Nathaniel S. Thomas

Thomas was born on June 30, 1867, in Faribault, Minnesota, the son of the Reverend Elisha Smith Thomas, later Bishop of Kansas, and Georgine Mary Brown. He was educated in Minneapolis, and Saint Paul, before studying at the University of Minnesota and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1890. He then became chair of English literature in St. John's Military School, where he remained until 1891. He perused his theological studies first at the University of Cambridge in England, and then at the Kansas Theological School.^[1]

Thomas was ordained deacon on October 5, 1891, at Grace Cathedral, and priest on May 28, 1893, at Grace Church in Ottawa, Kansas, on both occasions by his father Elisha Smith Thomas. He served at Grace Church in Ottawa, Kansas, before becoming chaplain at College of the Sisters of Bethany in Topeka, Kansas. He also became professor of Pastoral Care at the Philadelphia Divinity School, while in 1894, he became rector of St Paul's Church in Leavenworth, Kansas. Between 1897 and 1899, he served as rector of St Matthew's Church in Wheeling, West Virginia, while between 1899 and 1909, he was rector of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Philadelphia.^[2]