Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1887 — REV. H. W. THOMAS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

REV. H. W. THOMAS.

A Portrait and Sketch of the WellKnown Chicago Divine. The popular pastor of the People’s Church, of Chicago, whose portrait accompanies this sketch, was bom April 29,1832, in the Allegheny Mountains, in Hampshire County, Virginia (now West Virginia). Hi! parents were farmers in modest circumstances. His father was of German and Welsh descent, and his mother of Scotch and English. The family was large, Hiram being the fourth son. Dr. Thomas grew up in an atmosphere of freedom, which hah influenced his whole life. Bom and reared in the mountains, like the Swiss and Scotch Highlanders, he has naturally inherited a bold and free spirit. His father was of Quaker proclivi-

ties, and his family never owned slaves. He early became an Abolitionist, and has, like Beecher, never ceased to preach freedom, political and intellectual. He commenced preaching under great embarrassments. He joined the Pittsburg Conference of the Evangelical Association, or German Methodists, in 1851. He received for the first three years of his ministry an annual salary of SIOO, and for several subsequent years, when he had a family to support, S3OO, on which latter sum he says he lived well and saved money. In 1856 he joined the lowa Conference of the M. E. Church, and has since filled the leading charges of Marshall, Fort Madison—passing two years additional as Chaplain of the State Penitentiary— Mt. Pleasant, and Burlington. In 1869 he was transferred to the Rock River Conference, and stationed at Park Avenue Church, Chicago. After three years he was appointed to the First Church (Methodist Church Block), of the same city, where he likewise remained three years. #e waß then sent to Aurora for three years, and next to Centenary Church, in Chicago, where he remained till October, 1880. His early preaching gave promise of his later fame. He always drew large congregations, and the churches named always flourished under his care. Early in life ; he married Miss Emily C. Merrick, a brilliant and accomplished lady of Dempseytown, Pa., whose practical good sense and cheerfulness have powerfully served him in his many difficulties and discouragements.. Their varied life has been an ideal one of love and devotion, and their home a charming resort for their many friends. They have had seven children, onlyone of whom is now living, Dr. Hiram M. Thomas, of Chicago. Dr. Thomas was always liberal in his views and free in expressing them. No church forms, whether of dogma or ceremony, could fetter him. In 1881 he was tried for heresy by his conference on account of his peculiar views on inspiration, the atonement, and future punishment. He held that there were errors in the Bible, that Christ was not punished to save man, and that there was no eternal torment. These views were held by a small majority of the examining committee to be heretical, and be was expelled, in consequence, from the M. E. Church. Before this, some of his friends had organized the People’s Church in the central part of Chicago, where he had been preaching. He now identified himself permanently with this organization, and has been its pastor ever since. Dr. Thomas has frequent calls to lecture throughout the country, and is one of the most appreciated platform speakers in the West. He is popular among all classes, and does a vast amount of pastoral and social work, for which he is phenomenally fitted. His sermons are widely read, being generally reported by the press.

The first country to issue stamps for cheap postage was Great Britain in 1840. An unused one is worth about S3OO. The rarest stamp known to collectors was issued by the postmaster at Brattleboro in 1846.