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{{AfDM|page=David William Thomas (2nd nomination)|year=2018|month=January|day=27|substed=yes|origtag=afdx|help=off}}

 

{{Infobox officeholder

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = David William Thomas, Sr.

| name = David William Thomas, Sr.

| nationality = [[United States|American]]

| nationality = [[United States|American]]

| office = [[Mayor]] of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]

| office = [[Mayor]] of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], [[Louisiana]]

| party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]

| party = [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]

| term_start =1936

| term_start =1936

| term_end = 1940

| term_end = 1940

| preceded = [[Henry L. Bridges]]

| preceded =Henry L. Bridges

| succeeded = [[Floyd D. Culbertson, Jr.]]

| succeeded = [[Floyd D. Culbertson, Jr.]]

| birth_date = {{birth date|1876|8|12}}

| birth_date =August 12, 1876

| death_date = {{death date and age|1961|8|1|1876|8|12}}

| death_date=August 1, 1961 (aged 84)

| birth_place = [[Cardiff, Wales|Cardiff]], [[Wales]]<br>

| birth_place = [[Cardifff]], [[Wales]]<br>

[[United Kingdom]]

[[United Kingdom]]

| death_place = [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], [[Webster Parish]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]

| death_place=Minden, Louisiana

| alma_mater=[[Cornell University]]<br>

| alma_mater=[[Cornell University]]<br>

[[University of Michigan]]<br>

[[University of Michigan]]<br>

[[Louisiana State University Law Center]]

[[Louisiana State University]] Law Cente]

| occupation = [[Lawyer|Attorney]]; [[Journalist]]; [[Educator]]

| occupation = [[Attorney]]; [[Journalist]]; [[Educator]]

| spouse =Divorced from Alice Singletary LeBlanc

| spouse =Divorced from Alice Singletary LeBlanc

| children =(1) Gwendolyn Singletary-Thomas Neitzel<br>

| children =(1) Gwendolyn Singletary-Thomas Neitzel<br>

Seven grandchildren<br>

Seven grandchildren<br>

Six great-grandchildren

Six great-grandchildren

| religion = [[Southern Baptist]]

| religion=[[Southern Baptist]]

| footnotes = (1) Of all [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]] mayors, Thomas may have been the most unlikely – born in the [[United Kingdom]], reared in [[Pennsylvania]], a [[Cornell University]] graduate, and a journalist and educator in south Louisiana – all before he arrived in Minden.

 

'''David William Thomas, Sr.''' (August 12, 1876 &ndash; August 1, 1961), was a [[Wales|Welsh]]-[[United States|American]] "Renaissance man", [[journalist]], publisher, university [[professor]], poet, and [[attorney]] who served from 1936 to 1940<ref>City of Minden, List of Minden Mayors Since 1888</ref> as [[mayor]] of the small city of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], the seat of government of Webster Parish in northwestern [[Louisiana]].<ref name=agan>{{cite web|url=http://www.mindenmemories.org/David%20William%20Thomas.htm|title=Echoes of Our Past: David William Thomas|publisher=''[[Minden Press-Herald]]'', through mindenmemories.org|author=John A. Agan, Webster Parish historian|date=May 22, 2008|accessdate=March 10, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=g_t0BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=Tom+Colten#v=onepage&q=Tom%20Colten&f=false|title=Lost Minden|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Company|location=[[Columbia, South Carolina]]|author=John A. Agan|pages=119|date=2014|isbn=978-1-4671-1319-9|accessdate=March 9, 2015}}</ref>

 

A native of [[Cardif]], Wales, [[United Kingdom]], he was the son of David and Sarah Thomas. The Thomases entered the United States in 1883 and settled in Scranto], [[Pennsylvania]], where young Thomas received his primary schooling. He was admitted to [[Cornell University]] in Ithaca, [[New York]], at which he received an [[Ivy League]] education.<ref name=agan/> He is listed too as a 1904 graduate of the [[University of Michigan]] in [[Ann Arbor, Michigan|Ann Arbor]], [[Michigan]], field of study unspecified in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RpYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=David+William+Thomas+in+Minden&source=bl&ots=B1kn8HvnZa&sig=uxe5ofFx8D6LivIPZZa_VDPEVBc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mCb_VOLsI8KqNp-IhMgK&ved=0CFgQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=David%20William%20Thomas%20in%20Minden&f=false|title="Deaths (Class of 1904)"|publisher=''The Michigan Alumnus'', Vol. 69|page=63|date=October 1962|accessdate=March 10, 2015}}</ref>

(2) Thomas seemed hesitant to commit to a single vocation until he began his law practice in Minden, a quarter century after having earned his law degree from [[Louisiana State University Law Center]].

