The Thompson Families of Guthrie County, Iowa

JOHN F. THOMPSON.

John F. Thompson is a retired farmer living in Casey, but is still financially interested in various enterprises, which are of marked value in the community, and throughout his business life his course has been characterized by a strict conformity to a high standard of business ethics. His present place of residence is far separated from the place of his nativity, for he was born in North Carolina on the 30th of October, 1848. His parents were Samuel and Polly (Davis) Thompson, and he is the survivor of the family of two children. His father was born in North Carolina in 1825 and in the paternal line is of Irish ancestry, while in the material line he is of Welsh descent. In 1855 he emigrated westward to Iowa, accompanied by his parents, and in this state he entered land from the government adjoining the present town of Casey on the east. This section of the state was then largely unsettled and unimproved. He was among the early families to establish a home in this portion of Guthrie county, there being not more than three or four homes here at the time of his arrival. When the township was organized it was named in his honor, a fact which shows his popularity and prominence among his fellow citizens. ?Iis parents also established a home in this part of the state, entering a tract of land lying just across the boundary line in Adair county. Samuel Thompson continued to reside upon the farm, which he developed and improved until he was called to his final rest in 1896. He was twice married, his second union being with Miss Lydia Arledge of North Carolina, who still survives him and by whom he had eight children, namely: Jessie C, George W., James B., Henry M., Samuel P., Isaac S., Albert A. and Laura, the latter now deceased. All reside in Guthrie county with the exception of Samuel P. Thompson, who is living in Oklahoma, and Henry, who makes his home in Ringgold county, Iowa!

John F. Thompson was a youth of seven years upon the removal of the family to this state, and on the old homestead near Casey he spent his boyhood and youth. He early became familiar with the arduous task of developing and cultivating new land and he also shared in many of the hardships and privations incident to settlement on the frontier. In 1875 he purchased a farm of eighty acres, three miles north of Casey in Thompson township, and locating thereon he added to this property until within its boundaries are now comprised two hundred and forty acres of land. This is one of the valuable farms of the county, owing to the cultivation and improvement he has bestowed upon it. In all his business life he has been very successful, and though making his own way in the world unassisted he has become one of the substantial agriculturists of the county. He continued active in the cultivation and management of his place until 1903, when he took up his above in Casey, where he has since lived. He is yet financially interested in several business concerns. He became a stockholder in the Abram Rutt National Bank upon its organization in 1906 and was made one of its directors. He is also a stockholder and director in the Casey Creamery Company and a stockholder in the Casey Lumber Company.

On the 13th of January, 1870. Mr. Thompson was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Clayton, a daughter of James A. Clayton, of Adair county, Iowa, but a native of Kentucky. Her great-grandfather, James Austin Clayton, served for seven years in the Revolution and was one of the men who helped to throw the tea overboard in Boston harbor. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Thompson has been born a son, Andrew W., now in St. Joseph, Missouri. The parents are members of the Baptist church, in which Mr. Thompson has served as a deacon for the past ten years. In politics he is a democrat and has been prominent in the local ranks of the party. He served for years as a member of the school board, was township assessor six years, township treasurer six years and since his removal to Casey has been a member of the town council. His interest in community affairs is deep and sincere and his labors are always actuated by a devotion to the public good that is above question. He has accomplished much in the business world. A man of strong force of character, determined purpose and sound judgment, he has had not only the ability to plan but to execute important interests, and through all the long years of a successful career has maintained an unassailable reputation for reliability.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

George W. Thompson, manager of the Casey Lumber Company, is one of Guthrie county's native sons. He was born May 16, 1856, his birthplace being on the present site of the town of Casey. He is a son of Samuel Thompson, of whom extended mention is made on another page of this work in connection with the history of John F. Thompson. The subject of this review was reared under the parental roof and at the usual age he became a student in the public schools, mastering the usual branches of English learning therein taught. He had the advantage of further educational training and discipline in the Iowa State College at Ames, being graduated on the completion of a course in civil engineering with the class of 1884.

Mr. Thompson worked for six months at railroad surveying following his graduation and then located on a farm in Adair county.

