CLIFTON, Thomas A.
Source: Indianapolis (Marion County, Indiana) News Wed 26 June 1935 p 2
Covington, June 26 – Thomas A.
Clifton, age 76, veteran newspaper editor in Indiana and former missionary to
India, is dead here. For more than 50 years Mr. Clifton had been in newspaper
work and at the time of his death was owner and publisher of the Covington
Republican. Mr. Clifton was born in Iroquois County, Illinois Dec 15,
1859. His parents, Housen and Permelia
Seeley Clifton, the latter of Scottish ancestry from NY state had lived in
Indiana before going to Illinois. After Thomas Clifton’s birth they returned to
this state and Thomas was educated in the Fountain County schools and at DePauw
University where he was graduated in 1885. Before graduation he undertook a
special mission to India. In December of
that year he married Miss Lorena Pomeroy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cooper
Pomeroy, Williamsport who accompanied him on the mission to establish a boys’
high school. Money for the mission was
provided by Mrs. Philander Smith of Oak Park, Ill. After successfully opening the school and
arranging to have it affiliated with schools of higher education in Culcutta,
Mr. and Mrs. Clifton returned to this country and he taught school a number of
years before engaging in newspaper work.
In 1891 Mr. Clifton established the Warren Review at Williamsport and
later the Republican at Fowler. He also had owned and published a newspaper at
Veedersburg and the Pioneer at Williamsport.
Mr. Clifton served as a member of the board of the Central Indiana
Hospital and on the board for the state school for the blind. He was a Mason
and was affiliated with other fraternal orders. Surviving, besides his widow,
is a son, Cooper Clifton, editor of the Covington Republican. A daughter, Ada
Clifton, born in India, died several years ago.
Funeral services will be held Friday afternoon in the Methodist Church
here with the Rev. A.L. Brandenburg, pastor in charge of the services. Raymond Sellers, editor of the Franklin Star,
Franklin ad president of the Indiana Editorial Association, of which Mr.
Clifton had been a member many years, named the following committee to attend
the funeral; AM Smith, Journal-Review Crawfordsville; AA Hargraves, Rockville
Republican; IW Cripe, Williamsport Review; J Frank McDermond, Attica
Ledger-Tribune; Mrs. Harriet Pierce, Clintonian, Clinton; George Stout,
Journal-Courier, Lafayette. - kbz