Samuel Thomas
SAMUEL THOMAS the son of David and Elizabeth Thomas, was born March 13,1827, in Yniscedwyn, Brecknockshire, South Wales, and on attaining his thirteenth year emigrated with his parents to America. He had in his native country acquired the rudiments of an English education, and on reaching Pennsylvania became a pupil at Nazareth Hall in Northampton County, where two and a half years were spent in study. On returning home he determined to follow the vocation of his father, and entering the blacksmith- and machine-shops of the Crane Iron Works, spent four years in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the business. This practical experience subsequently proved of inestimable value in the superintendence of the important industries now under his control. At the age of nineteen Mr. Thomas took an active part in the management of the Crane Iron Works and the development of the mining interests of the company. In 1848 he repaired to Morris County, N. J., where he was for nine months engaged in the erection of a furnace for the Boonton Iron Company. This he put in blast and successfully started, after which his connection with the Crane Iron Works was resumed. Much of the burden and responsibility of the business was thrown upon Mr. Thomas. He participated actively in the erection of two new furnaces, and assisted largely in the development of the extensive mining property of the company. On the 1st of March, 1854, the Thomas Iron Company was organized and two furnaces erected under his immediate superintendence at Hokendauqua, of which he became general superintendent. This position was filled with signal ability for a period often years, when he was elected to his present office of president of the company. Mr. Thomas has been associated with the Thomas Iron Company, either as superintendent or president, tor thirty years, during which time its varied properties have been largely developed, its products have from their superior quality found a ready market, and the business of the company established upon a firm basis.
He has been greatly interested in all schemes for the improvement of Catasauqua and Hokendauqua and the permanent welfare of their citizens. Measures for the conduct of the war met his hearty cooperation, and the memory of brave soldiers from Catasauqua and vicinity who fell in the conflict was perpetuated by an imposing monument made from designs approved by Mr. Thomas, a considerable portion of the expense having been borne by him. Educated in the principles of the Whig party, he later became a Republican, though both his tastes and the arduous demands of business have prompted him to decline all offers of political preferment. He is an elder and actively identified with the interests of the Presbyterian Church of Hokendauqua, and has assited in the erection of several church edifices within the limits of the county.
Mr. Thomas was married, in March 1848, to Miss Rebecca, daughter of Jacob Mickley, of South Whitehall, Lehigh Co. Their children are Gertrude (Mrs. Dr. Joseph C. Guernsey, of Philadelphia) and Edwin.
(Bio from Matthews, Alfred and Austin N.
Hungerford, History of
the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
Everts & Richards (Lippincott), Philadelphia 1884, p. 242)
Samuel Thomas, Eldest
Son of David Thomas
Source:
Historic Catasauqua Preservation Association,
News Letter, Spring 2015
David
Thomas's oldest son followed very closely in his father's footsteps. Samuel, at
the age of 13, was with his lather when they came to Catasauqua for the first
time to check out the site: they lunched with the Deily's who then lived in the
George Taylor house. Samuel studied at nearby Nazareth Hall for 3 years before
entering the shops of the Crane Iron Works to learn the business. At 19 he was
actively involved in management of the iron works and developing its mining
interests.
When
21, he went to Boonton, N. J. to construct a blast furnace on the Morris canal
at the Old Boonton iron works. When the Thomas Iron Co was organized in 1854,
Samuel Thomas became general superintendent and, 10 years later, president. He
resigned in 1887, at which time his brother John, married to Hopkin Thomas's
daughter Helen, took over. Samuel, and later John, lived in the stately home
which still stands in Hokendauqua opposite the Thomas Iron Co ruins. After the
Civil War, in 1886, Samuel and his son Edwin started construction of a blast
furnace in Jefferson county, Alabama four miles west of Birmingham, at a place
afterwards named Thomas. The furnace started up in May. 1888, and a 2nd furnace
was completed in the early pan of 1890. These furnaces continued in successful
operation under his guidance until 1899, when the properly sold. Samuel then
retired from active participation in business affairs.
An
obituary of Samuel Thomas published in Steel and Iron, Vol 78 in 1906 relates a
story of Thomas being a passenger on the Great Eastern out of London in Sept.
1861 when a storm left the ship stranded without a rudder and paddle wheels. A
committee of passengers engineered a fix that allowed the ship to reach
Ireland. The obituary gave Thomas credit for the save, though history
attributes the fix to American engineer, Hamilton E. Towle.
Samuel
Thomas was involved in the Presbyterian church of Hokcndauqua, serving as
trustee for a number of years. While constructing the Thomas Iron Co.'s
Lockridge Furnace, he met and married (1848) Rebecca Mickley, a daughter of
Jacob Mickley. They had four children. Rebecca's brother became the first
superintendent of the plant. Rebecca died in 1891, and Samuel married again in
1894 to Julia M. Beerstecher, a native of Switzerland.
Edwin
Thomas, son of Samuel and Rebecca Thomas, succeeded Samuel in the family
enterprises in addition to serving as Director of various local businesses, he
was married to Ellen (Ella) Dale Boyd, daughter of Alexander Reed & Mary
Boyd, who lived in Coplay, but also owned what we know as the Almazon house on
the corner of Bridge & Crane Streets from 1869-91. Edwin & Ella moved
into the Thomas residence on the corner of Pine and Second in 1900. They added
the stone exterior to what was previously a clapboard house.
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See also: Thomas, Samuel, Reminiscences of the Early Anthracite-Iron Industry, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. XXIX, 1900.
About the Hopkin Thomas Project
June 2014