Benjamin F. Thomas
Benjamin F. Thomas, lately probate judge, was born in Liberty Township, Ross County, Ohio, February 19, 1830, and is the son of James and Tamson (Wilkins) Thomas. His education was limited to the merest rudiments of the common school branches till he was grown, when he attempted the task of acquiring a collegiate course, which was begun in 1851 and completed in June, 1857, graduating from Miami University with a class of twenty-six. He taught school from 1858 to 1866, at which time he was admitted to practice at the Butler County bar. He came to this county in 1852. He was married on the 24th of September, 1857, to Elizabeth Marston, a native of Butler County, being born near Trenton, daughter of Jeremiah and Mary Ann (Vail) Marston. The mother, who was a native of Ohio, died in 1855. Mr. Thomas was school examiner of Butler County from July, 1863, to September, 1868, and probate judge from February 9, 1876, to the 9th of February, 1882.
Judge Thomas's father moved with his father from New Jersey in 1806 to Ohio, settling on the Scioto River about seven miles east of Chillicothe, where he died in 1879, at the age of seventy-eight years, having reared to manhood eight sons, and to womanhood one daughter. The grandfather, Webster Thomas, was in the War of 1812. Judge Thomas's eldest brother, Webster, was in the Mexican War for about thirteen months as sergeant, and was also in the War of the Rebellion. He served from 1862 till the close of the war as captain of a company from this county. He was at the capture of Vicksburg, and at numerous other smaller engagements. Another brother, William A., was also in the war for one year as a member of the band connected with Colonel Campbell's, the Sixty-ninth. Judge Thomas is a trustee of the Lane Free Library.
From A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers, Western Biographical Publishing Company, Cincinnati Ohio, 1882.