Moonlight, Thomas, soldier and politician, was born in Scotland on Nov. 10, 1833. At the age of thirteen years he ran away from home and came to America as a forecastle hand on a schooner. He landed in Philadelphia, "a stranger in a strange land" and without a cent of money. Not disheartened by circumstances, however, he went to work at the first thing he could find to do, and during the next seven years he was employed in mills, glass factories and on truck farms in the vicinity of Philadelphia. On May 17, 1853, he enlisted in the artillery service of the regular army, took part in the Seminole war in Florida, and was with Albert Sidney Johnston in the campaign against the Mormons. At the expiration of his term in 1858 he was honorably discharged at Fort Leavenworth, where for the next year he occupied the position of chief clerk in the commissary department. In 1855, while serving in the army, he married Miss Ellen Murray of Elmira, N. Y., the wedding being solemnized at Ringgold barracks, Tex. In 1860 he bought a farm in Leavenworth county, Kan., and settled down to agricultural pursuits. When the Civil war broke out, he raised a light battery and was commissioned captain of artillery. Promotions followed and at the close of the war he was colonel of the Eleventh Kansas cavalry, with the brevet rank of brigadier-general. In 1864 he was a presidential elector on the Republican ticket; was soon afterward appointed collector of internal revenue, and in 1868 was elected secretary of state. At the close of his term he declined a second nomination and later, on account of his views on prohibition, went over to the Democratic party. He was an elector-at-large on that ticket in 1884, and in 1893 he was appointed minister to Bolivia by President Cleveland, which position he held for four years. Col. Moonlight died on Feb. 7, 1899.