9781422277669

chemistry, mechanics, and manufacturing at the public library. He spent hours on Newton’s Principles but finally abandoned it. “It gave me a distaste for mathematics from which I have never recovered,” he said later. At four-thirty p . m ., he caught the train back to Port Huron. Thomas was a highly successful candy butcher. He was cheeky and sometimes gave less than he should have, but his open intelligent face and winning manner made him popular with both passengers and railway workers. When two more trains were added to the run, he hired assistants to sell candy on them. He bought fruit and butter from farmers, carried

Thomas around the age of fourteen, when he worked as a candy butcher on the local Grand Trunk Railroad.

them on the train without paying freight charges, and sold them in the state capital. He set up a stall in Port Huron where yet another assistant sold fresh vegetables he had brought from Detroit. Thomas had a sharp eye for profit. The American Civil War was now raging. By hanging around the office of the Detroit Free Press , he got advance news of the paper’s contents. On April 7, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh was fought with a reported 60,000 casualties. A friendly telegraph operator wired a brief announcement to stations along the line. Placards were put up saying that further

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