Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 638 - 641 

THOMAS G. JAMES, JR. In the great and fertile West are some extensive farmers, men who bring to their calling rare business skill and excellent judgment. Some of the most enterprising of these may be found in Kansas. Ranking among these is T. G. James, Jr., who is one of the most prominent young men of Sedgwick County. He owns and operates 880 acres of land in Afton Township, having his residence on section 5. Of this but eighty acres are under cultivation, the balance being devoted to stock-raising. He has a fine herd of cattle, embracing about 200 head, besides large numbers of horses and hogs, in the care of which is expended annually hundreds of dollars, and the proceeds of which yield a fine income. This extensive tract of land is admirably watered by a never-failing spring, and supplied with good buildings which are fitted up with all the conveniences required in the line of business to which it is devoted. It embraces one mile of the well-known Garden Plain, and for fertility of soil and natural advantages is not exceeded by anything of the kind in Southern Kansas. The homestead proper with its surroundings, a view of which will be found in connection with this sketch, forms a most pleasant picture in the landscape of Sedgwick County.

            Mr. James is a Mississippian by birth and the son of Thomas G. and Jane E. (Foote) James, natives respectively of Mississippi and Alabama. He was born in Yazoo County, Dec. 28, 1861, the county of which his father was also a native. He is now residing in Tallahatchee County. There he carries on a cotton plantation and also merchandising to a considerable extent, dealing in general merchandise. He is a lively Democrat, politically, and with his estimable wife, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Of the seven children born to them, but two are living--Mary S. and the subject of this sketch. Mary became the wife of Casa Collier, and the mother of six children; her husband was the manager of his father-in-law's plantation, and died in Mississippi in November, 1887. George Foote James died in his native State in 1877, and Edwin E., in 1882; three children of the family died in infancy.

            The subject of this sketch is finely educated, having pursued his studies at the Emery School in West Virginia, the Trinity High School in Alabama, and the State University of Mississippi, taking afterward a commercial course in the college at Memphis, Tenn. While in Alabama he formed the acquaintance of Miss Memrie A. Marks, and the mutual attachment which ensued resulted in their marriage on the 23d of December, 1885. Mrs. James was born in Morgan County, Ala., July 28, 1865, and is the daughter of Rev. John S. and Sarah (Burt) Marks, natives respectively of Tennessee and Alabama. Her father was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the scene of his labors being for many years in the city of Trinity. The parental household included eight children. Their eldest son, J. McFerren, is Postmaster at Decatur, Ala.; Sarah B. is the wife of J. F. Halsey, a commercial traveler, who has his headquarters at Trinity; they have one child living and two deceased. Memrie A., Mrs. James, was the third child; Caesar E., E. Strattie, Lucy A., Jennie B. and Robert remain under the parental roof in their native State. Mr. and Mrs. James have one child, a bright little boy, Thomas G., who was born Nov. 30, 1886.

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