Iowa, which he had purchased in 1879. Here he farmer for five years and then came to Casey, accepting the appointment of principal of the Casey school. He remained in charge of the educational interests of the town for four years, after which he went to Baxter, Iowa, where he was engaged in the lumber business, conducting a lumberyard at that point for four years. On the expiration of that period he sold out and accepted a position with the Standard Lumber Company, of Dubuque. Iowa, as manager of its retail interests, there remaining for two years, after which he went to Medford, Wisconsin, to assume charge of the retail business of the Medford Manufacturing Company. About a year later, however, the plant there was destroyed by fire and Mr. Thompson then went to Chicago and for a short period he represented the Hines Lumber Company on the road. On the purchase of the Northern Wisconsin Lumber Company at Hayward, Wisconsin, by the Hines Company, Mr. Thompson was sent to Hayward as billing clerk and estimator, in which capacity he remained for three years. On severing his connection with the firm he started for Verdi, Nevada, to accept a position with a large lumber company, with which he was to act as manager of their shipping interests and also inspect their grades of lumber, but on reaching Des Moines he was persuaded to abandon his western trip and remain in that city. There he engaged in the bakery business but he did not find it congenial and after eight months he came to Casey to assume charge of the business of the Casey Lumber Company, in which position he has since remained. His worth as a manager is widely acknowledged, as is well indicated by the responsible positions which he has filled. He is one of the well known lumber men of Casey and is conversant with every detail of the business. In 1884 Mr. Thompson was united in marriage to Miss Hettie Walters, of Guthrie county, and unto them were born a

8io daughter and two sons: Grace, who is now residing with her grandfather, Robert Walters, in Casey; Ray, who resides on a farm with his uncle, Isaac Thompson, in Thompson township, this county; and Robert, at home. The wife and mother died on the 7th of December, 1892, her death being deeply regretted by many friends for she had many excellent traits of character which endeared her to all who knew her. In 1894 Mr. Thompson was again married, his second union being with Miss Catherine Grace, ot Des Moines, and they now have two interesting daughters, Helen and Ruth.

Mr. Thompson is a member of Casey lodge, No. 256, I. O. O. F. In politics he is independent but in all matters of citizenship he is progressive and is a co-operant factor in many measures that have proven directly beneficial to Casey and Guthrie county. In his business life he has sustained an unassailable reputation for reliability as well as enterprise and has thus always been enabled to command excellent positions involving large responsibility and also bringing to him a gratifying financial return.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

ALBERT A. THOMPSON.

The name of Thompson is closely interwoven with the history of Guthrie county and its representatives have always been men of progress, honor and worth. It is not the fact that he belongs to a leading family, however, that entitles Albert A. Thompson to mention in this volume, for his personal characteristics are such as have gained him the high regard and admiration of his fellowmen. He has made excellent success in his business life in Casey, his native, city, where he is now engaged in dealing in hardware, harness and farm implements. He was born on the i6th of June, 1865, and is one of the eight children of Samuel P. and Lydia B. (Arledge) Thompson. The par- ents were natives of Chatham county. North

Carolina, the former born in 1825 and the latter in 1831. They were there reared and soon after their marriage they removed to Indiana, settling on a farm near Indianapolis, where they resided for two years. They then came to Iowa, being among the first of the pioneers of this state. They remained for about a year in what is now Redfield, Dallas county, and in 1856 established their home in Guthrie county, where Mr. Thompson secured two tracts of land, one of eighty acres and the other of sixty. The tracts adjoined, however, and one deed was signed by President Buchanan and the other by President Pierce. Both papers are still in possession of Mrs. Thompson, who yet resides on the old homestead which adjoins Casey on the east. When this property came into possession of Mr. Thompson it was just as it was when it left the hand of nature. Not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made upon the place, but with characteristic energy he set to work to break the sod and cultivate the fields. He was quite successful in his farming interests and at one time had extensive landed possessions. His political views were in accordance with the principles of democracy and though he kept well informed on the questions and issues of the day he never sought office. He was twice married, his first union being with Polly Davis. After losing his first wife he married Lydia B. Arledge. When Guthrie county was. organized Thompson township was named in his honor, he being one of the first settlers and one of the well known and honored citizens of the county. Into the second marriage there were born eight children, of whom seven are living: Jessie C, a resident of Casey; George W., who is manager for the Farmers Lumber Company at Casey; James B., who is employed by his brother Albert; Henry M., a farmer of Grant City, Missouri; Samuel P.. who is living at Temple. Oklahoma, where he foHows farming: Isaac S.. a resident farmer of Thompson township; and Albert A. The death of the father occurred in 1896 and the county thereby lost one of its most valued, representative and prominent citizens, who from pioneer times had been identified with the history of this section of the state and had borne his full share in the work of public progress and improvement.

