Douglas Hamilton Thomas manuscript collection

Douglas Hamilton Thomas was born on January 1, 1847 to Dr. John Hanson Thomas (1813-1881) and Annie Campbell Gordon Thomas (1819-1886) in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended private schools in the city before enrolling at the University of Maryland. During the Civil War, he attempted to join the Confederate army but was caught by federal officials and returned to Maryland. He enlisted in the Fifth Maryland Regiment in 1867 and rose to the rank of major. Thomas worked in banking for the majority of his career and was employed by the Farmers and Merchants’ Bank, Marine Bank, and finally the Merchants’ National Bank where he was elected president in 1886. He was appointed to several government posts, such as the Baltimore Street Paving Commission, and considered running for mayor of Baltimore.

Thomas married Alice Lee Whitridge (1846-1918), the daughter of Dr. John and Catherine Cox (née Morris) Whitridge, in 1870. Alice’s father moved to Baltimore in 1820 after graduating from Harvard College with a degree in medicine. The family owned several slaves, including Martha Ann “Patty” Atavis (circa 1816-1874). Atavis was purchased in 1839 and cared for the family’s children until her death. She is buried next to one of her charges, Olivia Whitridge (1837-1839), in Green Mount Cemetery.

Thomas and Alice had three children, Douglas Hamilton, Jr., Hanson Thomas, and Alice Lee, who married Robert Hooper Stevenson, Jr. Their son, Douglas, Jr., a prominent architect, was killed in a car accident in 1915. At the end of his life, Thomas lived in apartments in the Belvedere Hotel and maintained a home at 1010 St. Paul Street, which he had built in the early 1890s. He died on March 12, 1919.