Thompson, William M.

THOMPSON, COATES, RANDLES, STONE

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/15/2009 at 18:09:12

William M. Thompson

With the progress and development of Jasper County Mr. Thompson has for a number of year been intimately associated, He has been especially prominent in Independence Township, where he has resided since an early date in its settlement. At the time of his arrival in the county, Newton was a hamlet containing only three houses, and they were log cabins. No road had as yet been opened to Des Moines. Wild animate were abundant, and the pioneers, being expert shots, subsisted largely upon game. With all the hardships of those days he was familiar, and his early years were filled with privations, toil and unceasing labor. Now having accumulated a competence, he has retired to some extent from active business cares and makes his home in the village of Baxter, where he owns and occupies the largest house in the town.

Born in England May 29,1841, our subject was a child of twelve months when his parents, William A. and Mary J. (Coates) Thompson, emigrated to the United States, settling in Iowa, where they spent two years in Athens County. From that place they removed to Mahaska County, where for three years the father followed the trade of a cabinet and wagon maker. Having a family of nine children, he was obliged to work indefatigably in order to maintain them and provide them with the necessities of life. Such, however, was his enterprise and ability that, although having only $300 at the time of immigrating to America, he accumulated a competence and left $10,000 at his demise in 1873.

The subject of this sketch was reared amid scenes of pioneer life and early became familiar with farming work. So meager were his advantages that he never saw a schoolhouse until he was eighteen years old, and the broad information which he now possesses is the result of self-culture and diligent application. On the 12th of August, 1862, be married Miss Mary Randles, whom he left at her father's home in order that he might enlist in the Union Army. In 1862 he became a member of Company K, Twenty-third Iowa Infantry.

Capt. Fred Woodbury commanding. With his regiment be participated in twenty-six engagements, but although often in the thickest of the fight, he was never wounded. At one time a ball passed through his coat, grazing his body but not injuring him.

Upon his return from the army Mr. Thompson purchased forty acres in Marshall County, Iowa, on which be conducted agricultural operations for a number of years. Removing from there to Jasper County, he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land, for which his father paid. He has added to the original purchase until he has now three hundred and ninety acres, all under good cultivation and embellished with a substantial set of buildings adapted to their varied purposes. He is one of the progressive farmers to whose enterprise may be attributed the present high standing of Jasper County as an agricultural community.

In early days he frequently saw Indians in parties of three or four hundred. Wild deer were abundant, as were also other animals. His father manufactured the first plow he ever saw, and which of course was a great curiosity to him.

Our subject's first wife at her death left two daughters: Laura, the wife of George Hedges, and Arminta, who married A. I. Cox, of Marshalltown, Iowa. On the 19th of March 1877, Mr. Thompson married Miss Nettie Stone, and five children have been born of this union, namely: George, Maude, Nellie, Mabel and Willie, all of whom are at home.

In 1884 Mr. Thompson removed from the farm to Baxter, where he built the second house in the village and also for time conducted a meat market and a livery and sale stable. Now, however, he is retired from business. Three years ago he built the largest and most substantial residence now standing in the village, and here he and his family reside surrounded by all the comforts of life. In his political affiliations be gives his sympathy and support to the principles of the Republican Party, but is not a politician nor active in his partisanship. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA Page 167.