November 20, 1905

This morning, J. Preston Thomas, who had been lingering between life and death at his home at Whitford, passed away in his 64^th year. He had been ill four weeks from troubles brought on by overstrain.

Four weeks ago last Saturday, Mr. Thomas was in Centre County attending to business connected with the estate of a friend, George Boak, when he became ill and telegraphed home for a carriage to meet him at the station. When he reached home he was found to be a very sick man. He suffered from an acute affection of the heart which seemed likely to prove fatal at the time, but from which he rallied, and it was hoped that he might become well enough to go to a warmed climate for the winter. There was a relapse, however, with secondary involvement of the kidneys, and death followed about 8 o'clock today.

Probably no man in Chester County was engaged in a greater variety of public works, and it is doubtful if any other man would be more devoted to the service of public institutions in a most practical and efficient way.

Mr. Thomas was born in West Whiteland on August 7^th, 1842, eldest child of Dr. George and Anna Mary (Townsend) Thomas, on the farm where he spent his life, and where his death occurred. This property has a remarkable title, a portion of the land having descended to Mr. Thomas from Richard Thomas through six generations, without a single transfer by deed. Thus the family has become as it were a part of the land, or the land a part of the family, through centuries of ownership. The home farm contains 183 acres in fine condition and highly productive.

Mr. Thomas received his early education in a private classical school taught by a graduate of Dickinson College, and he completed his literary studies at Haverford College, where he was graduated and afterwards became a trustee.

During the Rebellion [sic - the Civil War] he served as a member of Co. B, 29^th Emergency Regiment, and also in other divisions. He afterward became a member of General George A. McCall Post, No. 31 G.A.R, but did not take active part in the work because of conscientious scruples entertained by the members of the religious society to which he belonged.

On December 13^th, 1866, Mr. Thomas married Hannah J. Gibbons, Daughter of Abraham and Martha P. Gibbons, Coatesville. To Mr. And Mrs. Thomas were born three children, Martha, who holds a position at Bryn Mawr College, George III of Wilmington, and Anna M. who is at home. The mother and wife of Mr. Thomas are living.

In 1887 Mr. Thomas was elected a Director of the Poor of Chester County. Since that time he has been elected from time to time with no opposition within his party, until at the recent election he was finally chosen for one more term, but on account of his death a new man will have to be named in his place.  During his long term of office, he was attentive to the duties and regular at the meetings, and probably    was as useful a man as any who ever held the office. He was active in the movement for the erection of a new hospital for the insane, and had much to do with the change of system by which Chester County is now maintaining its own insane.

In 1870 Mr. Thomas was elected a director of the National Bank of Chester County, The eldest financial institution in the county, and this section of the state, to succeed his late father, Dr. George Thomas. He  was made Vice-President of this bank January 11^th, 1895 to succeed William P. Marshall, who was made President after the death of Hon. Washington Townsend.

November 1^st, 1901, following the death of Mr. Marshall, Mr. Thomas was elected to the office of President, filling that position with ability until the time of his death. He was almost daily at the bank, giving the details of his work there as much careful attention as though he had nothing else to do. Yet at the same time he was pressed with a great variety of appointments in other lines of business. He was the oldest living member of the Board.

For a number of years, Mr. Thomas had been a member of the Board of Trustees at the West Chester State Normal School. He was on the Property Committee, having much to do with all the buildings erected there  in recent years. In this connection, it may be said of Mr. Thomas that he probably was concerned with the erection of different buildings of a high character than any other man in Chester County not directly engaged in this work as a daily occupation. Mr. Thomas was also a member of the Committee on Teachers and the Household Committee.

Mr. Thomas was a member of the Board of Directors of the Dime Savings Bank and of the Finance Committee, a director of the Provident Life and Trust Company, a trustee of Haverford College, and member of the Committee on Grounds and Buildings; Chairman of the Property Committee in the Board of Managers of the Chester County Hospital, which position he had held since the hospital was founded; trustee of the Epileptic Colony Farm, Oakbourne; trustee of the Rush Hospital for Consumptives, which has a branch near Malvern; trustee of the Orthodox Friends Meeting, director in the Chester County Trust Company since its origin and member of the Board of Managers of the Preston Retreat, Philadelphia.

Mr. Thomas was actively connected with Downingtown Orthodox Meeting of Friends, and was useful in Uwchlan Monthly Meeting, and the higher meetings to which this is connected.

He leaves two brothers, George and Charles, both of Whitford.

TRIBUTE OF RESPECT

The following was adopted yesterday by the Board of Managers of the Chester County Hospital.

In the death of the late J. Preston Thomas, an honored member of the board from it organization, the members of this hospital have met with an irreparable loss, and the hospital has received a blow from which it will not soon recover.

Mr. Thomas was one of the founders of the hospital and by his generous gifts and personal influence was largely responsible in making its opening possible. From its earliest days his time, his abilities and his means were devoted to its interests, and whatever measure of prosperity it may have attained, whatever successes it may have achieved in benefiting the community, that prosperity and that success were largely due to the unerring judgment and the fearless integrity of the Chairman of the Property Committee.

Of all the varied interests which claimed the greater part of his life, none perhaps, was nearer to his heart. No subject connected with the hospital was too large, no detail too small for his prompt attention and conscientious care, and every person in the institution, from the highest to the lowest, depended upon him for assistance and advice, and feel a personal sorrow in his death.

Mr. Thomas' relations with this board have been so warm and friendly, the spirit of his work among us has been so lofty and so fine, his aim so pure and single, his diligence so untiring, his modesty and simplicity of nature so remarkable, his self-forgetfulness so complete, we can sum up the excellencies of his character in on word, and say of him as Hamlet did of his dead father; "He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again".