After college, Thomas was briefly a [[high school]] [[teacher]] and then a school principal in [[Lake Charles, Louisiana|Lake Charles]] in Calcasieu Parish in southwestern Louisiana. After several years in Lake Charles, Thomas was hired as professor of [[Latin]], [[Greek language|Greek]] and journalism at [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge]]. At the time, LSU was located downtown on the site of the Louisiana State Capitol. While Thomas was a professor at LSU, several students from Minden, including future judge Harmon Caldwell Drew, were students there. Later, H. C. Drew's son, Richard Harmon Drew, Sr.]], was a city judge and state representative. Harmonb Drew, Sr., was a pallbearer at Thomas's funeral, along with other prominent civic figures, including another mayor, [[John T. David]].<ref name=agan/>

(4) Thomas made a practice of distributing [[Bible]]s to high school graduates in the city of Minden.

While he was on the LSU faculty, Thomas also attended law school. He graduated in 1909 with an Bachelor of Laws degree but did not begin practicing law until 1934. He remained in his teaching position at LSU for several more years until the early 1920s, when he became publisher of a small daily newspaper, ''The Baton Rouge News'', forerunner to the modern ''Baton Rouge Advocate''. He was later an editor of a weekly paper in Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish. He left Hammond in 1923 in his 47th year to come to Minden, where he was on the staff of the new ''The Minden Tribune'', a forerunner to the ''Minden Press-Herald'', which merged into a daily newspaper in 1966, five years after Thomas's death.<ref name=agan/> In 1925, Thomas became professor of journalism at [[Louisiana Tech University]] (then Louisiana Polytechnic Institute) in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]]. His poetry was published in regional and national literary anthologies. Thomas remained on the faculty at Tech for several years, as a part-time instructor in his last year there. He returned to ''The Minden Tribune'' in 1927 before it merged with ''The Webster Signal'' to become ''The Signal-Tribune''. Once again, he returned to higher education: professor of journalism at the [[University of Arkansas]] at Fayetteville.<ref name=agan/>

While in Arkansas, Thomas wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers to remain in touch with the community. He returned to Minden in 1934 and never left. Twenty-five years after he had received his law degree from LSU, Thomas opened a private practice in Minden with R. F. Langston, which lasted until Langston's death in 1936. He then maintained a solo practice.<ref name=agan/>

 

 

Thomas ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Minden in the spring of 1934, having lost a Democratic runoff election on May 15 to former Mayor [[Henry L. Bridges]], 624 (63 percent) to 366 (37 percent).<ref>"Elect H. L. Bridges Mayor of Minden," ''Minden Herald'', May 18, 1934, p. 1</ref> In that race, Thomas called for a reduction in municipal utility rates and for the establishment of a canning plant to assist residents in the preservation of garden foods.<ref>''Minden Herald'', March 16, 1934, p. 10.</ref> The incumbent that year, [[Connell Fort]], who had been unseated in 1926 by future [[Governor]] [[Robert F. Kennon]]  and who had handily unseated Bridges in 1932, was eliminated in the first primary held on April 10, 1934.<ref>''Minden Herald'', April 13, 1934, p. 1.</ref>

 

 

During Thomas's second term, to which he was elected without opposition in 1938,<ref>"Heavy Ballot Is Cast in Primary Election Tuesday", ''Minden Herald'', April 8, 1938, p. 3.</ref> controversy arose over the sale of [[alcohol]]ic beverages. The city had allowed such sales when the [[Twenty-first Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution]] was adopted in December 1933. In the fall of 1938, a local option] election was held to decide whether Minden would impose [[prohibition]] at the municipal level. The city was voted dry effective January 1, 1939. The prohibition issue may have ruined Thomas politically, for he finished in third place in the 1940 primary election. The ultimate winner, attorney [[Floyd D. Culbertson, Jr.]], served through November 1942, when he resigned to enter military service during [[World War II]].<ref name=agan/> Thomas unsuccessfully challenged Culbertson in the 1942 election and then ran in the 1946 Democratic primary, in which he finished a weak third, with the contest being won in a runoff] on May 7 by John T. David.<ref>''Minden Herald'', May 10, 1946, p. 1.</ref>

