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Mason B. Thomas

American phytopathologist, botanist, professor, and football coach (1866–1912)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ6783532 ↗
Source-derived summary

Mason Blanchard Thomas (December 16, 1866 – March 6, 1912) was an American phytopathologist, botanist, professor of both those subjects, and college football coach. He was the sixth head football coach at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, serving for one season, in 1891, and compiling a record of 1–3.

Thomas was born on December 16, 1866, in New Woodstock, New York. He graduated from Cornell University in 1890 with Bachelor of Science. Following his graduation, he spent a year as biology fellow at Cornell before going to Wabash College in 1891 as a professor of botany. Thomas was the dean of faculty at Wabash for 12 years, until his death in 1912. He died on March 6, 1912, after a two-week illness with pleurisy, at his home in Crawfordsville.

Head coaching record

Authored bibliography

Thomas, Mason B.; Dudley, William Russel (1894). A laboratory manual of plant histology. Crawfordsville, Indiana: The Journal Co.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mason B. Thomas” is american phytopathologist, botanist, professor, and football coach (1866–1912). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mason, Thomas and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1866, 1912, 1891, 1890—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1866-12-16, 1866-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Mason, Thomas and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american phytopathologist, botanist, professor, and football coach (1866–1912)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6783532. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1866, 1912, 1891 and 1890.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mason B. Thomas”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mason B. Thomas primary sources, Mason B. Thomas archive and Mason research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mason B. Thomas”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mason B. Thomas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.