| Cyrus Thomas |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT CYRUS THOMAS | |
| 1825 births | |
| thomas, cyrus | |
| 1910 deaths | |
| mayanists | |
| american entomologists | |
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BIOGRAPHY Thomas was born in Kingsport, Tennessee . He studied Law and was Lawyer early in his career until 1865 , serving as county clerk of Jackson County, Illinois in the early 1850s . In 1865 he entered the Ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church . Four years later in 1869 he joined the expedition of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden , who had organized a Scientific corps for the exploration of the Rocky Mountains . In 1873 he was appointed a professor of Natural Science at Southern Illinois University . In 1879 he was appointed state entomologist of Illinois . WORKS Thomas was a leading early student of Archaeology of Native Americans . In the 1890s he played a crucial role in debunking the previously common theory that the Mound Builders were a separate lost race rather than ancestors of more recent American Indians. He also made early studies of Maya Hieroglyphics . Thomas also wrote on Climatology , a new field in the 19th century. He was a leading proponent of the now-debunked theory known as '' Rain Follows The Plow '', which stated that increased population and cultivation of the Great Plains would render the land lush and fertile. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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