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John R. Thomas

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American politician

This article is about the U.S. Representative. For the intellectual property professor, seeJohn R. Thomas (professor). For the architect, seeJohn Rochester Thomas.

John Robert Thomas


Roving Judge for theUnited States Court for the Indian Territory
In office June 30, 1897 – June 30, 1901
Appointed by	William McKinley
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Charles W. Raymond
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromIllinois's18th district
In office March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1883
Preceded by	William Hartzell
Succeeded by	William R. Morrison
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's20th district
In office March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1889
Preceded by	District created
Succeeded by	George W. Smith

Personal details
Born	(1846-10-11)October 11, 1846 Mount Vernon, Illinois, U.S.
Died	January 19, 1914(1914-01-19) (aged 67) McAlester, Oklahoma, U.S.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery,Virginia, U.S.
Party	Republican
Spouse	Charlotte Maria Culver
Children	2
Occupation	Attorney

John Robert Thomas, Sr. (October 11, 1846 – January 19, 1914), also known asJ. R. Thomas,^[1] was aU.S. representative fromIllinois. He was later appointed a U.S. district judge in the Indian Territory, which then encompassed most of the eastern part of present-day Oklahoma, serving from 1898 to 1901. After statehood, he served on the Oklahoma State Code Commission which was tasked with reviewing and editing the new state laws that had been hastily put together during the rush to statehood. After returning to his private law practice, he went to the Oklahoma state prison at McAlester to interview an inmate on January 19, 1914, when he was killed by three other inmates who shot him to death while escaping prison.

Judge Thomas was also the father ofCarolyn T. Foreman, who married attorney Grant Foreman in 1905. After their marriage and the judge's death, Carolyn and Grant Foreman become noted Oklahoma historians.

Biography

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Born inMount Vernon, Illinois, Thomas attended the common schools and Hunter Collegiate Institute,Princeton, Indiana. He served in theUnion Army during theCivil War, and rose from the rank of private to that of captain of Company D, One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was wounded at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Wilson wrote that he never fully recovered from his wound.^[2]

After the war, Thomas studied law and wasadmitted to the bar in 1869. He became city attorney ofMetropolis, Illinois, 1869 and 1870 and served as State's attorney 1871–1874.^[2]

U.S. House of Representatives

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Thomas was elected as aRepublican to theForty-sixth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1889). He served as chairman of the Committee on Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River (Forty-seventh Congress).

In 1883, Thomas was one of only seven House Republicans to vote against thePendleton Civil Service Reform Act,^[3] which replaced the traditionalspoils system with abureaucratic civil service system. The conservative "Stalwart" faction of the Republican Party which earlier opposedcivil service reform almost entirely voted for the Pendleton Act under immense political pressure following the assassination ofJames A. Garfield.

He was not a candidate for renomination in 1888.

Later career

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He resumed the practice of law inMuskogee, Oklahoma, and also served as a United States judge in the Indian Territory from June 30, 1897, to June 30, 1901. During this service, he handed down the first death penalty ever issued in the Territory. In 1899, he tried a group of white men who were arrested and convicted oftorturing and murdering two Seminole boys. The men were convicted of the crimes, which angered a great many white settlers.^[2]

Although he personally favored the two-state proposal for Oklahoma statehood, he later realized that the national government, which was dominated by his own party, would never approve the possibility of adding four more Democratic senators in Washington D. C. So, he changed his mind and supported the single-state proposal at the Republican convention. He was nominated for judge of the supreme court by the first Republican State convention of Oklahoma, but declined the nomination. Instead, he served as member of the Oklahoma State Code Commission 1908–1910.^[2]

He died inMcAlester, Oklahoma on January 19, 1914, and was interred in Green Hill Cemetery, Muskogee, Oklahoma. He was reinterred later inArlington National Cemetery.^[2]

Death

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According to an account by J. Stanley Clark that appeared in theChronicles of Oklahoma in 1974, Judge Thomas had gone to the penitentiary to interview Abraham Collier, who was serving a seven-year sentence for larceny. While he was in the warden's office, an attempted prison break occurred. Three other convicts, Tom Lane, Chiney Reed, and Charles Kuntz, had obtained a gun and taken keys to unlock their cells. They broke into the warden's office and ordered everyone inside to stand up with their hands in the air. Thomas, who was described as physically stout, did not respond quickly, reached for his cane, and was fatally shot in the heart.^[1]

The intruders also killed deputy warden D. D. Oates, cell house sergeant F. C. Godfrey, and police photographer H. H. Dover.^[4] They attempted to leave the prison using stenographer Mary Foster, who was wounded in the melée, and parole officer Frank H. Rice as human shields, but were killed.^[1]

Family

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He was the son of Major William Allen Thomas and Caroline (Neely) Thomas. He married Charlotte "Lottie" Maria Culver in 1870. Their daughter, Carolyn, who married Grant Foreman, was an author and historian who wrote several books about Native Americans and the history of Oklahoma. A son, John R. Thomas Jr., was a "celebrated hero of the Spanish–American War with the Rough Riders."^[5] In 1884, while serving as a U.S. congressman, John Robert Thomas was also Grand Master for the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Illinois.