1. Thomas Sturgis was a businessman, soldier and financier.
18 Facts About Thomas Sturgis
1. 2.
Thomas Sturgis was appointed the second New York City Fire Commissioner by Mayor Seth Low on January 1,1902, and served in that position until the end of the Low Administration on December 31,1903.
3.
Thomas Sturgis was born on April 6 or 30,1846, to Wiliam and Elizabeth Sturgis, in New York City.
4.
When he was 16, Sturgis began working as a clerk at a wholesale dry goods house.
5.
When he turned 18 in 1864, Thomas Sturgis enlisted in the Sixtieth Massachusetts Regiment, commissioned as a first lieutenant and adjutant of the Sixtieth regiment.
6.
Thomas Sturgis served as post-adjutant of a prisoner-of-war camp near Camp Morton in Indiana in the summer and fall of 1864.
7.
At the Battle of Fort Stedman, Thomas Sturgis was taken prisoner, held in Libby Prison, and exchanged, serving until the end of the war in 1865.
8.
Thomas Sturgis managed several farms, and worked as a general land agent for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, and negotiated with Native Americans on behalf of then Governor of Missouri Thomas Clement Fletcher, gaining right of way to build a railroad on the 35th parallel.
9.
Thomas Sturgis moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1878 and was involved in banking, railroads and stockraising, spending fifteen years in the city.
10.
Thomas Sturgis became the leader of the Republican Party in Wyoming.
11.
Thomas Sturgis married Helen Rutgers Weir, daughter of Robert Walter Weir, on June 9,1880.
12.
Thomas Sturgis organized and served as president of the Stockgrowers National Bank in Cheyenne.
13.
Thomas Sturgis was involved in the founding of and served as president of the Cheyenne and Northern Railway.
14.
Thomas Sturgis was secretary of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association for 14 years, and secretary of the National Cattle Growers Association.
15.
Thomas Sturgis was elected to the Wyoming Territorial Senate and chairman of the Republican Central Committee of the Territory while in Cheyenne, serving from 1882 to 1883.
16.
Thomas Sturgis soon became prominent in New York City business, owning stock or being a director of the Consolidated Ice Company, the Knickerbocker Ice Company, the American Ice Company, the Wyoming Development Company, and the Cheyenne Gas and Electric Light Company.
17.
Thomas Sturgis was appointed to the Civil Service Commission of New York in 1896 and was made a trustee of the Elmira Correctional Facility in 1899, being elected president of the latter's board.
18.
Thomas Sturgis served as New York City Fire Commissioner from January 1,1902, to December 31,1903.