Judge Thomas B. Long
Judge Thomas B. Long was born near the city of Mansfield, in Richland county, Ohio, on the twenty-fifth day of October, 1836. His father's family subsequently lived in Mansfield, Bucyrus, and Springfield, in that State, and in 1846 removed to the city of Terre Haute, where they have since continuously resided. Here the subject of this sketch received an academical education, embracing the studies usually pursued in the colleges of the land. In 1854, he entered the law office of Hon. R.W. Thompson, as a student, where he remained for several years, during which he attended lectures in the law department of the Cincinnati college, and graduated in the spring of 1856. In the fall of this year he was elected district attorney for the court of common pleas, and about the same time was engaged as editor of one of the daily papers of the city, which position he filled for about two years, when he withdrew for the purpose of devoting his entire attention to the practice of his profession. In 1860, he was placed upon the presidential ticket of the Union party as a candidate for elector, in which capacity he canvassed his district wherever his services were called for; but, seeing the hopelessness of the success of his party, he urged all wavering voters to support Stephen A. Douglas for president. From this time he applied himself diligently to his professional pursuits and literary studies until the fall of 1870, when he was elected by the democratic party as judge of the criminal circuit court, which position he filled so acceptably that, in 1874 -although political feeling ran high -he received the nomination of both parties, and was re-elected without opposition.
Judge Long is a fluent speaker and a graceful writer, and has acquired some fame as a poet, by various fugitive pieces, and a number of ballads and songs, which have been set to music and published in the principal cities of the country.
An Illustrated History of the State of Indiana, Richard S. Peale & Co., Publishers, 1875