After teaching school in New Virginia, in Warren County, he attended the University of Iowa College of Law.

That year he moved to Sioux Rapids in Buena Vista County, Iowa, where he started his law practice.

[1] From 1885 until 1898, he served as judge of the fourteenth judicial district of Iowa (which included Buena Vista, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Dickinson, Emmett, Kossuth, Humboldt, and Clay Counties).

[6] Thomas' service in Congress coincided with a worsening of factionalism within the Iowa Republican Party, with an "insurgent" contingent loyal to the career and platform of Des Moines attorney (and later Governor and U.S.

In poor health and in search of a more hospitable setting, died on a train near Yuma, Arizona on March 17, 1905, while en route to Los Angeles, California.