Ed Thompto

THOMPTO

Posted By: Gordon Felland (email)
Date: 10/10/2006 at 16:57:44

Ed Thompto bears a family name that has figured prominently in connection with the history of Worth county from pioneer times to the present and which has always been a synonym for progressiveness and activity along the line of agricultural development. Mr. Thompto is now a representative farmer of Grove township, Worth county, living on section 7. He was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, June 29, 1865, a son of Hans and Marinda (Savery) Thompto. His boyhood days were spent in Dane county and in Green county, Wisconsin, and his education was acquired in the schools of that locality. He remained upon the farm with his father for some time after his textbooks were put aside and received thorough training in the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the crops. He afterward removed with his father and the family to Iowa, settling in Grove township, Worth county.

It was in the year 1891 that Mr. Thompto was united in marriage to Miss Bessie Amundson, a daughter of Lawrer and Mary Amundson. Mrs. Thompto was born in Norway and was brought to the United States by her parents when but three years of age, the family home being established in Northwood, where her father worked as a shoemaker, having learned and followed that trade in the old country. Later, however, he turned his attention to farming but spent his last days in Northwood, where he died at the age of eighty years. His widow still survives and is yet living in Northwood. To Mr. and Mrs. Thompto have been born five children: Harry, who is residing near Lewiston, Montana; Minnie, the wife of John C. Abbey; Edna, who married Lloyd Walls; Salina, residing in North Dakota; and Norma, of Northwood.

It was subsequent to his marriage that Mr. Thompto purchased his present farm, comprising one hundred and eighty-two acres, of which forty acres lies across the division line in Minnesota. He has transformed this into a valuable farm property, has erected new buildings thereon and has added all the accessories and conveniences of the model farm of the twentieth century. In addition to the attractive residence there are good barns and sheds which furnish ample shelter for grain and stock, and he is now extensively and successfully engaged in raising hogs and other live stock. His fields, too, are under a high state of cultivation and everything about the place is indicative of his progressive spirit and careful management. In 1905 Mr. Thompto was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who passed away upon the home farm when but thirty-nine years of age. She was a consistent member of the Norwegian Lutheran church and her loss was deeply felt in the church and among her many friends as well as by her immediate family. Mr. Thompto also belongs to the Norwegian Lutheran church and his political endorsement is given to the republican party. His life has been the expression of high and honorable principles and of manly purposes and he has gained many friends during the long period of his residence in this county.

Source: History of Mitchell and Worth Counties, Iowa, 1918, Vol. II, Pages 483 & 484.