Albert A. Thompson was reared on the home farm adjoining Casey and began his education in the public schools of the town, passing through successive grades until he completed the high school course. He afterward attended the agricultural college at Ames, Iowa, and the Iowa College at Grinnell, and when nineteen years of age he started out upon business life as a teacher. For several years he was thus identified with educational work, teaching in Guthrie and Adair counties during the winter months, while in the summer seasons he engaged in farming. In 1891 he turned his attention to the harness business in partnership with his brother, I. S. Thompson, of Casey, and two years afterward went to Mount Vernon. South Dakota, where he conducted a harness business for a year. Later, however, he opened a general mercantile store in connection with his harness store and carried on a department store until 1897, when he disposed of his business there and returned to Casey. During the succeeding five years he was engaged in farming and in September, 1902, he established his present business, in wliich he is very successful, dealing now in hardware, harness and farm implements. He is recognized as one of the leading business men of the city and in connection with his mercantile interests he superintend the operation of his mother's farm.

Pleasantly situated in his home life, Mr. Thompson was married in 1888 to Miss Mary M. Hughes, of Casey, and unto this tion there have been born four children: Lawrence, Price, Lydia and Eleanor, all of whom are attending the Casey high school. Mr. Thompson exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the democracy and has been elected to several local offices, serving as town clerk and as a member of the town council. He affiliates with Purity lodge, No. 183, A. F.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

JAMES C. THOMPSON.

At a time when people of moderate means are moving from the city to the country and are building their homes where they may have the trees and flowers like the ordinary country folk, who through their ancestors and by themselves have been raising stock and cultivating the fields for generations, we turn with particular interest to one who has been a successful farmer of Richland township for many years.

Mr. Thompson was born May 30. 1853, in Franklin county, Indiana. He was a son of John and Mary (Jenkins) Thompson, both natives of Franklin county, Indiana. The father was born in 1822 and passed away in 1902. The mother was born in 1828 and is still living on the old homestead in Indiana, where her husband had lived from the time he was eleven years of age. He bought land patents of the old soldiers of the war of 1846 for one dollar an acre, and in 1855 came to Guthrie county, where he located a section, so that when he returned home his land had cost him a dollar and twenty cents an acre, including his expenses to Iowa. He followed the <KCupation of farming all ins life, and during the Civil war added to these duties those of a dry goods and grocery merchant. Mr. Thompson was a man of large death. a great part of which was made by raising an unusually fine breed of Poland China hogs. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were the parents of five children: Orpha. who married L. L. Biddinger, of Franklin county, Indiana; Viola, whose loss the parents were called upon to mourn when she was only thirteen years of age: James C. the subject of our sketch; J., living in Guthrie county, and John A., a successful physician of Cincinnati. Ohio.-

James C. Thompson is indebted to the public schools of his home locality for his early education, and for three years he was a student at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. 'hen he was twenty-one years of age he came to Panora, Iowa, where he taught school for one year, but the farm offered greater attractions and he bought of his father one hundred and sixty acres of the land which had been purchased in 1855. Every improvement on the place today Mr. Thompson has made by his own labor and industry, and he now owns three hundred and twenty acres of as fine land as can be found in the county. In 1885 he was tempted to buy a hardware business in Jamaica, to which town he moved. For two years he conducted this business but at the end of that time was glad to return to his former home and to the pursuit of farming. In 1892 he again bought out the same business, but in 1897 he once more sold and returned to the farm in 1898. He makes a specialty of the breeding and sale of Shetland ponies, of which he has at present a herd of about thirty. He has the most beautiful full-blooded Shetland stallion in Guthrie county, whose sire is No. 1 in the register book, dam No. 16. He is No. 351 — a beautiful specimen of his kind. Of equal importance is ]\Mr. Thompson's specialty of full-blooded Scotch collie dogs.

