Sams, Thomas M.

Born: 1819-07-22

Died: 1893-01-09

Flourished: Franklin County, Illinois

Thomas M. Sams was a physician, landowner, and state legislator. Sams received his medical license from the Illinois Medical Society in 1843. In November 1844, he married America Yates (Gates). Between 1849 and 1854, Sams acquired 200 acres of public land in what would become Frankfort Township in Franklin County, Illinois. In 1850, he was practicing medicine and owned real property valued at $800. Sams also had property interests near Tamaroa in Perry County on the Illinois Central Railroad. He served two terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, representing Jackson and Franklin counties first from January 1851 to June 1852, and again from January to February 1855. By 1860, Sams owned real property valued at $9,000 and had a personal estate of $5,000.

D. W. Graham, ed., The Illinois State Medical Registry for 1878-9 (Chicago: W. T. Keener, 1878), 152; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Jackson County, 6 November 1844, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Franklin County, 112:67, 819:103, 104; Perry County, 791:54, 792:47, 796:176, 178, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Franklin County, IL, 20; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Benton, Franklin County, IL, 5; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 9 January 1851, 2:4; 2 January 1855, 2:3; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 217, 220; Gravestone, Tamaroa Cemetery, Tamaroa, IL.