B. F. Thomas
B. F. Thomas, while yet a young man, has evinced an aptitude for business which has placed him at the head of one of the leading industrial establishments of Lima. As president of the Lima Pork Packing Company, which he founded several years ago, he occupies a prominent position among the leading men of the city, and has been the means of drawing to this city a volume of business which has largely added to her present prosperity. Mr. Thomas was born in New York City in 1871, and is a son of Morgan Thomas, who conducts a very profitable butter, egg and poultry business in Lima and is one of the city's representative men.
B. F. Thomas was a small child when his parents moved from New York to Sidney, Ohio, and a lad of 12 years when they located in Lima. After his school days were past, he became a partner with his father in the butter, egg and poultry business, the company of M. Thomas & Son doing an extensive business and handling large quantities of produce. Young Thomas sa the success that would result from a packing plant in Lima, and in 1898 withdrew from the partnership with his father and opened a pork packing plant. This he conducted more profitably than he had anticipated, and as the volume of business continued to increase the present company was incorporated in 1901, with a capital stock of $60,000. The officers of the company are: President, B. F. Thomas; vice-president, Ira P. Carnes; treasurer, W. C. Bradley; secretary, D. W. Leichty. The plant slaughters weekly from 40 to 60 beeves, and from 200 to 600 hogs, besides sheep, lambs and calves, in addition to handling about 25 carloads of pickled meats a year. It manufactures daily about 4,000 pounds of sausage, bologna. Employment is given to some 35 men. The two traveling salesmen of the concern visit 60 or 70 of the leading towns in this part of the State, where they find a ready market for the products of the plant. Mr. Thomas is a stock-holder and director of The Ohio National Bank and the Superior Brick Comapny. He was married in 1896, to Anna M. Armstrong