Representative John Almer Thompson View All Years

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John Almer Thompson

Fayette County

The choice of the Republicans of Fayette county for Representative, was born in Carroll county, Ohio, May 3, 1854. His father is Morris J. Thompson, who moved to Fairfield township in Fayette county in 1855, when John A. was less than a year old, so that the subject of this sketch has been a citizen of the county just forty years. His life has been spent there, and none are more closely related or more thoroughly identified with all the interests of Fayette county than John A. Thompson. His early life as a pioneer deprived him of many of the advantages of a schooling, but in the intervals of labor on his father's farm he acquired all that was taught in the country school, the mere rudiments of an education; but this to an ambitious boy, with an honest purpose, a good brain and a sound body, is often of more value than a college diploma to one lacking all these natural qualities. At the age of 17 Mr. Thompson retired from the farm and began work in one of the stores in Brush Creek, in time embarking in business for himself on a small capital, and which by careful management has grown to proportions unsurpassed by any mercantile establishment in the county. In politics Mr. Thompson has been particularly successful, having been elected and re-elected three times as a member of the board of supervisors, His services of nine years in this important place tested him in the crucible of public opinion. He proved himself honest and capable, displaying a clearness of judgment, fearlessness in the performance of duty, and a purpose to deal fairly and justly by all, that won for him the respect and confidence of his party if not of every citizen of the county, and in the public estimation earned for him a promotion to a higher place when he was ready to accept it.

House District 71