John R. Thomas

John Robert Thomas ( born October 11, 1846 in Mount Vernon, Illinois, † January 19, 1914 in McAlester, Oklahoma) was an American lawyer and politician. Between 1879 and 1889 he represented the state of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

John Thomas attended the common schools and then the Hunter Collegiate Institute in Princeton (Indiana). During the Civil War he served in an infantry regiment from Indiana, which belonged to the army of the Union. He brought it up to the captain. After a subsequent law degree in 1869 and its recent approval as a lawyer, he began to work in this profession. In the years 1869 and 1870 he was a legal representative of the city of Metropolis. Between 1871 and 1874 he served as a prosecutor. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Republican Party launched a political career.

In the congressional elections of 1878, Thomas was in the 18th electoral district of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he succeeded the Democrats William Hartzell on March 4, 1879. After four elections he could pass in Congress until March 3, 1889 five legislative sessions. Since 1883 he represented there the then newly created 20th district of his state. Between 1881 and 1883 he was chairman of the Committee for the Improvement of dikes on the Mississippi. In 1888 he gave up another candidacy.

After the end of his time in the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas practiced law in Muskogee later in the State of Oklahoma, which was then still part of the Indian Territory. Between 1897 and 1901 he was a federal judge in this area. Between 1908 and 1910 he was a member of the legislative committee of the State incurred in 1907 Oklahoma. He then continued his legal practice continued in Muskogee. John Thomas died on 19 January 1914 in McAlester and was initially buried in Muskogee. He was later reburied at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.