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Note: According to an article by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company written around 1900, Thomas received his trade instruction in England. He started with the London & Northwestern Railway in 1860. He learned the trade of a coppersmith and worked for them until 1865. He then worked on the Great Western Railway at Wolverhampton until 1869. During this time, he married Eliza Petts and they had their first two children.
In 1869, they came to America, and Fanny was born in Detroit, Michigan in April of that year. Thomas started working for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company at Galesburg, Illinois doing copper, tin, and sheet iron work. After two and a half years, they moved to Brainard, Minnesota, where he was foreman of tin, sheet iron, and pipe work for the Northern Pacific Railway Company.
Thomas is listed in the voter registration for the years 1888 and 1892 in the city of Chicago, Northern District. His address is listed as 5641 Atlantic St. The date of his naturalization papers is October 1888 and papers were filed in the Superior Court of Cook County.
Thomas is in the 1920 Illinois Census, age 76, and living in Chicago. It states that he immigrated in 1869 and became a naturalized citizen in 1888. Living with him are his four single daughters: Elizabeth, Nellie- a clerk in a steel company, Alice- a stenographer for Illinois Central, and Etta- an invalid. Also living there is Charles Copely, Thomas' widowed son-in-law, and 3 year old grandaughter Grace Elizabeth Copely.
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