Railway agent.
Born at Portland, Maine on 12 April 1881, son of E. B. Thomas and Maggie Little, he spent much of his childhood at Coburg, Ontario, attending the Collegiate Institute there until the age of 15 when he moved to Brockville with his mother and studied telegraphy. They moved to Toronto and he got a jobs as a telegrapher with the Great Northwestern Telegraph Company and the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1900 he came to Manitoba in the employ of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, rising to become a freight and passenger agent for the Canadian Northern Railway at Brandon.
On 28 August 1905, he married Mamie Foster (?-?) at Carman and they had a son, Edward Foster Thomas (1909-?). The family resided at 312 Princess Avenue, Brandon. He was a member of the Brandon Commercial Club, IOOF (Carman Lodge No. 22), Masons (Tweed Lodge No. 113), and St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church.
He died at Edmonton, Alberta in October 1942 and was buried there in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Marriage registration [Orrin Albert Thomas, Mary Annie Foster], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Birth registration [Edward Foster Thomas], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
The Story of Manitoba by F. H. Schofield, Winnipeg: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1913.
Obituary, Edmonton Journal, 8 October 1942, page 16.
We thank Darryl Toews for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 20 March 2024
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