THOMPSON, JOSEPH
THOMPSON, STEWARD, HOFIUS, HANNA, JOHNSON, MEANS, GAMMELL, HOFIUS, BLOSSOM
Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 7/14/2003 at 18:59:30
Biography reproduced from page 424 of the History of Kossuth and Humboldt Counties, Iowa published in 1884:
Joseph Thompson was born April 13, 1831, in county Darry, Ireland, and came with his parents in 1839 to America, settling in Mercer Co., Penn. Learning the cabinet and chair trade he worked at it until 1854, then went to Jackson Co., Iowa, and stopped there one year. He was married to Nancy J. Means, Dec. 23, 1855, came to Kossuth county, May 25, 1856. He was one of the first to build on the prairie, his residence being one and a half miles east of Algona. In 1864 Mr. Thompson went to Idaho with the great rush to the gold fields, remaining there four years. Returning to Kossuth Co., Iowa, in 1868, he sold his land east of Algona for $40 per acre and bought 160 acres on section 24, township 96, range 29, where he still resides. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have six children—Mamie A., who was married Aug. 29, 1877, to Joseph B. Hofius; Carrie H., who was married Jan. 1, 1884, to C. H. Blossom; Henry J., Frank S., Jennie B. and Clifford I. Mr. Thompson has the reputation of being one of the most respectable and enterprising farmers in the county.
--------------------------------------------Biography reproduced from page 112 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:
A little more than a half century ago Kossuth county was prairie, dotted here and there by sparse settlements and its present farms were wide stretches of unbroken land. The men who brought about their development were the pioneers of the state, who preempted the prairie lands and brought them under cultivation, opened up the country and gave to the United States another source of wealth and prosperity. Joseph Thompson, whose death, on May 29, 1901, ended a long career of activity in agricultural circles of Union township, was a pioneer settler of this district and one of its foremost men. He was a native of Ireland, where his birth occurred April 13, 1831. He was a son of James and Mary Anne (Steward) Thompson, who were both of Irish birth but of Scotch extraction. They came to the United States when their son was only ten years of age and located in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, where they lived until the death of Mr. Thompson. After that event the family scattered and Mrs. Thompson was again married and went to Missouri, where she died at the age of ninety years. She and her first husband were the parents of eight children: David, whose birth occurred in 1829 and who is deceased; Joseph, the subject of this sketch; James, who was born in 1833 and served in the Civil war and who is now deceased; Mary Anne, whose birth occurred in 1835 and is the widow of W. F. Hofius, of Algona, Iowa; John, born in 1837, who served in the federal army during the Civil war and who has also passed away; Margaret Jane, who was born in 1840 and is the widow of Andrew Hanna, of Missouri; Sarah, who was born in 1843 and married G. C. Johnson, of Kansas City, Missouri; and Archibald Steward, whose birth occurred in 1846, a soldier in the Civil war and now a resident of New Castle, Pennsylvania.
Joseph Thompson was educated in Pennsylvania public schools and remained in that state until 1854, when he started out in a prairie schooner for the central west. His first stop was in Rock Island county, Illinois, and from there he journeyed to Jackson county, Iowa, and subsequently located in Kossuth county in the same state in the spring of 1856. The long journey was made in a wagon drawn by ox teams and was accompanied by all the hardships and perils of pioneer travel. Mr. Thompson spent his first summer in a tiny log cabin, which was then the only human habitation upon the townsite of Algona, Iowa. He took up a preemption claim one and a half miles east of Algona, which he improved and developed under great difficulty, bringing it in the twelve or fourteen years of his occupancy to a high state of cultivation. He built a little log cabin upon his holdings, which was the first house ever built on the prairie within many miles of Algona. In 1861 he returned to Jackson county, Iowa, and from there he and his family made the long journey to Cedar Falls. The distance was one hundred and forty miles and the journey was made in a wagon drawn by horses. They arrived in Cedar Falls about Christmas time of the year 1861 and remained in that section of Iowa for some time. Later Mr. Thompson removed to Idaho, where he remained about four years. He had learned the trade of cabinet-maker in his youth but had never been active in this direction. Most of his life was spent in farming but during the period of his residence in Idaho he followed placer mining for some time. Later he removed to Helena, Montana, where he built one of the first log cabins in the district. Here he lived until he returned to Jackson county, Iowa, and finally to Kossuth county, where he lived on his original holdings for one year. At the end of that time he bought a farm three miles north of Algona, which he improved and operated along practical lines until his death in 1901. He lived upon this farm from 1870 until 1901 and at the time of his death had besides the one hundred and sixty acres upon which he was living eighty acres in Plum Creek township, Kossuth county, and was one of the most extensive owners of farm land in this district.
Mr. Thompson was married in Jackson county, Iowa, on December 23, 1855, to Miss Nancy Jane Means, a daughter of Henry and Mary (Gammell) Means, natives of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Thompson’s grandfather, Thomas Means, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and fought in the War of 1812. Her grandmother was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Mrs. Thompson’s great-grandfather, Hugh Means, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. On the maternal side her grandparents were natives of Pennsylvania. Both of her parents were born in the state, where their marriage occurred. They moved to Jackson county, Iowa, in 1838 and here her father died when she was five years of age. Mrs. Thompson was born in 1837 and her father’s death occurred in 1842. After this event the mother came to Kossuth county, where her death occurred in 1870. She is buried in the River View cemetery at Algona. Her husband during his life was a prominent figure in Jackson county, where he pursued the carpenter’s trade and built some of the first houses in Dubuque, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Means were the parents of three children: Nancy Jane, the wife of our subject; and Mary Anne and John, who are both deceased. To our subject and his wife have been born six children: Mamie, the wife of Joseph B. Hofius, who is residing two miles north of Algona; Carrie, who married Cyrus Blossom, of Burt, Iowa; Henry, who resides in Whittemore, Iowa; Frank, who resides on the old home farm; Jennie, who is living at home; and Clifford, who lives in Minnesota. After her husband’s death Mrs. Thompson remained upon the farm until Thanksgiving, 1911, when she moved into the city of Algona, where she lives in a beautiful and thoroughly modern home, which she has erected on East Call street. She still owns two hundred and forty acres of Kossuth county farm land beside her home in Algona. She is the oldest living woman pioneer in this section of the country. During his life Mr. Thompson was one of the foremost men of Kossuth county and in the early days of its development was active in the opening of this section of the country. The pioneers’ days are almost over in America, yet the sturdy qualities of men like Joseph Thompson which have made their possessors great in the past are alive today in the sons and daughters of the early settlers, who are bringing the characteristics which made their forefathers great to the active upbuilding and improvement of the work which was begun over half a century ago.
Kossuth Biographies maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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