Thomas Crawford Galbreath was born 28 July 1876 in Jarrettsville, Maryland, the son of James Wilson Galbreath (1849-1926) and Rebecca C. Robinson (1851-1936). In 1880, Thomas was living on a farm with his parents and siblings. In writing about his childhood, Thomas said that: “My greatest good fortune was--and still is--in my having the sort of parents whom eight children delight in trying to honor. We were a healthy, hard-working family. After my eighth year and until I went to college, my day began between four and five o’clock and ended between eight and nine. Judged by the standards of those days, a farmer and his family who didn’t observe such hours were shiftless.” Thomas attended Western Maryland University, and while there played both football and baseball. After graduating in 1896, he taught for two years in a county school and then two years in Western Maryland’s preparatory department. where he also acted as athletic instructor and coach of the football team. In 1900, while living in Belair, Maryland, Thomas was superintendent of public schools, with duties that ranged from conducting a teachers institute of five days, to auditing and paying a bill for repairs to a rusty stove. He spent about a year at Harvard University for further study, where he actively engaged in sports.

Around August 1903, he started to feel ill, with little appetite and problems sleeping. He was diagnosed as have a return of a malarial fever and was prescribed quinine. A month later, he was on crutches, had lost 20 pounds, and had a cough. He went to another doctor and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. On 23 September, his mother took him to Colorado to “chase the cure.” Galbreath would write two short books about his experience. The first was “Chasing the Cure in Colorado”; followed by “Playing the Lone Game of Consumption” in 1915. He managed to make a living by writing for a magazine in Denver, Colorado. There, he met and married librarian Elisabeth McNeal in November 1914. In the third edition of his 1915 book, Thomas Galbreath left this image: As I am putting my last words to this final chapter of a small volume in which I have taken my readers into a very close companionship, I look up from my paper and behold as quiet and peaceful a picture as Fancy itself could paint for one. The snow lies six inches deep. In the bottom of the glen to the north, a few clumps of alders and willows stand naked and brown agaginst the vast background of white. . .To the front of me, and to the back, the sides of the glen rise like cyrstal boards showered with silver Christmas trees . . .It is the middle of December in the heart of the Rockies, the very incarnation of peace. I seem to be dwelling on one of God’s great Christman cards.” Ultimately, “chasing the cure” did not have a positive outcome--Thomas Crawford Galbreath passed away in Denver on 24 July 1916.