Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs . the Empire state of theUnion he received his early educational training. In 1859, when twentyyears of age, he made the trip overland to the new Eldorado in Cali-fornia, where he remained for a peiiod of several months. In 1863 hecame to Little Rock as surgeon of the Third Cavalry, a part of GeneralSteeles aimiy of occupation. He had previoiisly prepared himself forthe profession of medicine at the Iowa Medical College. After the closeof the Civil war he located for practice as a physician and surgeon atOld Lewisburg, n
Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs . the Empire state of theUnion he received his early educational training. In 1859, when twentyyears of age, he made the trip overland to the new Eldorado in Cali-fornia, where he remained for a peiiod of several months. In 1863 hecame to Little Rock as surgeon of the Third Cavalry, a part of GeneralSteeles aimiy of occupation. He had previoiisly prepared himself forthe profession of medicine at the Iowa Medical College. After the closeof the Civil war he located for practice as a physician and surgeon atOld Lewisburg, now Morrillton, in Conway county, Arkansas, wherewas solemni/ed his nuirriage to IMiss Olivia In addition to thework of his profession he became an extensive cotton planter. His in-creasing interest in the latter line of enterprise led him to the devisingof more improved and more efficient machinery for the handling andspinning of cotton and finally he gave up the practice of medicine alto-Lether in order fn devote all his time to the inventinir and nianiifaetur-. ^/P^-p^-^1^^y^c<^ HISTORY OF ARKANSAS 1447 ing of cotton orinning machinery. lu 1883 he located permanently atLittle Rock, and here he established the Thomas Cotton Press ^Yo^ks,which later became the Thomas Manufacturing Company and which isnow known under the name of the Thomas-Fordyce Manufacturing Com-pany, manufacturers of cotton gin and cotton compress machinery andequipment, one of the largest concerns in the South and the most im-portant industrial plant at Little Rock. Dr. Thomas invented and brought into use the first device for tak-ing cotton out of the wagon into the gin by machinery, this supersedingthe old crude method of doing it by hand. He invented the first self-packing cotton press, which was the device that brought him nationalfame and which was the basis of the statement often made of him thathe did more for the cotton industry than any man since the time of EliWhitney. In 1890 he estab
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