'''David William Thomas, Sr.''' (August 12, 1876 &ndash; August 1, 1961), was a [[Wales|Welsh]]-[[United States|American]] "[[Polymath|Renaissance man]]", [[journalist]], [[Publishing|publisher]], university [[professor]], [[Poetry|poet]], and [[Lawyer|attorney]] who served from 1936 to 1940<ref>City of Minden, List of Minden Mayors Since 1888</ref> as [[mayor]] of the small city of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], the [[County seat|seat of government]] of [[Webster Parish]] in northwestern [[Louisiana]].<ref name=agan>{{cite web|url=http://www.mindenmemories.org/David%20William%20Thomas.htm|title=Echoes of Our Past: David William Thomas|publisher=''[[Minden Press-Herald]]'', through mindenmemories.org|author=John A. Agan, Webster Parish historian|date=May 22, 2008|accessdate=March 10, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=g_t0BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=Tom+Colten#v=onepage&q=Tom%20Colten&f=false|title=Lost Minden|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Company|location=[[Columbia, South Carolina]]|author=John A. Agan|pages=119|date=2014|isbn=978-1-4671-1319-9|accessdate=March 9, 2015}}</ref>

In 1950, Thomas and Culbertson, who had returned to Minden from military service, were opposing lawyers in a legal dispute over a $196 debt deemed collectible to the [[plaintiff]] by City Judge R. Harmon Drew, Sr. The case was appealed unsuccessfully to Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit in [[Shreveport]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://casetext.com/case/brown-v-harvey|title=''Brown v. Harvey''|publisher=casetext.com|date=April 5, 1950|accessdate=March 7, 2015}}</ref><ref>The $196 debt dispute seems like a small claim today, but in 1950, it would have been the equivalent of three or four house payments for a middle-class family.</ref>

==Background==

Thomas remained active in local Democratic politics. From 1948 until his death, he served as the Webster Parish attorney for the inheritance collector and maintained his own law practice.<ref name=agan/> In 1954, Thomas ran a weak third in the race for Minden city judge, a position vacated by the incumbent R. Harmon Drew, Sr. Cecil C. Lowe defeated Alton Eugene Frazier (1922-2001) in a runoff election for the judgeship.<ref>"Lowe Leads in Judge Race", ''Minden Herald'', July 30, 1954, p. 1.</ref>

A native of [[Cardiff, Wales|Cardiff]], Wales, [[United Kingdom]], he was the son of David and Sarah Thomas. The Thomases entered the United States in 1883 and settled in [[Scranton, Pennsylvania|Scranton]], [[Pennsylvania]], where young Thomas received his primary schooling. He then studied at [[Cornell University]] in [[Ithaca, New York|Ithaca]], [[New York (U.S. state)|New York]].<ref name=agan/> He later studied at the [[University of Michigan]] in [[Ann Arbor, Michigan|Ann Arbor]], [[Michigan]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RpYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=David+William+Thomas+in+Minden&source=bl&ots=B1kn8HvnZa&sig=uxe5ofFx8D6LivIPZZa_VDPEVBc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mCb_VOLsI8KqNp-IhMgK&ved=0CFgQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=David%20William%20Thomas%20in%20Minden&f=false|title="Deaths (Class of 1904)"|publisher=''The Michigan Alumnus'', Vol. 69|page=63|date=October 1962|accessdate=March 10, 2015}}</ref>

Thomas was not the first Minden mayor to have a background in journalism; so did [[W. Jasper Blackburn]], who served as a Democrat from 1855 to 1856. Blackburn became a [[Republican Party|Republican]] during the [[American Civil War]] and served briefly in the [[United States House of Representatives]] and the Louisiana State Senate.<ref>John A. Agan, "Profile 2007: MPH story goes back more than 150 years," ''Minden Press-Herald'', undated 2007.</ref>J. Frank Colbert, a former state representative who served as mayor from 1944 to 1946, also had newspaper experience. Connell Fort waso a newspaperman during much of his working career. Twenty-six years after Thomas left the office of mayor, still another former newspaperman, Tom Colten, became the city's first of thus far three Republican mayors.

