John Clifton Thuma
In the city that has been his home from boyhood Mr. Thuma has found ample opportunity for productive effort along normal lines of enterprise, and he is now the efficient and popular incumbent of the position of superintendent of the car barns of the Ohio Valley Electric Railway Company, at Ironton, Lawrence County, his elder brother, Allen L., being the company's general superintendent and being individually mentioned on other pages of this publication.
John Clifton Thuma is the second in order of birth of the three children of Chapman J. and Adelia (Oakes) Thuma. and his parents were residents of Ironton, Ohio, at the time of their death, the father. who was a carpenter and contractor, having died in 1886 and the mother in 1904. Chapman J. Thuma was a native of Bridgewater, Virginia, where he was horn in 1817, a scion of a sterling old family of that historic commonwealth, and his wife was born near Charleston, West Virginia, in 1855. He whose name introduces this article attended the excellent public schools of Ironton until he was fifteen years of age, and he thereafter gave his attention to zealous work in saw mills and in connection with other lines of industry for six years. At the expiration of this period he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was employed in lumber yards for the ensuing six months. He then returned to Ironton and obtained employment as a general laborer for the Ohio Valley Electric Railway Company. For the first six months his work was principally in the digging of holes for the poles used for the electric lines, and for two years thereafter he was a practical lineman, his ability and faithful service bringing to him advancement to the position of line foreman, an incumbency which he retained about three years. Since 1906 Mr. Thuma has been the superintendent of the company's well equipped car barns at Ironton, and his effective service as well as bis genial personality have made him popular alike with the officers of the company, the employes and the general public.
Mr. Thuma is a member of the Ironton Chamber of Commerce and is essentially loyal and progressive in his civic attitude. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, and he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Improved Order of Red Men.
On the 22d of February. 1914, Mr. Thuma made consistent observance of the birthday of Gen. George Washington, in that the day marked the solemnization of bis marriage to .Miss Ora Alice Riter, daughter of Philip Riter, a well known citizen and furnace-man of Ironton.
From "A Standing History of the Hanging Rock Iron Region of Ohio" by Eugene B. Willard, Daniel W. Williams, George O. Newman and Charles B. Taylor. Published by Lewis Publishing Company, 1916