Born in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1823, and died in Davenport, August 11, 1883. He began teaching school in his native county when only nineteen years of age and for two years followed teaching as a profession, when, on reaching his majority, he began the study of law in the office of Thomas P. Campbell of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Two years later he commenced practicing law in Williamsburg and Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania where he remained until the spring of 1854, when he took a trip throughout the West. In April 1855, he moved to Davenport to and immediately afterward formed a law partnership with Colonel H. G. Barber. He cast his first vote for Henry Clay as a Whig and entered the Republican party at its organization, becoming a warm supporter of its principles and policies. By this party he was elected to represent his district in the Iowa Legislature in 1857 and two years afterward was elected State Senator. He was a member of the convention of 1860 that nominated Lincoln for President, and also a delegate to the convention of 1880 that nominated Garfield for President of the United States. In the spring of 1878, Mr. Thompson was elected Mayor of Davenport. On May 12, 1874, he married Miss Margaret A. Wallace, a native of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
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