"An Illustrated History of Whitman County, state of Washington." San Francisco:
W. H. Lever, 1901.  p. 406.

THOMAS W. SAVAGE

     The charge of incompleteness and inconsistency could hardly be successfully
refuted were there failure to incorporate in this portion of our volume a brief
summary of the life of the enterprising agriculturist, honored veteran of the
Civil war and well-known political leader whose name appears above.
     Like many others who have become good, substantial American citizens, our
subject is of English birth, the place of his advent into this life being
London, and the date August 10, 1842. His parents, Thomas and Jane I. (Wallace)
Savage, were also natives of England. When he was seven years old he accompanied
the remainder of his family to the United States, and in Utica, New York, he
acquired his intellectual discipline, the same consisting of a public school
training. He then engaged in the butcher business, following that in New York
City and other places in the Empire state until he became eighteen or twenty
years old. On October 22, 1863, true to the country of his adoption, he enlisted
in the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York Infantry, which was mustered in
under Captain Burlingham and Lieutenant Colonel Carmichael. While in this
company he was engaged mostly in making raids into North and South Carolina,
Georgia and Florida. He participated in some hotly-contested engagements and in
many trying campaigns. When Lee surrendered he was transferred to the
Fifty-fourth New York, remaining in that regiment until April 14, 1866, when he
was finally mustered out. After the war he passed a half decade in New York,
most of the time serving as conductor on a street railway. About the year 1871
he removed to California. Locating in San Jose, he lived and kept hotel on the
race track there for about five years. He was also engaged in stage driving and
in numerous other occupations, the entire time of his residence in the Golden
state being about eight years.
     In the fall of 1879 he came to Walla Walla county, and the next spring he
moved to Whitman county and took a homestead about two miles west of Pullman,
where he now resides. He also took a pre-emption in the same locality, and his
realty holdings now aggregate four hundred acres. Among his many valuable
improvements may be mentioned a good two-story house, good substantial
outbuildings of all kinds necessary to a well-regulated farm, and a fine
ten-acre orchard. While raising a considerable quantity of wheat every year, he
does not devote his entire energies to that, but is a diversified farmer, and is
achieving an enviable success in various lines of enterprise.
    In politics, our subject is a Democrat. He has been very active in the
councils and campaigns of the party, attending all the county conventions which
have been held since he came here, and serving several times as a member of the
county central committee. He was one of the leaders in organizing and
establishing the Populist party of the county.
     Fraternally, Mr. Savage is affiliated with the time-honored Masonic order
and with Whitman Post, No. 53, G. A. R., at Pullman. The marriage of our subject
and Miss Margaret E., daughter of John and Mary (Sheahan) Casey, was duly
solemnized on May 10, 1870, and they have become parents of seven children:
Walter M., now principal of the Uniontown school; Mamie E.: John E., now deputy
county treasurer of Okanogan county, formerly a school teacher; Fannie I.,
teaching at present near Uniontown; Carrie; Katie; James J., deceased.
     When Mr. Savage came into this country he brought with him the filly which
afterward became the dam of Prince Almont, the fastest pacer this side of the
Rocky mountains. He won a race at La Mars, Iowa, and made there a record of two
thirteen and a quarter.
 

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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in July 2011 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.