Hugh Spencer Thomson (1921)

THOMSON, HALE

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart
Date: 3/2/2007 at 20:36:38

Earlham Echo
Earlham, Iowa
August 11, 1921

A whole community ceased from its activities last Friday morning at the hour of ten o’clock to pay homage to the memory of Hugh S. Thomson, whose tragic death had stunned Earlham two days before. Over five hundred people gathered for this last sorrowful meeting, gathered quietly and as quietly passed in file past the casket where lay the form which they had known as an animate being as shortly before. Death had been very kind to him. He might have been sleeping, an absolute was the placidity of his features, composed in that sleep which knows no waking.

The sermon was given by Rev. J. B. Howard, pastor of the Presbyterian church, from that wonderful passage of the 42nd Psalm: “Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him.” As this text breathes the inspiring hope of immortality, so were the speakers words inspired by a similar hope; to point the way from the material to the spiritual; from worldly ambitions and yearnings to the only worth while thing, the future laid out by the Creator.

Rev. Howard paid a strong personal tribute to Mr. Thomson, his public spiritedness, his solicitude for the community in which he resided, his of a relentless malady, an insidious disease that completely undermined his mental relative power, did he yield, was the speaker’s belief. So it is that we must be persuaded the responsibility for his death rests as surely upon physical disorder as if disease had killed him.

The funeral ritual of the Oddfellow Order was read at the home by Warren Burdine, after which a large escort of Oddfellows and Masons, beside the relatives and friends, accompanied the body to the cemetery. There the Masonic burial ritual was repeated by Fred H. Nolte of Stuart and the fraternal brothers of deceased then consigned his remains to the earth. Prayer was given by Rev. Howard. At this moment when the solemnity of the occasion seemed to have reached its climax, heavy clouds gathered overhead and a gentle rain began to fall. It was as if Nature, too, brooded over the untimely death of one of her children.

Hugh Spencer Thomson, son of Mr. J. R. and Mrs. Margaret Ann Thomson, was born at Long Grove, Scott County, Iowa, July 28, 1867, and moved with his parents to Madison county, Iowa when two years of age. He has therefore been a citizen of this county for 52 years.

He was married to Miss Jennie Hale at Winterset, Iowa June 22, 1901. To this union was born a son who died in infancy, two daughters Margaret and Gladys who still survive him.

Mr. Thomson took a business course in the Capital City Commercial Business College and for a few months worked in the railroad offices in Des Moines. He was four years deputy county clerk of Madison County and four years served the county as county clerk. At the close of his term of office he came to Earlham and organized the Bank of Earlham where he has lived and labored since August 1901.

He has been one of the most highly respected citizens not only of Earlham, his home, but of the county as well. He has been elected to every office of trust and preferment the community could give. He was President of the school board, Treasurer of Earlham and had a large part in the great effort in building of the consolidated school.

He was baptized in infancy in the Presbyterian Church and has been President of the Board of Trustees, and Treasurer of the Church for a long time. Becoming a member of the church on May 24, 1908, he has been dearly beloved by its membership and loved its walls and loved to look after its interests.

Mr. Thomson has not been well for a good while He has labored beyond his strength and has been really a sick man for months though he never spoke of his illness nor his anxieties to any other than to his wife.

He loved his family and was dearly loved of them. A good husband, an affectionate father, and good citizen he left us as I ---- believe not as result of disease, as truly as if he had died of any other disease.

He leaves to mourn his loss, a beloved wife, two daughters, Margaret and Gladys, a father, Mr. J. R. Thomson, a brother, John Charles, and a host of relatives and friends. A son, a brother and his mother have preceded him.

The love and sympathy of a church and community and the county go out in unfeigned affection for the sorrowing ones.
Transcriber's note: Died Aug.3,1921 - Burial in Earlham cemetery

Gravesite
 

Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen