SCOTT A THOMAS

This well-known officer of Doniphan county is now serving as the registrar of deeds. He has filled various official positions, in all of which he has been found true to the trust reposed in him and loyal in the execution of the duties devolving upon him. A native of Pennsylvania, he was born in Union county, his parents being Archibald and Elizabeth (Burner) Thomas, who were also natives of the Keystone state. The mother was a daughter of John Burner, and his parents were natives of Germany. The ancestors of the Thomas family came to America from Wales. The subject of this review spent his early boyhood days in his native county, and then accompanied his parents on their removal to Sanduskv county, Ohio, where the father died the following year. For many years he had operated a carding machine. While a resident of Union county he had served for two terms as sheriff, and was twice elected to the office of county treasurer. The year following his death his widow accompanied her son, Scott, to Doniphan county, Kansas, where she died in 1882.

For thirty-one years Scott A. Thomas has been a resident of this county. He acquired his education in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and in Belleville, Ohio. He came to Kansas with his brother-in-law, Wiliam A. McGee, with whom he made his home until tlie death of Mr. McGee, since which time he has continued to live with his sister, Mrs. McGee, in Illinois.

During the civil war Mr. Thomas enlisted, in 1864, as a member of Company B, One Hundred and Sixty-seventh Ohio Infantry, and served for six months, doing garrison duty, at the end of which time he was mustered out with his regiment. After coming to Doniphan county he devoted his energies to farming for two years, and since that time has, by public ballot, been continued in office. He has served as constable, as marshal and as justice of the peace. In the fall of 1889 he was elected the registrar of deeds of Doniphan county, and completed his second term in that office January 12, 1900. He has been most faithful to his duties, and has won the commendation of all concerned. In politics he is a Republican and is accounted an ardent advocate of the party which stood by the Union in the dark days of the civil war and which upheld the administration during the Spanish-American war. He owns a good farm of eighty acres in Iowa township, the land being under a high state of cultivation, and this contributes materially to his income. During his long residence in the county he has become widely known, and those with whom he is closely associated entertain for him their high regard, a fact which indicates that his qualities are such as to command respect.