Thomas B. Latham was born December 22, 1862, at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and is of English descent. his father was born in Virginia of an old colonial family who settled there long anterior to the revolution. His mother is a lineal descendant from the great orator and patriot, Patrick Henry. Mr. Latham’s father settled at Fort Smith in 1849 and was a prominent citizen and useful, public-spirited man all his life. The young man obtained a good English education in the local schools of the city.

After quitting school a eighteen years of age, he was appointed chief deputy clerk in the United States court for the wester district of Arkansas, and acted in that capacity for three years, and then as now enjoyed the confidence and esteem of Judge Parker of that court, and all other with whom he comes either in business or social contact. He borrowed books and read law carefully and assiduously about three years, and was admitted to the bar on his own motion in September, 1885.

He has the courage of his convictions on all questions, and indulges a sovereign contempt for the policy-serving trimmer who never has or expresses an opinion until he first ascertains the views of the majority. An element of success is strongly indicated in the pertinacity with which he pursues an object once deliberately formed. Not long since a city bully presented an outrageous account against him for $30, pretendedly advanced to a laborer to whom Mr. Latham had given an order for $1.50. “I will pat the amount of my order and no more,” he said, to which the blustering bully replied: “If you don’t pay the $30 I will whip it out of you.” “If you do I will give you $500. Where can I find you in ten minutes? Get ready. No bully can scare or run over me. I will be in front of your business house in ten minutes.” All bullies are cowards and when they become alarmed fear unmans and makes cravens of them. Tommy (his pet name) went with his spurs on and paced up and down the pavement in front of the craven’s house for an hour, waiting for him to come out, but he was lacked up in the counting=room trembling with fear and did not put in an appearance, preferring to let that engagement go by default. It requires a much higher order of courage to retract and apologize to one whom we have injured, than to fight of appeal to physical courage; the degree it measured by the distance between moral and physical agencies. Mr. Latham possesses the higher order of courage in a marked degree and gave practical illustration of it not long since in court in a contest between himself and the author.