History of Kentucky, five volumes, edited by Judge Charles Kerr,
American Historical Society, New York & Chicago, 1922, Vol. 5, p. 196
Lincoln Co.

CLEO THOMAS is a banker at McKinney.  While he has given his chief
time for the past half dozen years to banking, his business experience
has been a widely varied one, and in his relations as a banker he is
able to bring to his aid a knowledge and experience as a farmer,
merchant and manufacturer.
     Mr. Thomas was born in Russell County, Kentucky October 7, 1879. 
His grandfather was an early settler in Casey County, coming from
Virginia.  His father, Isaiah Thomas was born in Casey County in 1848,
and spent nearly all his life in that section of the state.  Shortly
after his marriage he clerked in the Irvin store in Russell County, but
in 1881 removed to Dunnville, and after 1884 lived at Phil, where he
conducted a prosperous business as a merchant and as a farmer until his
death in 1902.  He was one of the principal members of the Christian
Church in his community, was also affiliated with the Masonic Order and
was a democrat.  Isaiah Thomas married Susan L. Toms, who resides at
Phil, where she was born in 1855.  Their children were five in number:
Miss Mollie, who died at the age of twenty-three; Cleo; Lula, wife of
Chester Russell, a merchant at Phil; Alma, wife of Leslie Bottom, who is
in the grocery and poultry business at Mackville in Washington County,
Kentucky; and Miss Stella, who died at the age of twenty.
     Cleo Thomas was five years of age when his father took up his
residence at Phil, and he attended the public schools there.  His life
was spent on his father's farm until he was twenty-two.  Following that
for three years he was employed in a store at Phil, and then operated a
farm in Casey County until 1906.  The first year he spent at McKinney he
was connected with one of the local mercantile firms.  He also clerked
for a time at Fonthill in Russell County, and then for two years was
with the Fonthill plant of the Columbia Singletree Company as a spoke
manufacturer.  He returned to McKinney in 1909 as manager for the branch
plant of the same company, and remained with that manufacturing concern
until 1916, when he was elected cashier of the McKinney Deposit Bank. 
This bank was chartered by the state in 1905, and is one of the sound
and well managed country banks of Lincoln County.  It has a capital of
$15,000 surplus and profits of $5,000, and deposits averaging $100,000. 
E. J. Tanner is president, F. M. Ware, vice president and Cleo Thomas,
cashier.
     Mr. Thomas was interested in all war causes in his part of the
state, and gave much of his time to handling and promoting the Liberty
Bond sales.  He is owner of a modern residence on Stanford Street in
McKinney, and has a farm in Lincoln County.  Mr. Thomas votes as a
democrat, is a member of the Christian Church and is a past master of
McKinney Lodge No. 631, F. and A.  M., a member of Franklin Chapter No.
22, R. A. M., at Danville, Ryan Commandery No. 17, K. T., at Danville;
McKinney Camp No. 11649, Modern Woodmen of America; and Lee Tent No. 16,
Knights of the Maccabees.
     In the City of Lexington in 1911 Mr. Thomas married Miss Minnie
McWhorter, daughter of Robert and Martha (Gadberry) McWhorter.  Her
mother resides at Yosemite in Casey County.  Her father, now deceased,
was a farmer.  Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have one daughter, Martha Elizabeth,
born in June, 1918.