After college, Thomas was briefly a [[high school]] [[teacher]] and then a [[school principal]] in [[Lake Charles, Louisiana|Lake Charles]] in [[Calcasieu Parish]] in southwestern Louisiana. After several years in Lake Charles, Thomas was hired as professor of [[Latin]], [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[journalism]] at [[Louisiana State University]] in [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]]. At the time, LSU was located downtown on the site of the [[Louisiana State Capitol]]. While Thomas was a professor at LSU, several students from Minden, including future judge [[Harmon Caldwell Drew]], were students there. Later, H. C. Drew's son, [[R. Harmon Drew, Sr.]], a judge and later [[Louisiana State Legislature|state representative]], was a [[pallbearer]] at Thomas's funeral, along with other prominent civic figures, including another mayor, [[John T. David]].<ref name=agan/>

==Personal life and death==

A [[Southern Baptist]], Thomas presented [[Bible]]s to high school students upon their graduations. Upon his death in Minden at the age of eighty-four, eleven days short of eight6y-five years, services were held at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Minden, then a new sanctuary, with the Reverend T. W. Leachman officiating. Thomas is interred at historic Minden Cemetery.<ref ==Background==

While he was on the LSU faculty, Thomas also attended law school. He graduated in 1909 with an [[Bachelor of Laws]] degree but did not begin practicing law until 1934. He remained in his teaching position at LSU for several more years until the early 1920s, when he became publisher of a small daily newspaper, ''The Baton Rouge News'', forerunner to the modern ''[[The Advocate (Louisiana)|Baton Rouge Advocate]]''. He was later an editor of a weekly paper in [[Hammond, Louisiana|Hammond]] in [[Tangipahoa Parish]]. He left Hammond in 1923 in his 47th year to come to Minden, where he was on the staff of the new ''The Minden Tribune'', a forerunner to the ''[[Minden Press-Herald]]'', which merged into a daily newspaper in 1966, five years after Thomas's death.<ref name=agan/>

In 1925, Thomas became professor of journalism at [[Louisiana Tech University]] (then Louisiana Polytechnic Institute) in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]] in [[Lincoln Parish, Louisiana|Lincoln Parish]] in [[North Louisiana]]. His poetry was published in regional and national literary [[anthology|anthologies]]. Thomas remained on the faculty at Tech for several years, as a part-time instructor in his last year there. He returned to ''The Minden Tribune'' in 1927 before it merged with ''The Webster Signal'' to become ''The Signal-Tribune''. Once again, he returned to higher education: professor of journalism at the [[University of Arkansas]] at [[Fayetteville, Arkansas|Fayetteville]].<ref name=agan/>

le]].<ref name=agan/>

While in Arkansas, Thomas wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers to remain in touch with the community. He returned to Minden in 1934 and never left. Twenty-five years after he had received his law degree from LSU, Thomas opened a private practice in Minden with R. F. Langston, which lasted until Langston's death in 1936. He then maintained a solo practice.<ref name=agan/>

While in Arkansas, Thomas wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers to remain in touch with the community. He returned to Minden in 1934 and never left. Twenty-five years after he had received his law degree from LSU, Thomas opened a private practice in Minden with R. F. Langston, which lasted until Langston's death in 1936. He then maintained a solo practice.<ref name=agan/>

Thomas ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Minden in the spring of 1934, having lost a Democratic [[runoff election]] on May 15 to former Mayor [[Henry L. Bridges]], 624 (63 percent) to 366 (37 percent).<ref>"Elect H. L. Bridges Mayor of Minden," ''Minden Herald'', May 18, 1934, p. 1</ref> In that race, Thomas called for a reduction in municipal utility rates and for the establishment of a canning plant to assist residents in the preservation of garden foods.<ref>''Minden Herald'', March 16, 1934, p. 10.</ref> The incumbent that year, [[Connell Fort]], who had preceded future [[governor of Louisiana|Governor]] [[Robert F. Kennon]] as mayor prior to 1926 and who had handily unseated Bridges in 1932, was eliminated in the first primary held on April 10, 1934.<ref>''Minden Herald'', April 13, 1934, p. 1.</ref>

Thomas ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Minden in the spring of 1934, having lost a Democratic [[runoff election]] on May 15 to former Mayor [[Henry L. Bridges]], 624 (63 percent) to 366 (37 percent).<ref>"Elect H. L. Bridges Mayor of Minden," ''Minden Herald'', May 18, 1934, p. 1</ref> In that race, Thomas called for a reduction in municipal utility rates and for the establishment of a canning plant to assist residents in the preservation of garden foods.<ref>''Minden Herald'', March 16, 1934, p. 10.</ref> The incumbent that year, [[Connell Fort]], who had preceded future [[governor of Louisiana|Governor]] [[Robert F. Kennon]] as mayor prior to 1926 and who had handily unseated Bridges in 1932, was eliminated in the first primary held on April 10, 1934.<ref>''Minden Herald'', April 13, 1934, p. 1.</ref>

