Omaha .Sunday Bee
A Pspor for tho Horn
THE OMAHA DEE
Best i". West
$ART III.
HALF-TOHE SECTION
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SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
VOL. XXXVII NO. 18.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 20, 1907.
The
DEXTER LADD THOMAS WHO HAS GROWN UP WITH OMAHA
Hoosier Boy Who Went to School with Garfield, Toted a Musket to the Sea With Sherman and Built a Home and Raised a Family in Omaha
W
HEN the states of the anion and the countries of the
earth met together to determine what they should
contribute collectively and severally to the upbuilding
of the new commonwealth of Nebraska, Indiana oc
cupied a front seat That state proved Itself one of
the most liberal as well as one of the wealthiest states In manhood.
The Hoosler state sent many strong citizens to help build up Ne
braska and among them was Dexter L. Thomas.
He had lived a full life before he Joined the tide of emigration
and pursued the course of empire westward to the sunset slde.of
the mighty Missouri river. He came of a family of pioneers which
had taken root on the stony hills of Vermont before the revolutionary
days. As New England filled up the Thomases moved westward
Into the wilderness, first to New" York, then to Ohio and then on to
Indiana. The father of Dexter L. Thomas kept a store In the little
town of Newvllle, Ind., at the time of his son's birth, October 11,
1841. The father was also a man of high ideals in education and
religion. He led a movement for the establishment of a higher in
stitution of learning there in the little frontier town, and he built
the Newvllle academy.
In this town young Thomas spent his boyhood and early youth.
When he attained the age of 11 years he had reached the limit of
education afforded by the village schools, and his father sent him
to Hiram college, "Garfield's school," at Hiram, O. It wasn't a
great dlstan.je from Newvllle to Hiram but it was round-about and
the Journey took several days. His elder brother accompanied him,
and here Is the way they went: To Hicksvllle over a muddy road:
thence by a eorduroy pike to the Mauniee river, over which they went
by ferry; then they walked two miles to Antwerp, where they aban
. doned themselves to the luxury of a packet on the Wabash & Erla
'canal. This packet waa a marvel of speed, being drawn by three
mules which went at a trot along the towpath. Atf the end of two
days the travelers arrived in Toledo, whey they took a boat for
Cleveland, whence they engaged passage in a wagon and drove the
lat thirty-five miles to Hiram. Now, if the reader ever wants to
jurney from Newvllle to Hiram he will know the route, though, of
vurse, today it is much quicker to go by rail.
Schoolmate of Garfield
, The school at Hiram gained Its neatest fame, not from tht
'v standard of its scholastic course, which was good enough, but from
the fact that James A. Garfield attended school there and later was
principal of the institution. During Dexter L. Thomas' first years
at Hiram, Garfield was a student. "A ulet sort of boy, very gentle
fpoken," he recalls him. The future president of the United States
was "working his way," ringing the bell and performing other serv
ices and occupying a room in the basement of the building.
Wien young Thomas' came back' to Hiram in 185. after having
completed the course in the new academy at Newvllle, Garfield had
risen to be principal of the school. ,
"He was a large man with thick bushy hair and a very fine com
plexion," says Mr. Thomas. He was very quiet spoken but a strict
disciplinarian. I remember one time when some of the boys had
ben out on an escapade which was decidedly to their own discredit
and to the discredit of the school. Garfield read their nasves before
the school and then solemnly and sternly announced" that they wera
expelled."
It waa while Garfield was principal of this school that he was.
elected to the state senate. On that occasion the students at Hiram
bad a Jollification. Young Thomas was always among the foremost
nVin uch affairs, and en this occasion he handled the "anvil guns" with
such enthusiasm that he almost cut shor't his earthly career then
and there. The anvil gun consists of two anvils, one Inverted and the
other set on top of it, so that the bottoms are together. There is
-a cup-like hole In the bottom of aa aovU. This was filled with
powder, the other anvil set on top ( it and the powder touched off.
The result was always a deafening explosion. On this occaslou, how
ever, the powder exploded the Instant the upper anvil had been set
on the lower one. The heavy Iron waa thrown upward and it was a
very miracle that the young raaa escape. Thereupon at the request
of the senator-elect farther demonstratlea was omitted.
