Reuben M. Thompson

REUBEN M. THOMPSON, a retired farmer and honored citizen of Morrison, Illinois, was born in Salem township, Meigs county, Ohio, December 27, 1825, a son of Reuben and Phelinda (Kent) Thompson. The paternal grandfather also bore the name of Reuben Thompson. He was a yc private in a Vermont regiment in the Revolutionary war and by trade was a shoemaker, which occupation he followed in connection with farming. He removed from V'vermont to Steuben county. New York, during the boyhood of our subject's father, and there made his home for many years. Later he spent four years with his son in Ohio, after which he returned to New York, where his death occurred.

Reuben Thompson, father of our subject,\vas born in the Green Mountain state. After completing his education, he worked at farming until the war of 1812, when he entered the army. After the war he removed to Meigs county, Ohio, and there he made his home for many years. He became quite well-to-do, owning about four hundred acres of land in that county. In 1839 he came to Illinois, accompanied by his sons, Reuben M. and Elisha K., traveling overland with a four-horse team to Whiteside county, and stopping at Jacobstown, Mount Pleasant township, a small place, where his brother, Harvey Thompson, operated a sawmill and gristmill owned by Jonathan Haines. Leaving his sons here, he and his brother went to Iowa and located near what is now Mechanicsville. During the following winter they joined him and took up a claim there. In 1841 they returned to this county, where our subject operated the Charles Clark farm on the shares for one season, receiving one-fourth of the produce. On the father's return to Whiteside county from Iowa, he bought a claim of William L. Clark and then went back to Ohio, where the remainder of his family were still living. Bringing them to this state, he lived upon his first claim for a few years, and then removed to another in Fenton township, a half mile from the first, upon which he made his home until his death in the spring of 1850. At that time he had between four and five hundred acres of land in this county. His first wife died in 1827. Of the five children born to them, four reached manhood, namely: Elisha K., Samuel A., Reuben M. and James I. For his second wife he married Mrs. Hettie (McMillen) Robinson, widow of Fain Robinson, who died leaving three children. By the second union there were nine children, three sons and six daughters. The mother of these died at the home of her youngest daughter, Mrs. Helen Pace, at Lorhville, Iowa, July 2, 1883.

Oursubject grew to manhood in this county, receiving but a limited education. He attended school for three months in Erie, his teacher being Horace B. Cole, but the greater part of his knowledge has been acquired by reading and observation. He remained with his father until twenty-one years of age, and then worked for Eli Upton for two years, at one hundred and fifty dollars per year. At the time of his marriage, in 1849, he owned fifteen acres of land to which he gradually added as his financial resources permitted until he had over two thousand acres of improved and highly cultivated land in Fenton township, and though he has since given some of this to his sons, he still owns seventeen hundred acres in one body. He gave the greater part of his attention to stock raising and feeding, and usually shipped from si.K to eight car loads a year to the city markets. He was also interested in dairying, and for that purpose kept about forty cows, and the butter manufactured by him he sold in St. Louis at the highest market price. In 1888 he retired from active business and moved to Lyndon, this county, where he lived for five years, and then returned to the old homestead, residing with his son-in-law and daughter until the spring of 1899, since which time he has made his home in Morrison.

On the 25th of December, 1849, Mr. Thompson was united in marriage with Miss Matilda S. Dodge, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of John and Lydia (Smith) Dodge, farming people of Mt. Pleasant township, Whiteside county. By this union ten children were born, namely: Esther Phelinda, wife of Lewis Ewing, of Lyndon, Illinois; John L., who is represented elsewhere in this volume; James Amassa, who died at the age of seven years; Albert L., whose sketch also appears in this volume; Clara, who first married Fitz Hubbart, and after his death wedded M. I. Fadden, now of Mt. Pleasant township; Frank E., who died at the age of five years; Vora, wife of Frank Hodge, who resides on the old homestead in Fenton township; Leona, wife of John Potter, city marshal of Morrison; Matt Ray, who married Mattie Duncan and lives in Mt. Pleasant township; and H. Clay, who married Amelia Webster, and is now attending lectures at Hahnemann Medical College,- Chicago. The mother of these children died April 20, 1878, and on August 30, 1882, Mr. Thompson was again married, his second union being with Mrs. Amanda White, also a native of Meigs county, Ohio, widow of H. P. 'hite, and daughter of William and Nancy (Butler) McMillen. She died July 27, 1893.

In his political views, Mr. Thompson is a free silver Democrat, and in early life he took quite an active and prominent part in local political affairs. He served as collector of his township the first two years after its organization, and has also filled the offices of assessor and supervisor. He held the latter position during the trying days of the Civil war and secured all the men needed from the township for military service.

As printed in The biographical record of Whiteside County, Illinois.. (1900). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.