Biography of Ralph L. Thomas, pages 492/493/494/495. 
History of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, 
Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



The career of the well known and highly respected gentleman 
whose name heads this review illustrates forcibly the 
possibilities that are open in this fair land of ours to 
men of earnest purpose, integrity and sterling business 
qualifications. A well spent life and an honorable career 
constitute his record, and he is esteemed by a host of 
friend in the city of Auburn, where he maintains his home, 
and throughout DeKalb county.  Ralph L. Thomas, of Auburn, 
Indiana, ex-sheriff of DeKalb county and now deputy 
sheriff, was born in this city on the 6th day of April, 
1874,  and is the son of David F. and Jemima (Link) Thomas, 
the former being the son of David and Anna (Batchie) 
Thomas, his birth having occurred near Canton, Stark 
county, Ohio, in 1841. David Thomas was born in Washington 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1805, and was the son of John and 
Mary Thomas, who settled in Ohio in 1810, being numbered 
among the early pioneers of that state. John Thomas was a 
soldier in the war of 1812. Anna Batchie, who was a native 
of Switzerland, was twenty-one years of age when their 
family came to America. Here her father lived to an 
advanced age, his death occurring at the age of one hundred 
years and nine months. David Thomas and Anna Batchie were 
married in Stark county, Ohio, where they resided until 
1846, when they moved to Louisville, that state, and 
eventually came to Richland township,  DeKalb county, 
Indiana, where David Thomas died on March 3, 1862, being 
survived a number of years by his widow, who died on April 
26, 1883. David F. Thomas, who accompanied his parents to 
DeKalb county in 1850, was reared on the home farm in 
Richland township and lived there until his marriage to 
Jemima Link in 1866, residing there also for a short time 
afterward. In 1870 he moved to the Link farm, on which the 
city of Garrett is now located,  where he resided two 
years, moving then to Auburn, where, with the exception of 
two years 1891 and 1892, spent in Chicago, he spent the 
remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1909. He was 
an expert all-around mechanic, ran a threshing machine and 
could construct an engine or build a house from foundation 
to roof. He was a Democrat in his political views, but was 
not an active partisan. His wife, whose maiden name was 
Jemima E. Link, was born in Ashland county, Ohio, in 1844, 
and was the daughter of Samuel and Susannah (Lantz) Link. 
Samuel Link was the son of Adam Link, who was born in 
Pennsylvania. Jacob Link was a gunsmith and also 
manufactured gun powder. He owned four hundred and twenty 
acres of land where the city of Wheeling, West Virginia, 
now stands, his land now being the site of a large 
seminary. About the beginning of the Revolutionary war he 
and all his family, excepting his son, Adam, were massacred 
by Indians. Adam, who was away from home at the time of the 
disaster, was warned on his return and fled for his life.  
He never returned to claim the estate, nor would he permit 
his children to do so. He became a soldier in the war of 
the Revolution, participating in many of the hardest fought 
battles of that struggle, and was an aid-decamp to a 
general in that war. He died in Crawford county, Ohio, at 
the age of one hundred and seven years, being the last 
survivor but one of the war for Independence. Samuel Link, 
father of Mrs. Jemima Thomas, was married in Ohio to Susan 
Lantz, and they reared eight children. While living at 
Ashland he was employed as a pump maker.  In the spring of 
1853 two of his sons came to Auburn and in the fall of the 
following year he and his entire family came to DeKalb 
county, locating in Jackson township.  Here Samuel Link 
continued to make pumps and put down nearly all the wells 
in his part of the county, in which he was very successful 
financially. About 1863 he bought eighty acres of land on 
which the town of Garrett now stand, though at the time he 
purchased the land it was covered with a dense growth of 
timber. He built there a log cabin which was the first 
house in Garrett. This house remained until about twenty 
years ago and was a well known landmark. There the Link 
family lived until they sold the land to the Baltimore & 
Ohio Railroad Company, and then bought another farm, a 
smaller place located near their son, Holmes Link, where 
they spent their old age.  Ralph L. Thomas was reared in 
Auburn and received his early education in the public 
schools. When about fourteen years of age he began learning 
the baker's trade and a year later went to Lima, where he 
established a small bakery for another man. In 1890 he and 
his brother, William A., engaged in the bakery business in 
Auburn, but the following year they were so unfortunate as 
to lose their entire property by fire.  For a short time 
they engaged in the wholesale and retail candy business, 
but later again entered the bakery business, buying a place 
in the north part of Auburn, where there had been a 
creamery established.   This they overhauled and 
established machinery for a steam bakery when they again 
suffered the loss of their plant by fire.  Immediately 
afterwards they put in a temporary plant on Ninth street 
and continued their business until they could rebuild. 
Their new bakery was located on the south side of Seventh 
street, at the corner of East street, and here the two 
brothers continued the business together until 1905 when 
the subject of this sketch was appointed city marshal,  and 
appointment which came to him without any solicitation on 
his part, but which he was urged to accept by the city 
authorities. He held the position two years and rendered 
efficient service to the city, maintaining good order 
without any trouble worth mentioning and giving excellent 
satisfaction during the period of his service.  In 1907 Mr. 
Thomas opened the Interurban restaurant, having a partner, 
C. E. Frick. A year later he sold out and then entered into 
a partnership with his brother in the bakery business, in 

