Charles R. Thomas (1861–1931)

Career

Charles Thomas was the son of the Charles R. Thomas (1827-1891), who also sat for North Carolina in Congress. The younger Thomas attended the New Bern Academy and then the Emerson Institute in Washington DC This was followed up in 1881 to study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After a subsequent law degree in 1882 and its recent approval as a lawyer, he began to work in New Bern in this profession. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic Party launched a political career.

In 1887 Thomas was a deputy in the House of Representatives from North Carolina. Between 1890 and 1896 he served as a prosecutor in Craven County. Since 1893 he was curator of the University of North caroliona. Thomas was a member of the State Board of his party. In the congressional elections of 1898, he was elected in the third constituency of North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he became the successor of John Edgar Fowler on March 4, 1899. After five re- elections, he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1911 six legislative periods. In 1910 he declined to run again.

After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas practiced again as a lawyer in New Bern. In 1924 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in New York, was nominated for the John W. Davis as a presidential candidate. A year later he moved his residence and his law firm after Waynesville. In 1926 he was appointed temporary judge of the Superior Court; then he again worked as a lawyer. Charles Thomas died on March 8, 1931 in Norfolk, and was buried in New Bern.