Elzeaphus Thomas

Elzeaphus Thomas was a long-time and well-known citizen of Morton, Clinton Township, Putnam County, Indiana. His death occurred on September 22, 1889, when eighty-two years old. Elzeaphus was the son of Joel and Margaret (Kennedy) Thomas. Joel brought the family to Putnam County, Indiana about 1825 and settle on land in Clinton Township, one mile north of Morton and spent the remainder of his life there. 

Elzeaphus married Ruth A. Ralston, who died January 22, 1876, when sixty-six years old. He settled on a farm at the Morton Corners and in the 1850s built the house that stands there. Elzeaphus began his life where very litte, but prospering, he added to his place until he became one of the well-to-do and influential men of this and adjoining counties, owning at one time nineteen hundred acres of valuable land., mostly near the home place, so that he could ride horseback over his broad acres and give his personal attention. He loaned money and traded in stock extensively, keeping all within range. He paid as high as fifty and sixty dollars per acre for that which at first four or five dollars per acre. He hauled wheat to Lafayette and sold it for thirty-seven and one-half cents per bushel. He as been a keen observer, a good manager and was very successful in business. Although often importuned to do so, he would never hold office, being a Democrat, but no politician. 

This was taken from a biography on Elzeaphus son, Joseph Andrew Thomas, in Weiks History of Putnam County, Indiana, by Jesse W. Weik, 1910.