George W. Thomas Dies at Age 69

WELL KNOWN CLAYWORKER DEAD.

George W. Thomas, 69 years of age, president of the R. Thomas & Sons Company, pioneers in the manufacture of electric porcelain in Ohio and the first firm in the United States to manufacture high voltage porcelain, died at his home in East Liverpool, Ohio, August 10.

Mr. Thomas was born in East Liverpool in 1852, as a boy he learned the door knob manufacturing business, an industry in which the firm that he and his father later organized became interested as the Riverside Knob Works. In 1869 he became associated with his father who effected a co-partnership with Elijah Webster, in the manufacture of door knobs at Beaver Falls, Pa.

In 1873 the elder Thomas disposed of his door Knob business in 'the Beaver Falls factory and returned to East Liverpool, where with his son, George W., he organized the R. Thomas & Sons firm, which engaged in the door knob manufacturing business in a one-kiln plant. In later years the firm name was changed to the R. Thomas & Sons Co.

Mr. Thomas was a director in the Ohio Silica Co., East Liverpool, and the National Silica Co., Oregon, 111. Two daughters and two sons survive.