During the war young Thomas met Garfield on several occasions,
and always found him one of the pleasanteet of men. He had been
a Caropbelllte preacher and a man of profound religious convictions
and deep theology prior to entering the army; In fact, his manners
and tastes gave bo promise In his youth that he would ever become
a soldier or a statesman.
Bound to Go to War
Young Thomas chafed under the restraint of his years during
the first meaths of the civil war. In August, 1862, though he still
lacked two month of his majority be enlisted as a private in the
Eighty-eighth Indiana regissent at Fort Wayne. The regiment was
hurried to the south aad hurled Into the theater of action with
out any delay, and en October 8, Just three days before his twenty
Irst birthday, he went lato his first battle at Perryvllle, Ky., where
the anioa toroea engaged Bragg's whole command.
Throughout the remalader of the great rebellion Mr. Thomas was
in the thick of the fight, and the fact that he quickly rose from the
ranks to a lieutenancy aad then, became captain is indicative of the
manner in which he bora himself under fire. He is proud of the
fact that during three years' service In the thick of the fight he was
never wounded was not sick a day, and never missed a "trick" of
duty. His success in escaping wounds was little short of marvelous.
He seemed to bear a charmed Ufa like Achilles. And if his mother,
like the mether of the ancient Grecian warrior, had dipped him
wbea a child la the river Btyx U make him invulnerable, she had
mere foresight then the Greoiaa dame, and Immersed even his heel
In the magic stream. ..
Theugh he waa never injured, he had seme very narrow escapes
from wounds and death. One evening, at the battle of Stone River,
which began December 31, 1IO. aad lasted four days, a Tennessee
The revenue
DEXTER LADD THOMAS.
i
we were through with it, all marks of a railroad had disappeared, of cheering crowds and past the reviewing stand where the president
The 'remains' didat even 'look natural.' sat surrounded by the great generals who had commanded the brave
"We campedvc)oee to Atlanta, and one day I had occasion to go men throughout the war, marched 250,000 of the country's surviving
into the city. When I left to return to camp the flames had already heroes. He was one of the battlo scarred veterans that were sent
started the devastation, which was not completed until the city was
a mass of smouldering ruins."
His regiment went with Sherman te the sea, burning and laying
waste the country through which they passed. One of their greatest
troubles on this trip waa to keep the darkles from following them,
and at each stream a guard had to be left behind while the bridge
waa burned to keep the colored contingent from attaching itaelf to
the army and Impeding its movement The dietary consisted chiefly
of sweet petatoee oa the march. But the words of the song that they education where it had been interrupted by the call of his country.
out on trains in every direction to return to the bosoms of their
families after their long separation. What though they did ride on
coal cars and in box cars and on all manner of crude vehicles? They
were greater Idols than kings in golden chariots, and all along the
line a grateful people greeted them with cheers.
To the West and Omaha
N
The young man spent a few days at home and then took up his
Btarted from the ground give a wrong impression. It took hard
digging to get them. When the army arrived in Savannah about
100,000 bushela of rice were captured, upon which the soldiers
feasted during the maneuvers which took place in that city.
Thence they returned to the north, and Mr. Thomas marched at
the head of his company in that grand review of the union veterans
Ha entered Hiram college and remalnd there a year. Then, on
account of the death of bis father, he returned home for a time.
His first venture into the west was In 1867, when he went to
Des Mollies, la., and worked during the summer in the office of the
register of deeds. While there he had the uncommon experience of
recording a mortgage for 19,000,000. It was filed by the Chicago,
held in Washington at the close of the war, when, between solid walls Rock Island & Pacific railroad, and the money was for the purpose
of bulldlDg that line from Dos Moines to Omaha.
Btamps on the mortgage amounted to $8,641
He returned to Indiana In the fall of 1S67 and taught the high,
school at Butler, a town near Newvllle. With the money thus earned
he went to Ann Arbor. Mich., and entered the law department of
the state university, where he pursued hla studies with such success
that he graduated in March, 1870, and was admitted to practice In
Michigan.
He determined at once to cast in his lot with the west, went homo
for a few dajs, and having collected his belongings, set his face to
the west, and on April 23, 1870, arrived in Council Dluffs and cams
across on the ferry to the lively little city of. Omaha. Walking up
the main btreet. ho met Robert Steel, who directed him to a boarding
house located on Far nam street, between Fifteenth and Sixteenth
streets. With characteristic energy, he found a place at once and
within twenty-four hours was-lnstalled In the law office of F. A. Deals.
