Born in England in 1840, Thomas Crosby came to Canada with his parents in 1856 settling near Woodstock, Upper Canada. He left Woodstock in 1862, landed in Victoria in the same year and was sent to Nanaimo to take charge of an Indian school. After travelling extensively on the B.C. coast, he took up work in the Chilliwack area in 1869. In 1871 he was ordained a minister in the Methodist Church of Canada and obtained a furlough to travel to Ontario and married Emma Jane Douse from Barrie in 1874. They travelled to Port Simpson in 1874, which Rev. Crosby used as a base of operations for 23 years of missionary work in the region. The work required much travel and he received a missionary ship, the Glad Tidings, in 1889 to assist him in his work. Thomas and Emma Crosby moved to Victoria in 1897 as he began a term as President of the British Columbia Methodist Conference. After his term was completed he moved to Sardis, the scene of his earlier work. He was superannuated in 1907 and moved to New Westminster. In failing health, he moved to Vancouver and passed away in 1914.