John J. Thomas

(1869-1952) lived in Seward and Lincoln. Lawyer, government official, while a member and vice-governor of the Federal Reserve Board (renamed later as Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve) from 1933 to 1936, he agreed to a doubling of reserve requirements, and expressed opposition to a return to the gold standard, a view held by the Roosevelt Administration; he was also a director, chairman, and deputy chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1936 to 1941. Consult Who's Who in America, Vol 19 (1936-37) 2404 and obituaries in Lincoln Star, April 24, 1952, p. 9 and in New York Times, April 24, 1952, p. 31 and Biographical Dictionary of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (Greenwood Press, 1992) 322-324.

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