Six months later he was taken into the firm, which then becamo
known as Beals, Allen & Thomas. Six months later he withdrew and
opened a law and real estate office for himself. He has remained
in this business since that time and has been a persistent booster
for Omaha.
Brought His Own Provender
In October, 1870, when he felt he had secured a footing In tho
new country, the young uiun made a flying trip to Ann Arbor, whero
he married Miss Frances I. Jeffries, daughter of Dr. Charles A.
Jeffries. The young couple stopped only a few days at Mr. Thomas'
home and then came direct to Omaha. On hla second trip ho
remembers he arrived in the city like Benjamin Franklin, with his
provisions in his hands. Mr. Thomas carried two sacks of buck
wheat flour in one hand and a heavy pail of country butter In tho
other as he and his bride walked up Farnani street. It Is a matter ,
of pride to him even today that his wife prepared the first meal
which they ate in the new country, and that it was made of material
which they brought in with them.
Mr. Thomas proved as apt at building up in time of peace as ho
had been at burning, tearing down and devastating during the yean
of war. He has built many houses in Omaha, and has dealt in real
estate very extensively. He was one of Omnha's wealthy citizens.
In 1875 he built a handsome home at 956 North Twenty-seventh
avenue, where he resided for twenty-five years.
At one time he held the title of "king of Florence." No, he was
not one of the Florentine kings. He wore no crown, he held no
scepter; he had no subjects bowing before him. The title of "king
of Florence" was given him because of the fact that he was tho
largest owner of real estate in that suburb of Omaha. He has
owned 1,000 lots in Florence, and, therefore, his title waa not with
out good foundation.
In 1887 he became cashier of the Nebraska Savings bank and
continued in that position seven years. But so closely did he apply
himself to tho affairs of the bank that his own interests suffered,
and, therefore, he resigned and returned to his business exclusively.
Active Aside From Business
Religious work and other activities of the same nature havo
engaged the attention ef himself and Mrs. Thomas during the greater
part of their residence in Omaha. He founded "Grace mission," on
Twenty-sixth street between Hamilton and Caldwell streets, and waa
at the head of the work there for many years. He waa one of tho
chief movers and most active workers in the erection of &L John's
- Episcopal church. When money was lacking his personal check
often bridged over a threatened crisis. He haa been a superintendent
of Sunday schools In Omaha for more than twenty-five years.
He has beea a member of the Grand, Army oi the Republic slnco
its organisation la 1867, and is also a member of the military order
of the Loyal Legion, the organization of officers of the civil war.
Ho is particularly proud of his children. There are five of them,
and all the beys are six footers. Hugh Spencer Thomas has chargo
of the electrical illumination of Luna Park, the big New York;
amusement resort; Guy Dextor Thomas, better known as "Mike," la
a railroad man, a leading golf player, and champion golfer of tho
Omaha Field club; Charles Thomas is sporting editor of The Bee;
Warren Clark Thomas is in the engineering department of the Union
Pacific, and Miss Clara B. Thomas lives at home.
Time has dealt very gently with Mr. Thomas. Though sixty-!
years of age he has the bustling energy of many young men 6f hall
his years. He has a vigorous memory, is good at a story and fond
of a Joke. It is one of the rules of his household that a special dinner
must be prepared, with extra dishes, on the anniversary of each battlo
in which he took part. As the number of these battles is large, tho
yearly menu includes many special meals. Mi1. Thomas Is a hearty
eater and it has 'always been a matter of question in bis family
whether this Is not a quiet little scheme fixed up by him with ulterior
motives of a gastronomic nature beyond the' mere dead commemora
tion of (he dates of great events.
Dexter L. Thomas is today one of the heartiest and sunniest opti
mists Omaha has. He has a host of friends and few enemies, tor
he is one of the "boys." of whom Holmes speaks, a big hearted,
whole souled man.
Gertrude Atherton's
B
44
White Fake" and Its Outcome
r
EFORE she became a novelist, with breezy
California girls for a heroine specialty,
Gertrude Atherton served an apprentice
ship as a writer of pot boilers for news
papers and things. Recently she totd
some friends whom she met on an overland train
a diverting story of a mess of difficulty she con
trived to get into early in her career as a pen
woman, through a bit of what she called "white
unioa regiment waa by soaso mistake wheeled In behind the regiment faking.'!
to which Mr. Tbomaa' company waa attached. The Teaaeeseeans "A magazine editor asked me to write an artl
tnlstook their comrades for tbo oosmy and fired upon them. Mr. ole about tho girls who worked in the sweatshops
Thomas, with three others, lay down behind a big tree for protection.
