Charles W. Thomas

            CHARLES W. THOMAS, County Superintendent of Schools of Harrison County, was born near Lanesville (this county), May 27, 1854, and is a son of John A. and Elizabeth Harriet Thomas, born in Harrison county, and were among the pioneers. Both of his (subjects) grandfathers settled in the county about 1800 –paternal grandfather came from North Carolina and was of English descent; maternal grandfather came from Pennsylvania and was of German origin.

            John A. Thomas, the father of subject, was one of the pioneer school-teachers of Harrison county, and taught many terms in the county when it contained the State capital.

            The subject was reared on the farm, and received his education in the common schools. He attended Marengo Academy, and subsequently went to Lebanon, Ohio, and then to Valparaiso, Ind., from which he graduated in 1880, having taken a classical course.

            He was elected County Superintendent of Schools of Harrison county in 1884, and discharged the duties of the office with signal ability. He is one of the editors of the Harrison County Democrat, founded by D. J. Murr in 1886, and is an able and influential paper. Mr. Thomas is a prominent member of the Masonic and Odd fellow fraternities.

Source: Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott and Washington, Indiana by John M. Gresham & Company, 1889. Part 2, page 190.