The subject of this sketch was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1857, a son of the late John F. and Margaret (Griffiths) Thomas. Both parents were natives of Wales, and on leaving that scenic country, crossed the Atlantic to the new world, arriving in America during the early '50s. They met and were married in Pennsylvania and after a few years removed to New Haven, West Virginia, and their last days were spent in Macon county, Missouri. During the Civil war Mr. Thomas served as a member of the Home Guard at Syracuse, Ohio. Throughout his entire life he engaged in coal mining and in this manner provided for his family, which numbered twelve children.
    David G., the eldest of that family, attended for a few months the public schools in Fulton county, Illinois; but from the age of ten years, he had been employed in the mines of that state and of Missouri, until on attaining his majority his health having failed, he sought it in the mountainous regions of Wyoming, arriving in the then territory, March 11, 1878, taking up his abode in Rock Springs where he at once became connected with the coal mining interests. He served in various capacities in connection with mine operations, and he has been with the Union Pacific Coal Company all of said time, save for a period of about sixteen years, six of which were spent as the state inspector of coal mines, two years as county and prosecuting attorney of Sweetwater county, and six years as prosecuting attorney of Uinta county. Giving up the practice of law, at the solicitation of the general manager of the Union Pacific Coal Company, who invited him to become mine superintendent at Rock Springs.
    In May, 1893, Mr. Thomas was married in Bevier, Macon county, Missouri, to Miss Elizabeth E. Jones, a graduate of the State Normal School at Kirksville and a teacher in the public schools of Bevier. She was the daughter of David W. and Elizabeth Jones. They have become the parents of one child, _______ Thomas, who was born March 8, 1894 in Rock Springs, and was graduated from the Wyoming State University and from Leland Stanford Junior University, and is the wife of Doctor John H. Goodnough, of Reliance, Wyoming.
    Politically Mr. Thomas is a republican, was a member of the last territorial legislature, was for one term the mayor of Rock Springs, is at present a member of the state board of examiners for mine inspectors, a director of the North Side State Bank, and a member of the school board of Rock Springs.
    Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Pythias of which order he is a past supreme representative and with the Masonic order, having reached the Knight Templar degree in the York Rite and the thirty-second degree of the Consistory in the Scottish Rite, and is a noble of the Mystic Shrine.
    During his leisure hours he has found time to write verse and is the author of a publication entitled. "Overland and Underground," which has met with commendation and approval among the rank and file generally.
    Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are both identified with the Presbyterian faith.