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Author: Dawn_Maddox_Montgomery
Surnames: Thomas, Cole, Grames, Curtner, Steele, Schmuch, DeLong, Kunkel, Masterson
Classification: biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.indiana.counties...
Message Board Post:
Standard History of Adams and Wells Counties, Indiana
John W Tyndall for Adams County
O E Lesh for Wells County
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York, 1918
Page 556 - 557
Ralph C Thomas
Ralph C Thomas, a soldier of the Spanish-American war, is superintendent of the Elm Grove
Cemetery, of Bluffton. The cemetery association was incorporated in 1902, and in 1905 Mr
Thomas entered upon his duties as superintendent. It is largely due to his good
management and efficient care that this has become one of the finest burial places of the
dead in the entire county.
Mr Thomas was born at Bluffton in Harrison Township of Wells County, July 4, 1879, a son
of William E And Jennie (Cole) Thomas. His father was born in Wayne County, Ohio in 1853,
and the mother was born July 12, 1855. William E Thomas accompanied his parents to Wells
County, Indiana about 1856. His father Eli Thomas located on a farm three-quarter of a
mile southeast of Murray and was a well known citizen in that community for many years,
being prominent in the democratic party and served as trustee of Lancaster Township.
William E Thomas grew up on the old home farm and in early life he taught school in Wells
County. After his marriage he located at Travisville and conducted a general store for
three years. In 1877 he moved to Bluffton and established the Star Bakery, an institution
still enjoying a flourishing existence and still conducted under the old name. He
continued giving his personal attention to this business until his death in 1884. William
E Thomas was a!
man of quiet and unassuming disposition, sought none of the conspicuous honors of
politics or of public life, but had the faculty of binding to himself scores of close and
intimate friends. His only fraternity was the Knights of Honor of which he was a charter
member. He and his wife had five children; Maude, deceased, who married J S Grames; Ralph
C; Effie, wife of H R Curtner of Marion, Indiana' Gertrude, wife of Harry Steele of
Seattle, Washington' and Cora, wife of Alfred Schmuch of Kendallville, Indiana.
Ralph C Thomas was over five years of age when his father died, and he and his oldest
sister Maude were then taken into the family of George DeLong of Lancaster Township. Mr
DeLong was a real father to him and Mr Thomas, who is a man who never forgets a kindness,
has always shown the greatest of gratitude to the memory of this good old Wells County
citizen. Mr DeLong was born in Ohio and came to Wells County as a pioneer in 1842,
settling northeast of Bluffton where he entered 160 acres of land. He was an old soldier,
having enlisted in company A Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry with Captain Swain, and was
with his regiment through most of its service. At the battle of Champion Hill during the
Vicksburg campaign he was wounded. Mr DeLong was an active republican and passed away
November 7, 1899.
Ralph C Thomas acquired his principal early education in the old Toll Gate School. He
learned the lessons of loyalty from the lips of his adopted father, and at the outbreak of
the Spanish-American war enlisted in Company E, 160th Indiana infantry. He was in service
one year, and the regiment was part of the expeditionary forces to the island of Cuba,
where it remained three months. After the war Mr Thomas returned to farm life, and in the
fall of 1899 married Miss Ethel L Masterson, daughter of Henry and Rebecca (Kunkle)
Masterson. Mr and Mrs Thomas have six children; Howard E, Dorothy, Mary and Martha,
twins, Catherine and Ruth. Howard was graduated from the high school of Bluffton with the
class of 1917. Mr Thomas is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church while his wife
belongs to the Christian denomination. He has filled all the offices except that of
worshipful master in Bluffton Lodge No 145, Ancient Free and accepted Masons. He has been
active in county po!
litics as a republican even before he was twenty-one years of age, and has done much to
keep up and maintain the party organization.
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