Edward Russell Thomas

Edward Russell Thomas (December 30, 1875 – July 6, 1926) He was a son of Ann Augusta (née Porter) Thomas (1847–1944) and Union general Samuel Russell Thomas (1840–1903), who left a fortune estimated at $20,000,000. His younger sister, Eleanor Thomas, was married to Robert Livingston Beeckman, who served as the Governor of Rhode Island from 1915 to 1921.

He graduated from Yale University in 1894.

On October 31, 1905, board vacancies of Consolidated National Bank were filled by E. R. Thomas, O. F. Thomas, Robert Maclay, and George B. Hays, all who were selected by E. R. Thomas. E.R. Thomas sold his interest in the Consolidated National Bank in October 1907, also resigning from his positions.

He was a member of the Union Club of the City of New York.

In 1924, he married actress Lucy Cotton, the daughter of Adelaide Wisby Cotton and Warren Jefferson Cotton. Together, they lived at 320 Park Avenue and were the parents of one daughter:

Thomas was the first person to kill someone with a privately owned automobile when on February 12, 1902 he hit 7-year-old Henry Theiss on Convent Avenue in Upper Manhattan. Thomas was exonerated for a crime but had to pay a settlement to Theiss’ family. Later he struck down and killed a woman in southern Italy with the same car, a three ton Damlier Phoenix touring car he bought from his friend William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. called the White Ghost which was by then painted red.

Thomas died after a three day illness at the Harbor Sanitarium in New York City on July 6, 1926. He was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York. His daughter Lucetta inherited Thomas' fortune.