On the 1 6th of January, 1878, Mr. Thompson was married to Miss Generva

Faucett. who was born in Franklin county, Indiana, August 8, 1855. She is a daughter of John and Sarah (Gillespie) Faucett, both natives of Butler county, Ohio. The mother died in 1881. at the age of seventy, while the father passed away in 1886, having attained the sixtieth year of his age. Mrs. Thompson has one sister, Mrs. A. C. Zartman, living in Perry, Iowa. The rest of the family are still living in Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are the parents of four children: Winifred, who is teaching in the public schools in Panora, Iowa; J. Irwin, who was educated at Ames and is teaching the agricultural course in the Panora high school; Mary E. and Lena F., who are at home.

Mr. Thompson and his family are attendants of the:Methodist church and are among its chief and earnest supporters. His political support is given to the democratic party. An intelligent and well educated man, he has taken an active interest in educational work, has served as township trustee for five years and as township clerk for nine years, being the present incumbent in the latter office. He is a public-spirited and progressive citizen, who has always been ready to contribute to the general good, and his labors have greatly advanced the material progress and prosperity of Guthrie county.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

WILLIAM L. THOMPSON. M. D.

Dr. William Lincoln lliompson, a general practitioner of Bayard, was born near Madrid. Polk county, Iowa, on the 17th of February; 1862. His father, Amos Thompson, was a native of Wooster, Hancock county. Ohio, born February 19, 1830. He remained in that state until twenty-six Aears of age. when he came to Iowa, settling first near Dayton, while later he removed to Polk county. There he engaged in farming until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he joined the thousands of brave men who were flocking to the.support of the L'nion from the counting houses, from the offices, from the workshops and the farms. He was. assigned to duty with Company B, Fifteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in which he served for eighteen months, taking an active ])art in the battles of Bull Run. Shiloh and other hotly contested engagements, but was discharged on account of physical disability in 1863. He then returned to Polk county, where he resumed farming, continuing actively in that work until 1900, when he retired. He married Miss Martha J. Mosgrove, who was born in Indiana and came to Boone county, Iowa, in 1839. '' hey are still livingon the old homestead in Polk county. By her marriage she became the mother of six children: Alary J., the wife of Benjamin W'ylie, of Madrid, Iowa: Millard L.. who is a farmer living near Madrid: William L.. of this review: Maggie A., the wife of W. H. Van Zandt, a railway postal clerk; Sherman, a carpenter of Madrid, Iowa, and J. Taylor, who is living in Green River, Utah.

William L. Thompson was educated in the public schools of Polk county, Iowa, and in the Iowa State College at Ames. He afterward engaged in teaching school for a time. In his college work he pursued a scientific course and was graduated with the class of 1888. He then followed teaching in the graded schools of Des Moines. Polk county and Rippey, Greene county, for two years, and later became superintendent of city schools at Bismarck, North Dakota. Regarding this merely as an initial step to other professional labor, he entered upon the study of medicine at Rush Medical College in Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1894. He worked on the board of health of Chicago for a short time, broadening his knowledge concerning sanitary conditions and the use of remedial agencies in various ways. He then located in Bayard, where he has since successfully practiced. He is recognized as an able and learned member of the profession and has done effective work in ministering to the needs of the sick and suffering.

Dr. Thompson was married on the 29th of April, 1896. to Aliss Florence E. Keames, who was at that time a resident of Bayard, and they now have one child, Harold, born May 2T,, 1897. The parents are earnest and faithful members of the Church of Christ, in which the Doctor is a deacon. His political support is given to the republican party and he is a member of several fraternal organizations, including Benevolent lodge. No. 451, A. F. & A. M., at Bayard, of which he is master: the Modern Woodman camp.

at Bayard, and the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. In professional lines he is connected with Dallas and Guthrie Counties Medical Association, the Iowa State Medical Association and the American Medical Association. He is a self-made man, who worked his way through school, providing for the expense of his college courses by his labors as a teacher. The strength of his character was thus demonstrated. Self-reliance is the source of all genuine worth in the individual and its spirit has been admirably de- Aeloped in Dr. Thompson. At the same time he manifests a spirit of genuine helpfulness and kindliness to others. He has ever made a close and discriminating study of the science of his profession and. moreover, has the adaptability which enables him to accurately apply its principles to the needs of his patients. As the years have passed he has prospered and is now the owner of a good home in Bayard, together with land holdings in Green River valley, Utah.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.