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EDGAR THOMAS, president of the First National Bank of Milroy, this county, and for years recognized as one of
the leading business men of that part of the county, has been a resident of Rush county all his life and has ever
had a hearty interest in the development of the commercial and industrial activities of his home community. He
was born on a farm in Anderson township on August 28, 1866, son of William and Ann E. (Wood) Thomas, both of whom
also were born in Rush county, members of old families here, and who spent all their lives here, the latter dying
in May, 1893, and the former in June, 1899. William Thomas was born on a pioneer farm in Anderson township, the
son of Amos Thomas, who had come up into Indiana with his father, a "local'' Methodist minister, from Bourbon
county, Kentucky, about the year 1821, the year in which Rush county was organized as a separate civic unit among
the counties of the Hoosier state, the family settling on a farm of ''Congress land" in Anderson township.
On that pioneer farm Amos Thomas grew to manhood and in time established his home in the same neighborhood, and
in his turn William Thomas also established his home there after his marriage to Ann E. Wood, who was born in Orange
township and whose parents also were of pioneer stock. William Thomas remained on the farm until about 1894, when
he moved into Milroy, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring. as noted above, in 1899. He
and his wife were the parents of four children, those besides the subject of this sketch being Nettie, wife of
John H. Parker; Elgie, of Rushville, and Bertha, wife of Morton E. Richey. Reared on the home farm in Anderson
township, Edgar Thomas supplemented the schooling he received in the local schools by a course in a business college
at Danville, this state, and was then engaged, until he was twenty six years of age, in carrying on the operations
of the home farm. On his father's removal to Milroy he accompanied him and was there engaged in the buggy business
and later for a couple of years in the general hardware business, after which he resumed farming; that is, overseeing
farms in which he was interested, and is still the owner of a fine little farm of forty acres in Anderson township.
From the time he was eighteen years of age Mr. Thomas has made a specialty of acting as clerk at local public farm
sales and there is probably no one in the county who has thus acted at more sales hereabout than he, this service
giving him a wide and popular acquaintance throughout the whole countryside. Mr. Thomas was one of the active spirits
in the organization of the First National Bank of Milroy and was elected president of the same upon its organization,
a position he still retains, his service in that connection having done much in the popularizing of the institution
in the early days of its establishment and in the stabilizing of it since. The bank was opened for business on
August 30, 1920, and has become recognized as one of the sound financial institutions of the county. In 1900 Mr.
Thomas was united in marriage to Zena Miller. daughter of James M. and Melissa Miller, also of this county, and
he and his wife have a very pleasant home at Milroy and are ever helpful in promoting the social activities of
their home community. Mr. Thomas is a Republican and has ever taken an interested part in local political affairs,
but has not been a seeker after office.
From:
Centennian History of Rush County, Indiana
Edited by: A. L. Gary and E. B. Thomas
Historical Publishing Company
Indianapolis 1921
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