Ormsby B. Thomas

Ormsby Brunson Thomas (August 21, 1832 – October 24, 1904) was a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin.

Early life

Thomas was born in Sandgate, Vermont, and he moved with his parents to Wisconsin in 1836. He attended the common schools and Burr Seminary, Manchester, Vermont. He was graduated from the State and National Law School in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1856. He was admitted to the bar in Albany, New York. In 1856 he began practicing law in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He then served as district attorney of Crawford County, Wisconsin. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War as captain of Company D, Thirty-First Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry.

Politics

After returning from the war, he served as member of the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1862, 1865, and 1867. He served in the Wisconsin State Senate in 1880 and 1881.

Thomas was elected as a Republican to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1885 – March 3, 1891). He was the representative of Wisconsin's 7th congressional district. He served as chairman of the Committee on War Claims in the Fifty-first Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress.

He resumed his practice of law in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and died at his home there on October 24, 1904 after an illness of nearly a year. He was interred in Evergreen Cemetery.