William Haden Thomas, president of the American National Bank, of Dallas, and for many years past a leading financier and prominent citizenof that place, was born in Allen County, Ky., on the 11th day of March,1829. and received a good country school education for that day and time,which he has since enlarged by study and observation until he is now
considered one of the best informed and most accomplished gentlemen in Texas. He came to this State in the fall of 1852, making the journey onhorseback, and located in Dallas County, September 29th in the followingyear. He was united in marriage to Miss Mary Jane Skiles. daughter of Jacob Clemons (Clem) Skiles. She was born and reared in Warren County,
KY., in which members of her family have been prominent.

Mr. Thomas secured a position with Gold & Donaldson, merchants at Dallas, and continued with them until the fall of 1855, and then, on account of failing health, settled on a tract of land on Duck Creek. Dallas County. and opened a small farm.

In 1858 he was elected County Surveyor of Dallas County and continued in that position by successive re-elections, with the exception of the period spent by him in the army, until removed by Governor E. J. Davis in 1866 as an impediment to reconstruction. He enlisted in the Confederate army as a private in Company I.. Thirtieth Texas Cavalry, and transferred to the Brigade Commissary Department in the Trans-Mississippi Department, and so continued until the end of the war.

In 1871 he was one of the firm of T. C. Jordan & Co.. the first banking institution established in Dallas, composed of T. C. Jordon. J. P. Thomas and W. H. Thomas.

In 1872 he and W. H. Gaston organized the banking firm of Gaston & Thomas at Dallas. In 1878 Gaston & Thomas bought the stock of the Exchange Bank. chartered under State Law, and merged their bank into Exchange bank of Dallas. He was elected president, and held that position until 1883 and then sold his stock.

In 1884 he, with others, organized the American National Bank of Dallas. He was elected president of the institution, and has continued in that position by successive annual re-elections to the present time.

His wife died 13 November 1887. They reared two children, a daughter, May, who married F. A. Miller. and a son. Robert B., who married Miss Eula Hatcher.

Mr. Thomas is not a member of any church, but is an ardent believer in Christianity and has always been a moral man. He has attended strictly to his business interests, and by careful management has accumulated a good estate, and has made the banking institution he controls one of the most successful in the South.