On March 2, 1936, at the age of sixty, Thomas was elected to the first of two two-year terms as mayor of Minden. He polled 736 votes (51.9 percent) to incumbent Henry Bridges' 682 (48.1 percent).<ref>"David W. Thomas Elected Mayor", ''Minden Herald'', March 3, 1936, p. 1.</ref>  As mayor under the former [[City commission government|commission government]], since replaced by the single-member district [[Mayor-council government|mayor-council]] format, Thomas pressed for paving all major streets. An amateur architect, Thomas designed the former Minden Community House in Victory Park,<ref name=agan/> but the original structure has long been superseded by a more modern building.

arch 2, 1936, a had returned to Minden from military service, were opposing lawyers in a legal dispute over a $196 debt deemed collectible to the [[plaintiff]] by City Judge R. Harmon Drew, Sr. The case was appealed unsuccessfully to the [[Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal|Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit]] in [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://casetext.com/case/brown-v-harvey|title=''Brown v. Harvey''|publisher=casetext.com|date=April 5, 1950|accessdate=March 7, 2015}}</ref><ref>The $196 debt dispute seems like a small claim today, but in 1950, it would have been the equivalent of more than %2,000 in 2017 dollars.</ref>

 

 

In 1950, Thomas and Culbertson, who had returned to Minden from military service, were opposing lawyers in a legal dispute over a $196 debt deemed collectible to the [[plaintiff]] by City Judge R. Harmon Drew, Sr. The case was appealed unsuccessfully to the [[Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal|Louisiana Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit]] in [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://casetext.com/case/brown-v-harvey|title=''Brown v. Harvey''|publisher=casetext.com|date=April 5, 1950|accessdate=March 7, 2015}}</ref><ref>The $196 debt dispute seems like a small claim today, but in 1950, it would have been the equivalent of three or four house payments for a middle-class family.</ref>

 

Thomas remained active in local Democratic politics. From 1948 until his death, he served as the Webster Parish attorney for the inheritance collector and maintained his own law practice.<ref name=agan/> In 1954, Thomas ran a weak third in the race for Minden city judge, a position vacated by the incumbent R. Harmon Drew, Sr. Attorney [[Cecil C. Lowe]] defeated Alton Eugene Frazier (1922-2001) in a runoff election for the judgeship.<ref>"Lowe Leads in Judge Race", ''Minden Herald'', July 30, 1954, p. 1.</ref>

Thomas was not the first Minden mayor to have a background in journalism; so did [[W. Jasper Blackburn]], who served as a Democrat from 1855 to 1856. Blackburn became a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] during the [[American Civil War]] and served briefly in the [[United States House of Representatives]] and the [[Louisiana State Legislature|Louisiana State Senate]].<ref>John A. Agan, "Profile 2007: MPH story goes back more than 150 years," ''Minden Press-Herald'', undated 2007</ref>[[J. Frank Colbert]], a former [[Louisiana State Legislature|state representative]] who served as mayor from 1944 to 1946, also had newspaper experience. Connell Fort was also a newspaperman during much of his working career. Twenty-six years after Thomas left the office of mayor, still another former newspaperman, [[Tom Colten]], became the city's first of thus far three Republican mayors.

Thomas remained active in local Democratic politics. From 1948 until his death, he served as the Webster Parish attorney for the inheritance collector and maintained his own law practice.<ref name=agan/> In 1954, Thomas ran a weak third in the race for Minden city judge, a position vacated by the incumbent R. Harmon Drew, Sr. Attorney Cecil C. Lowe defeated Alton Eugene Frazier (1922-2001) in a runoff election for the judgeship.<ref>"Lowe Leads in Judge Race", ''Minden Herald'', July 30, 1954, p. 1.</ref>

[[Image:David William Thomas grave, Minden, LA IMG 0576.JPG|200px|right|thumb|<span style="font-size:100%;">The grave of former [[Mayor]] David William Thomas is located near those of two other [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]] mayors, [[John T. David]] and [[J. Frank Colbert]] in [[Minden Cemetery]].</span>]]

Thomas was not the first Minden mayor to have a background in journalism; so did [[W. Jasper Blackburn]], who served as a Democrat from 1855 to 1856. Blackburn became a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] during the [[American Civil War]] and served briefly in the [[United States House of Representatives]] and the Louisiana State Senate.<ref>John A. Agan, "Profile 2007: MPH story goes back more than 150 years," ''Minden Press-Herald'', undated 2007</refJ. Frank Colbert, a former state representative who served as mayor from 1944 to 1946, also had newspaper experience. Connell Fort was also a newspaperman during much of his working career. Twenty-six years after Thomas left the office of mayor, still another former newspaperman, Tom Colten, became the city's first of thus far three Republican mayors.

==Personal life and death==

==Personal life and death==