which he engaged until January, 1909. In the fall of 1908 
Mr. Thomas was elected sheriff of DeKalb county by a 
majority of nearly a thousand, the largest majority ever 
cast for a candidate in DeKalb county up to that time.  In 
1910 he was re-elected by a majority of twelve hundred 
thirty-nine, figures that have never been equaled in this 
county. During the four years' tenure of his office he has 
had more than five hundred prisoners in charge, including 
law breakers and insane person, and also was busily engaged 
in the discharge of other official business, but never lost 
a prisoner and had no difficulty in the performance of his 
duty. In 1911 Mr. Thomas organized the DeKalb Detective 
Association an since then every horse stolen in this county 
has been recovered. The society has seventy-two members 
distributed over the county, covering all the main roads in 
each township. On the commission of a crime a notice is 
sent out to each member to be on the lookout and he warns 
all his neighbors, so that many are on the alert all over 
the county when a crime is committed, and it is thus 
comparatively easy to apprehend a horse thief and other 
criminals. Mr. Thomas has thus had a varied career, having 
been a baker, a manufacturer of candies, and a public 
official, and in every phase of life's endeavors to which 
he has devoted himself, he has performed his part as a man 
among men, ever receiving the confidence and regard of all 
who have known him. While engaged in the candy business, he 
and his brother manufactured what was known as Thomas 
Brothers Cough Drops which attained marked degree of 
popularity and reached a wide sale.  Politically, Mr. 
Thomas has been a life-long supporter of the Democratic 
party, having been active in the state and county 
organizations and doing effectual work during campaigns. 
Fraternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the 
Knight of Maccabees, the Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and also helped 
institute the local lodge of the Modern Samaritans. 
Personally, Mr. Thomas is a man of splendid physique, a 
good mixer, makes friends easily and was a brave and 
fearless officer in the discharge of his official duties, 
though with malice toward none and charity to all. In his 
relations with his fellow men he is courteous and genial 
and possessing marked domestic taste, he find his chief 
enjoyment in his home where, laying aside the cares of 
business life, he enjoys the companionship of his wife and 
children. When but seventeen years old Ralph L. Thomas 
married Oliver Kiplinger, of Waterloo, the daughter of 
Michael and Flora (Dennison) Kiplinger, whose sketch 
appears elsewhere in this work. To this union were born 
five children, namely: Victor, who is engaged with the Home 
Telephone Company at Auburn, married Edna Baumgartner, of 
Warsaw; Bernard died at the age of four years; Ruth died at 
the age of three years, their deaths occurring but four 
days apart, from diphtheria; LaVone died at the age of two 
and one-half years of scarlet fever; Dale is now eight year 
old, and is the idolized member of the family

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com