Biography

03/08/1824 - 09/25/1898

COLLINS, Thomas, a Representative from Bedford, Cambria, and Fulton Counties; born, March 8, 1824 in Munster, Cambria County, Pa.; railroad contractor; owner, P & T Collins Bros (1849-1898); contractor, Allegheny Portage Railroad (1849-1853); contractor, Philadelphia and Erie railroad and Gallitzin Tunnel; elected as a Democrat to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 1853 and 1854 terms; not a candidate for reelection to the House for the 1855 term; contractor, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Sand Patch Tunnel, somerset County (1871); contractor, Madeira and Mamore Railroad, Brazil (1877-1880); contractor, Pennsylvania and Western Railroad (1882); contractor, Bellefonte and Buffalo Run Railroad (1883); contractor, Beech Creak, Clearfield and Southwestern Railroad and Peale Tunnel (1883); owner, Bellefonte Furnace (1887-1892); engineered, Nittany Valley Railroad (1888); elected, delegate, Democratic National Convention (1892); unsuccessful campaign, United States Congress (1894); died, September 25, 1898 in Bellefonte, Centre County, Pennsylvania; interred, Old Holy Name Cemetery, Ebensburg, Cambria County, Pennsylvania.