Eli Thomas, after many years of successful farming, gathered together his scattered holdings to purchase three hundred and fifty acres of land on the outskirts of Marion, Indiana. He combined this with his father’s eighty-acre homestead. He sold part of this acreage for $200.00, which he used in 1887 to build the large brick home that he and his family would occupy for about forty years.
The Thomas family had emigrated from South Carolina to Wayne County, Indiana, in 1810. Their son Eli was born on their farm near Richmond in 1825. By 1829, the family had journeyed to Grant County, Indiana, joining with fellow young Quakers seeking a new community and cheaper land near Marion.
Thomas was married three times. His wives were Anna Schooley Thomas, b.1828-d.1853, Melissa Willcuts Thomas, b.1825- d.1878, and Minerva, b.1840-1928. He had four children.
Thomas invested his farming income in real estate. He owned three farms in the Marion area. He and two others purchased land near his Washington Street home for lease to gas well operators.
Grant County Historian Rolland Whitson mentions Eli Thomas as a valuable contributor to his writings on Grant County’s history. The elderly Thomas related firsthand accounts of pioneer life in pre-Civil War Grant County. When he was in his nineties, he claimed to be the last living person who spoke with Marion founder Martin Boots,
Thomas died in 1913. His wife, Minerva, continued to live in the house until she died in 1928.
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