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Senate Years of Service: 1928-1933; 1940-1945 Party: Republican; Republican
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THOMAS, John, a Senator from Idaho; born on a farm in Phillips County, Kans., January 4, 1874;
attended the rural schools and the Central Normal College at Great Bend, Kans.; taught school,
serving as superintendent of schools of Phillips County, Kans., 1898-1903; register of land office at
Colby, Kans., 1906-1909; moved to Gooding, Idaho, in 1909; engaged in banking and livestock
business; mayor of Gooding 1917-1919; member of the Republican National Committee
1925-1933; appointed on June 30, 1928, and subsequently elected on November 6, 1928, as a
Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Frank R. Gooding
and served from June 30, 1928, to March 3, 1933; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1932;
chairman, Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation (Seventy-first and Seventy-second Congresses);
resumed former business pursuits; again appointed on January 27, 1940, and subsequently elected on
November 5, 1940, to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William E.
Borah; reelected in 1942, and served from January 27, 1940, until his death in Washington, D.C.,
November 10, 1945; interment in Elmwood Cemetery, Gooding, Idaho.
BibliographyU.S. Congress. Memorial Services.
79th Cong., 2nd sess., 1946. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1948.
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