Rev. James A. Thome

Rev. James A. Thome. , Thome was born in Augusta, Kentucky, son of Arthur and Mary Armstrong Thome. His father was a slaveowner and when Thome attended college in Augusta in 1833, and entered into Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, he was influenced by abolitionists and ousted from the seminary for his extreme views. From 1835 - 1836 he studied at Oberlin, received a degree in theology, and in 1836 became involved with the American anti-slavery society and was sent by its officers on a six month tour of the West Indies to report on emancipation there. The society published an account of his travels in 1838. In 1840, Thome filled the chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettre at Oberlin College. Thome was the minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn (Ohio City) from 1848 - 1871. Where he continued in the anti-slavery movement and raised funds for black education. In 1867 he took a year-long sabbatical to go to England to seek aid from benevolent societies to help freed slaves. Thome's church united with Congregationalists in 1857 and became First Congregational Church of Cleveland. He resigned as minister in 1871. He moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee to continue his ministry but succumbed to pneumonia two years later. He married Anna S. Allen in 1838; they had three daughters, Mary Elizabeth, Anna Bradford, and Mary Ellen.