Thomas Tibbles

Thomas Henry Tibbles (May 22, 1840 – May 14, 1928) was an American abolitionist, writer, journalist, Native American rights activist, and politician who was born in Ohio and lived in various other places in the United States, especially Nebraska. Tibbles played an important role in the trial of Standing Bear, a legal battle which led to the liberation of the Ponca tribe from the Indian Territory in Oklahoma in the year 1879. This landmark case led to important improvements in the civil rights of Native Americans throughout the country and opened the door to further advancement.

Early life Tibbles was born on May 22, 1840, near Athens, Ohio to William and Martha (Cooley) Tibbles. Later, he became a member of the company of John Brown and was in all the prominent battles during the two-year "Bleeding Kansas" conflict, a slavery-related border conflict, on the side of the abolitionists. Taken prisoner by pro-slavery forces, he was sentenced to be hanged but escaped, though he lost part of his ear to a musket ball. After the end of the Kansas hostilities, he spent some time with the Omaha, even accompanying them in a conflict with the Sioux.

After his time as a soldier, he studied at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio from 1858 until the beginning of the U.S. Civil War is 1861. with whom he had his first two children, Eda Tibbles in 1868 and May Tibbles in 1870. By the end of the war, Tibbles would rise to the rank of Major. For parts of the war, he worked as a wartime correspondent for national newspapers. Other than the brief time he spent as a circuit preacher (1871–1874), this would be the beginning of Tibbles' long career in the newspaper industry.

Trial of Standing Bear

Ponca plight Ponca Trail of Tears map from "The Ponca Tribe" by James H. Howard

Populism and the vice-presidential nomination

After his work in Washington was finished, Tibbles returned to Nebraska and became very involved in the Populist movement, becoming the editor-in-chief of The Independent, a weekly Populist newspaper. He would become increasingly active in the Populist movement until, in 1904, he was nominated to be the vice-president on the Populist ticket, though his ticket did not win. This was just a year after his wife's death on May 26, 1903.

Works

(Tibbles' autobiography written in 1905)