thomas Fuel & Ice Company, was born in the city of Leavenworth, Kansas. in 1868, and was reared and educated there. He early began a business career and has worked his way steadily upward to the position he now holds in the business world. He was married, in 1896, to Miss Mabel Johnson, a daughter of the Hon. J. B. Johnson, judge of the circuit court of Shawnee county, Kansas, later supreme master in chancery and now the receiver of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.

T. C. Thomas, secretary and treasurer of the company, is a son of Dr. M. S. Thomas, an early settler of Leavenworth, Kansas.

Ralph Harris, vice-president of the company, is a son of John Harris, a prominent citizen and one of the early settlers of Leavenworth Kansas.