Benjamin Woodruff Thompson

THOMPSON, MOORE, TURNER, PETTIBONE

Posted By: Kathy Sternberg (email)
Date: 2/24/2007 at 21:08:11

Benjamin Woodruff Thompson, M.D.

Benjamin Woodruff Thompson, son of Robert Thompson and Susan nee Johnston, was born at Goshen, Orange Co, New York, on the 26th of April 1820.

This branch of the Thompson family is descended from William Thompson. A native of Edgesworthstown, County Longford,Ireland, of Scotch linage, who was born about 1695, married Ann Jenkins in the year 1717, emigrated to America and settled in Goshen, Orange Co, New York, in the 1737. The following is a copy of the certificate from the church when in Ireland, the original of which is still preserved by the family archives.

William Thompson and his wife Ann have lived many years in this neighborhood, and all along have behaved as it becometh Christians; have been members of the Protestant dissenting congregation, and may be received into Christian communion wherever Providence may cast their lot; and their children have behaved soberly and in offensively.
Certified at Cork Bay, County Longford, Ireland, May 12, 1737.

William Thompson was the father of George Thompson, born in Ireland in the 1719, emigrated to America with his parents, and settled in Orange County, New York, where, in the year 1753, he married Elizabeth Wells and raised a family of four sons and one daughter. He died in the year 1782, in his sixty-third year of his age. William Thompson( grandfather of our subject) eldest son of George and Elizabeth Thompson was born in Goshen, New York on the 29th of July,1756; married Mittie Hudson (daughter of John Hudson and Hannah Coleman) on the 20th of March,1783, and had four sons and two daughters. He died on the 29th of Feburary 1836, in the eightieth year of his age. Robert Thompson, second son of William and Mitty and the father of our subject, was born on the 24th of March. 1787. He married Susan H Johnston of Blooming Grove, Orange County, New York, on the 2nd of June 1810; had two sons and four daughters, of whom Benjamin W. is the eldest son. He died in November 1872, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. His widow,(mother of our subject) is living in Middletown, New York, in the eighty-eighth year of her age and can see to darn stockings with the aid of glasses.

The family, which is still largely represented in that pastoral region (Orange County, New York),have been all tiller of the soil in time past,- men of substance and high character. The grandfather of our subject(William Thompson) was a captain of the light dragoons under General Washington during the revolutionary war. His sword and suit of captain's uniform, together with a grape shot fired from the enemy at the battle of Fort Montgomery, which plowed up the ground under the captain's feet,are now heirlooms in the family of our subject. Robert (the father of the doctor), was a soldier in the war of 1812,and a member of Captain Denton's company. He was a plain, plodding farmer, dealt largely in stock, and was a good honest business man, very highly esteemed in the community, but of retiring disposition, and rarley went into company. His wife was a most entergetic and industrious woman, who in her early days was accustomed to manufacture fabrics from flax and wool, and afterward make them up into garments for her family, first spinning the flax and wool into yarn, them weaving it into cloth, and afterward manufaturing it into garments- all of her own hands. She was, moreover, a most exemplary Christian woman, and lives in the love and veneration of her children and a large circle of devoted friends.

Benjamin W. Thompson was raised on his father's farm and received his preliminary education at the Farmer's Hall Academy, Orange county, then under Nathaniel Webb and James Mc Master, the latter being now the editor of the "Freeman's Journal," New York. Here he studied the usual English branches, the higher mathematics, and the Latin Language.

At an ealy age he conceived a desire to become a physician, but his father demurred, preferring that his son should follow in his footsteps. Finding however, that the youth was bent on a profession, the latter's agreeing to defray the expenses of his education, he yielded his consent. Accordingly at the age of twenty years, he entered the office of Dr. James Horton,(now of Muscatine), at Goshen as a student, where he remained until 1844. Meantime he attended the usual courses of lectures at the medicial department of the University of New York, being under the special direction of Dr. John H. Whitaker, then demonstrator of the anatomy in the University, being himself a graduate of the Edinburgh, Scotland, Medical College. The other members of the faculty at that time Mott,professor of surgery and clinical surgery; John H. Revere, professor of theory, and practice of medicine and clinical medicine; Granville S. Patterson(also a graduate of Edinburgh Medical College), professor of anatomy; Martin Pain, professor of materia medica and institution of medicine, etc; G.S. Bedford, professor of obstetrics, etc. From this institution our subject was graduated in 1844,and immediately commenced the practice of his profession in his own home, being the some twelve-hundred dollars in debt for his education. He soon after purchased the office and practice of his preceptor,Dr. Horton retaining him the latter in the partnership for one year, at the end of which time Dr. Horton removed to Muscatine, Iowa. Dr. Thompson at once took charge of the large practice of his predecessor,which extended over a radius of twelve from the village, employing four horses in the discharge of his duties. This he continued for ten years without intermission. In 1854 he sold his practice to his cousin, Dr. John H. Hudson, who had studied in his office, and followed his old friend Dr. Horton to Muscatine, Iowa, where he has since resided being now one of the oldest practicing physicans in the city. His comtempories in the practice some twenty-three years ago were Drs. Reeder,Schok,Waters and Johnson- the two former since deceased- Dr Horton having relinquished the practice on moving to the west.

Dr. Thompson soon built up a large an lucrative practice,established himself in the confidence and esteem of the people, and was always prompt in responding to the calls of duty, whether the patient was able to pay for professional services or not; being anxious only to relieve suffering.; hense he was called "the poor man's doctor" a title that speaks more in his behalf of fulsome adulation could do.

His specialty,if he has any, is the practice of surgery, at which from the incipiency he devoted a remarkable talent, his preceptor Dr. Horton, being accustomed to hand him the knife and look on while his pupil performed some of the most critical operations with a dexterity rarely surpassed by the most experienced surgeons.

In politics the doctor always adheared to the Jefferson school, but has meddled little in political affairs. nor held office , except that of Alderman of the city of Muscatine. During the years 1856, 1857, and 1858 he held the position of surgeon to the Orange Co. poor-house, small-pox, cholera and fever hospitals, and lunatic asylum.

He was rasied in the communion of the Presbyterian Church, and attended Sunday school until the age of twenty, but never united with the church.

On the 29th of October 1846 he married Miss Elizabeth daughter of the Hon. Stephen St. John, of Port Jervis, New York, one of the best and nobelist of her sex, an exemplary member of the Episcopal church and a promoter of every good and excellent work within the sphere of her influence.She died quite unexpectedly on the 12th of September, 1877, in the fifty-fourth year of her age.

They have two children, sons. The eldest Stephen St. John, is a captain of a river steamboat, and the youngest Robert Edwin, has adopted the profession of his father, and is a graduate of the College of Physicans and Surgeons, of New York city, and is a gentleman of considerable promise, Especially in the line of surgery,in which he rivals his father.

They have had no daughters, but raised an orphan girl named Annie Mautche, whose parents died of cholera in the year 1857, and educated her as their own daughter. She is now the wife of Clarke Sheckelford Esq., of Des Moines, Iowa.

The United States Biographical Dictionary pgs 134,135,136