Although now retired from active business, Thomas J Hughes is well-remembered in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, and his plumbing establishment at No 129 Chestnut St., Dunmore, was one of the borough's institutions, that, now departed, was once most familiar. Thomas J Hughes is a son of John Hughes, a native of Ireland, who was reared to manhood and married in his homeland, afterward immigrating to the United States. Enlisting in the Union army, he served through the war between the states, his death occurring in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, when he was sixty-eight years of age. He was a member of St Mary's Roman Catholic Church of that place. He and his wife were the parents of three children, the only survivor of whom is Thomas J, of whom further. Thomas J Hughes, son of John Hughes, was born in Dunmore, Lackawanna county, Pennsylvania, in March 1867, and there attended school. His education completed, he apprenticed himself to the plumber's trade, and after learning this was for eight years a gold prospector in the West, then returning to the place of his birth and establishing in the plumbing business. His beginning was assuredly humble, his cash capital, and he had few other assets, being eighty cents. The first call that he received after announcing that he would perform plumbing work of all kinds, was for a water trap. The market price of this article was seventy-five cents, and it was necessary to journey to Scranton to procure it. The price of the trap and the car-fare between Dunmore and Scranton completely exhausted his small funds, and he was compelled to walk back to Dunmore to install the trap. This was the starting point of his business, and it would have been difficult to find a lower place of departure upon a business career, but untiring application and earnest labor brought their inevitable rewards in patronage and prosperity, so that from that time until his retirement his business was a most flourishing one, his service to the public most excellent. Mr Hughes is a director of the Fidelity Bank of Dunmore, a charter member of the Smith Fire Company, and belongs to St Mary's Church. His career as a plumber in Dunmore was twenty-three years in duration, and during that time his working force ranged from one to four men.
He married Mary Mack, born at Niagara Falls, New York, their home being now at No 228 Chestnut street, Dunmore.