Thomas S. Pettit  was born in Frankfort, Ky., Dec. 21, 1843, the son of Franklin Duane and Elizabeth (Zook) Pettit; father a native of Virginia and mother of Kentucky. He attended Georgetown College, and before he was grown up learned the printer’s art, which came natural and easy to him, and he became an adept. In 1864 he came to Owensboro and purchased the Monitor of Mr. Woodruff, and began the publication of a lively local paper, advocating Democratic principles. Unlike his predecessor, he freely criticized the acts of the Republican party and their conduct of the war, and consequently in a few months (Nov. 17, 1864) he was arrested by order of General Stephen G. Burbridge, imprisoned and banished south, under the general charge of being “notoriously disloyal.” He was hurried away, and was sent under an escort to Memphis, Tenn., where he was transferred across the lines within the Confederacy, in whose territory he traveled until the following May, when he returned and resumed the publication of the Monitor, as already noted. He was the first to establish a successful, paying paper in Owensboro, which he did before he was twenty-five years of age; and he was the first to bring Gordon and power presses to Owensboro. In this paper he published, in several successive numbers, his “Trip to Dixie,” giving his experiences during the whole of the “round trip.” These exciting annals helped the circulation of his paper to a wonderful degree, as already mentioned. In the South he underwent the many hardships and privations incident to a common soldier.

Subsequently he was elected Assistant Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State Legislature, which position he held for six years, when he was appointed Private Secretary to James B. McCreary. This position he afterward resigned, to accept the situation of Reading Clerk of the House of Representatives at Washington, D.C., for which duty he has extraordinarily good voice and articulation. On the death of Hon. John S. McFarland, in 1869, and through the influence and personal popularity of Senator T.C. McCreery, he was appointed by President Johnson Assessor of this Internal Revenue District, the duties of which position he filled with conscientious fidelity to the close of the term.

Mr. Pettit has never been recognized as a true Democrat. He has attended a number of State conventions of his party, and at every one of them he was elected secretary; and at the last National convention, which nominated Hancock and Hendricks, he was one of the secretaries. He is still active in the political field. Last fall (1882) he was a candidate for Congress against James B. Clay, of Henderson, but, after an exciting race, he was defeated in the pivotal county of Union, by less than 150 votes.

With all this political work Mr. Pettit has also engaged heavily in industrial pursuits. (See account of Marble & Pettit’s stave factory and lumber mills in the History of Murray Precinct.) He has been active in many local and philanthropic enterprises too numerous to mention here. He is a Freemason of high degree. Within four years after he entered the State Grand Lodge he was elected Past Grand Master, a distinction never before accorded to a member so young in that body. In December, 1870, he married Miss Margaret Blair, a native of this county, and a daughter of James Harvey Blair, formerly a merchant of Owensboro. Their only child is named Harvey Blair Pettit.

Source: History of Daviess County, Kentucky. Chicago: Interstate Publishing Co., 1883. Print.