Tho throe were killed but Mr. Thomas escaped uninjured. Ho par
ticipated In tho terrible charge up tho Cumberland mountains in
face of tho tiro of the "JackasB batteries." He was at the battle
of Lookout mountala aad at Chlckamauga. He participated in the
daring charge up Missionary ridge. He declares the rebels jumped,
frightened, out of their rifle pita and duhed like startled rabbits
through tho union line and dawa tho steep side of the ridge. That
charge, he says, beat a rabbit hunt all to pleoes. From there his
regiment went to tbo south, fighting at Kenesaw Mountain, Burnt
Hickory, Punkla Vine, aad participating In numerous skirmishes.
With Sherman to the Sea
nis company was one-of those to enter Atlanta when it was taken,
and he and his comrades tore some of the fine houses to pieces to
make floors tor their tents. He was at Kingston, Ga., when the first
intimation came that the regiment waa to go south again and par
ticipate in that great march of Bberman from Atlanta to the sea.
"We got a 'grapevine' dispatch one day." he says, "stating that
after all the trains had got up froaa the south wo were to march
down to Atlanta again. Bare enough, wo were lined up next morning
by the side of the track. Five trains passed us, going toward the
north, eath loaded down to the very platforms and roots with soldiers,
wounded and sick, sent home to the care of their families. As each
train went past there would ceme a cheer from the wan, waited
heroes, torn and tattered and worn out. When five trains had passed,
us the command was given to march.
"Wo had orders to tear up the railroad as we went This ai
done by lifting up tho track from tbo roadbed at places, putting plUt
of ties underneath aad then setting the ties on fire. The heat twisted
the rails like wire. Some of them we tool; while hot and twined
fantastically around telegraph pole. We burned the bridges. After
of New York," she said. "I didn't know much
about the sweatshop girls of New York, except that
many of them wore very large, one-sided pompa
dours and that they would wear bedraggled feath
ers in their hats. But I didn't tell the magazine
editor how little I knew about sweatshop girls. I
was not throwing chances to write ordered arti
cles over my shoulder, and 1(1 bad been ordered
to write a treatise on the fourth dimension I cer
tainly should have undertaken it at that time, al
beit I .never gained much of a mastery even over
common fractions.
"So sat down and wrote the article about the
New York sweatshop girls. It was an exceedingly '
sympathetic article. It mentioned the hard,
squalid life of the girls in the stuffy, unalred
sweatshops, depicted how they were bulldozed by
their cruel masters, pictured the bare rooms io
the miserable tenement houses in which they lived
when they weren't working, called attention to tho
pitiable pay tbey received for their work, dwelt
impressively upon the temptations to which they
were subjected and so on.
"However, when 1 read it over it struck me as
being lacking in specific instances.
"Therefore I grieve to confess it I decided
to employ a bit of poetic license, as It were, and
to draw a little upon my Imagination. I sketched
in the purely fictitious account of one of the
sweatshop girls, the sole support of her widowed
mother, who fell ill with typhoid. I pictured the
girl and her mother living together in a miserable
room in an East 8ide'tenement house, told of the
terrible extremities to which they were reduced
by the girl's -illness, described how the mother
was obliged to carry out and pawn all of the
scanty furnlturo except the one bed in order to
buy medicines; how the sweatshop girl's beautiful
hair fell out, so that when she recovered she found
it impossible to obtain employment because she
was quite bald and lacked the money wherewith
to purchase a wig, and so on oh, it was very sad
and slow-muslcky. It was one of the most touch
ing tales you ever heard of. and I declare that as
I wrote It I felt honestly and truly sorry for the
girl myself.
"Well, the story was printed with pictures, and
ocoof the pictures, drawn by au artist with a
perfect genius for making dreary and heart-breaking
pictures, showtd the sick girl in the bare
room, her patient mother ben J in g over her and
ministering unto her.
