Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 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 Ihe 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). His parents were farmers in modest circumstances. His father was of German and Welsh descent, and his mother of Scotch aud English. The family was large, Hiram being the fourth son. Dr. Thomas grew up in an atmosphere of freedom, which has influenced his whole life. Born nnd 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 Pittsourg 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 1850 he joined the lowa Conference of the M. E. Church, and has sroca 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 yeais. He was then sent to Aurora for three years, and next (o Centenary Church, in Chicago, where he remained till October, 188!). His early preaching gave promise of his later fume. 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 aud accomplished lady of Dempsey town. 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, only one 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 he was expelled, in consequence, from Ihe M. E. Church. Before this, some of his friends had organized the People’s Church ip 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 npnreoiated 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.