McGUIRE, Thomas

––––––––––––––––

Thomas McGuire died at the poor farm on Friday last at the age of ninety-one [sic]. “Old Tom” was a very queer character and had a history which it is said would make very interesting reading matter had he cared to divulge it, but when questioned in regard to his past life he would say but little. He wandered about town for many years, always carrying large sums of money and making his home at the gas house where he did odd jobs for his lodgings, until the infirmities of old age rendered him helpless a few years ago, when he was taken to the poor farm, his money having disappeared. He was a finely educated man and was thoroughly conversant on all subjects, but dis­sipation overtook him and a life which once promised so much terminated in darkness and his body now fills a pauper’s grave. Such examples as this should not be allowed to pass by unheeded but should be made object lessons to the children to instill into their minds the evil effects of intem­perance.

––––––––––––––––

Notes: The Johnson County Indiana WPA Death Index, 1882–1920, page 142, referencing Book H-16, page 7, records that Thomas McGuire, an eighty-year-old white male, died 24 Jan 1891 at Alms-House.
The 1870 US Federal Census for Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana records sixty-year-old, Canada-born ditcher Thomas Mcguire as resident in the household of twenty-eight-year-old, Indiana-born carpenter, William D Voris and his twenty-four-year-old, Indiana-born wife Nancy A Voris.

Submitted by Mark McCrady, Cathea Curry and Lois Johnson