"Something like two 'months after the article
was printed in the magazine 1 received a letter
from a gentleman living up at Sitka, Alaska. He
wrote me that he had Just gof hold of a copy or
the magazine containing my article about the New
York sweatshop girls, and he stated that my ac
count of the girl who had fallen ill had touched
him to the quick. He fulminated in his letter
about a state of society that would permit such
things to be. He enclosed a 120 bill, and begged
me to turn it over to the poor girl in order that
she and her mother might not suffer for the neces
saries of life for a little while at least.
"Well, I leave you to picture the sort of quan
dary that put me in. That twenty-dollar blllxall
but scorched my fingers, and I thought and
thought about what I should do with it; but for
the life of me I couldn't think of any may out.
Finally, after tossing all night over it, I had an
inspliation. I had told one hite one in my
story. Why not wriggle out of the scrape by tell
ing another one? So I sat down and wrote a let
ter to the gentleman living at Sitka, Alaska. I
told him that since my article had gone to prebs
a noble-hearted young fellow, well able to provide
for the girl, had come forward and made her an
offer of marriage, and that they were then about
to be married. I thanked him for the generous
spirit which had actuated him in sending the
money, but I stated that, in view of the approach
ing marriage, the girl would not need it, and so
I returned the twenty-dollar bill to nlm. I thought
that would settle the matter, and I rather preened
myself over the ingenuity of my idea. Of course
I was rather conscience-stricken over the business,
tbut nevertheless I couldn't help but flatter myself
just a little bit over the clever way I had got' out
of the mess. Vain hope!
"About two mouths later I received another
letter from the gentleman lilvng at Sitka, Alaska.
He re-encloBed the twenty-dollar bill, saying that
he had lead with delight my letter announcing
the unfortunate girl's approaching marriage and
requesting me to purchase some suitable gilt with
the $20 and to bestoyr it upon the young woman
at her marriage, with his best wishes. So therex
was another hard fence to take! ,
"But I waa In the muddle over my ears, and
there was nothing else to do but to Scramble out
the best way 1 knew. I devoted three or four
days of miserable thought to finding a way out of
the new complication before I haa another inspira
tion. Then I wrote another letter to the gentle
man who lived at Sitka, Alaska.
"I told him that the girl and her fiance had
been compelled to elope in order to get married
owing to the opposition of his folks to hU union
with a sweatshop girl and that I had been unable
to find out where (.bey went, although I bad ascer
tained that they had left New York tor good. I
returned the 92 0 bill again, praising the sender
of It tor the kindliness which bad prompted him,
and so on and so on.
"But it was the fateful f 20 bill, sure enough.
Two months later it came back to me. The gen
tleman living at Sitka, Alaska, sent me a very
long letter, la which ho told me all of tho circum
stances of his life. He. said that there wasn't
much to do at Sitka, Alaska, except to read, but
set forth the fact that he lived so far from civil
ization that he couldn't get hold of the kind of
books he wanted. Therefore he returned the $20
to me, saying that he knew that In the goodness
of my heart I would be willing to devote tho
mouey to purchasing $20 worth of books for him
and having them shipped to Sitka. Alaska. Ho
didat say whether ho wanted novels or biograph
ical works or books of travel or history. Just
books. There was no other way. L had to go
out and spend an afternoon buying books for tho
gentleman living at Sitka, Alaska.
"Just as soon as ever he received those booka
the gentleman living at Sitka, Alaska, sat down
and sent me a long, enthusiastic letter, saying that
I had picked out Just the kind of books he wanted.
Then he went on to say that he had a number of
little nieces living down in Alabama. The town
la Alabama in which his little nieces lived didn't
have much in the way of stores, he wrote, and, aa
Christmas was coming on, he would be enormously
obliged If I would take the $20 bill which he en
closed and buy a number of little gifts in the New
York stores for his Alabama nieces. He told mo
the names and ages of the nieces, and requested
me to use my own Judgment as to what I should
purchase for them by way of gifts. I had to ex
ecute that commission, of course, and take valua
ble tin.e to execute it, too.
. "For more than two years after that I waa
obliged to act as a sort of New York agent for tho
gentleman living at Sitka, Alaska. Any time ho
wanted anything in New York for himself or for
his relatives living In the United States be would
eit down end write me a laudatory letter and en
close the money. I resolutely performed every
commission he asked me to perform. I had
started the whole thing going by a white fake,
but, white or no white, it was my duty to a tone
before Heaven for the aln, and I atoned. After
two years of It, however, I went to Europe and
remained there tor several month,
u