Eli Thomas, a retired farmer of Marion, Indiana, was born in Randolph county August 31, 1825, and traces his ancestry to one of two brothers who came to America from Wales about the year 1700. They were William and George Thomas, who settled in South Carolina, where they bought land. George was unmarried and it is to William that Eli Thomas traces his origin. The immediate ancestors were Jesse and Hannah (Cox) Thomas, the father born in South Carolina September 9, 1796, and the mother a native of North Carolina.

        John and Lydia Thomas, the grandparents of Eli Thomas, started from South Carolina for Indiana about 1808, but stopped one or two years in Highland county, Ohio, on account of the Indian uprising in Indiana. Coming to Wayne county, they settled nine miles north of Richmond, the grandfather and five brothers entering land from the government, upon which they lived several years. In 1831 he came to Grant county and purchased a farm about one mile south of Marion, where the powerhouse now stands. This farm comprises one hundred and twenty acres of land and was his home until he was called to his home on high at the age of seventy-eight years. He was an industrious man and was reasonably successful in his business. He and his wife were Quakers and were conscientious upright people. She was a native of South Carolina and survived her husband many years, dying at the advanced age of eighty-five.

        Jesse Thomas, father of present subject, was but a small lad when his father came to Wayne county, this state. He remained at home until he had reached man's estate, when he learned the trade of a carpenter, at which he worked for many years. March 30, 1829, he came to this county and purchased one hundred and five acres of land in what is now North Marion, paying one dollar and one quarter per acre for it. It was covered with timber and he was among the first white men to settle there, although there were plenty of Indians, some of them remaining many years on Pipe creek. He built a log cabin, in which they lived two years, and during the second year Mrs. Thomas had an adventure which would be to the liking of very few ladies. She went into the timber one evening in search of their cows when she lost her way and was unable to retrace her steps. Wandering around she came to a horse that had a bell on. She grasped the collar around his neck and she held to the animal all night that she might have the benefit of his company and also in the vain hope that the bell might attract the attention of those who were out searching for her. Thus she passed the entire night, and it was not until eight o'clock the next morning that the anxious searchers were rewarded by finding her. The cattle were turned out in the timber to graze and would sometime wander quite a ways from home. While out one day hunting his cattle Mr. Thomas shot and killed a large yellow rattlesnake which measured six feet three inches in length and was the largest native snake ever killed here. This was of such unusual size that he had the skin stuffed in order to preserve it to show what the new country could show. After living a few years on his first property he purchased eighty acres in what is now South Marion and made that his home because it was nearer the church which had recently been built there. A few years later when Marion was laid out he sold his first farm of one hundred and five acres for twelve hundred dollars and at once invested the money in other land in the vicinity at one dollar and one quarter per acre. In 1852 he erected a good brick residence and at one time owned over one thousand acres of land. But one county road was laid out when he first settled here, but many more speedily followed as new homes sprang up in the forest. He was a Quaker and a strong abolitionist, assisting in the underground railway and by every means in his power to ease the load which rested on the black shoulders in the south. He was very successful in business. On March 30, 1859, just thirty years after he located in the county, he laid down the burden of life and entered into the life everlasting.

        His wife, Hannah Cox, was a native of North Carolina and came with her parents to Wayne county, this state, in 1810, where they purchased land. The father, Jeremiah Cox, entered the land which later formed part of the present site of Richmond, Indiana, the balance being the property of one John Smith. Mr. Cox disposed of his land and moved to Randolph county, on White river, where he erected a mill which he operated during the remainder of his life. He had also built the first mill at Richmond. Mrs. Thomas, his wife, was also of the same religious faith and lived to the age of seventy years. They were the parents of nine children, three of whom died in infancy. Those living to adult years were as follows:    Jeremiah, a farmer of this township, who died at the age of fifty-four years; Enoch, who owns and operates a large flour mill at Markle, Huntington county; Eli, our subject; Hulda, who married Jacob Vataw and died in early life, aged about twenty-six years; Mary, wife of George Shugart, a prominent farmer of Franklin township, whose biography will be found on another page; John, who died in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1897, in his sixty-fifth year; Robert, who died in 1880, at the age of forty-three years; Hannah and Noah, still living.

        Eli Thomas was a child of three and one-half years when his parents moved on their farm which is now included in the corporate limits of Marion. He remained at home until he had attained his majority, when his father gave him eighty acres of land, situated two miles south of the court house, and but little improved. He spent the following year in clearing and improving the property and then disposed of it to good advantage and purchased one hundred and sixty acres three miles south of Marion, paying ten dollars per acre therefor. He lived on this place fifteen years and accumulated three hundred and fifty acres in one piece and also bought his father's old homestead of eighty acres, now in the corporation of Marion. He has since sold part of this for two hundred dollars per acre, making his home on the same until December 7, 1887, when he erected his pleasant home in Marion, where he has since resided.

        He was first married to Miss Anna, daughter of Isaac Schooley, and a native of Wayne county, who came with her parents to this county about 1835. She was a member of the Friends church and died in January, 1853, leaving two little children to the father's care. Both are residents of this county, Sylvanus on one of the homesteads, and Marcus, a farmer and minister near here. Mr. Thomas was next married to Miss Milly Willcuts, of Wayne county, whose parents moved to this locality when she was a small child. She was a member of the Friends church and at her death, which occurred September 20, 1876, she left four children; one died in infancy. Thomas C. died in June, 1888, at the age of twenty-one years; Jesse R. is a farmer of Center township; Alvin J. owns and operates a stock farm in Mills township; and Lucy, the wife of Jasper Massena, a farmer of Franklin township, an efficient teacher in the public schools. On November 30, 1840, occurred the birth of Miss Minerva M. Thomas, the present wife of our subject. She is a daughter of Milton Thomas and was born four miles south of Marion, near where she has always lived since. Both she and her husband are members of the Friends church and are consistent in their religion. Mr. Thomas stands high in the community and has been frequently chosen to administer on estates, his well-known honor and integrity making him a desirable executor. He has been very successful in life and besides giving to each of his children seventy acres of land, he owns three hundred and twenty acres in Kansas; two hundred and eighty in this county, near Marion; the property on which he resides; another residence property, which he rents, and several valuable vacant lots in this city.