Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 484
THOMAS THOMPSON

Thomas THOMPSON, a pioneer of the pioneers, who has been a resident of Harrison County since the autumn of 1852, will form the subject of this biographical notice. But few of the early band of pioneers yet remain within the county to give the historian detailed facts concerning the early settlement. Before reviewing this gentleman's history as connected with Harrison County, we will speak of his earlier years. He was born in Berkshire, Scotland, June 7, 1824. His early years were spent with the enjoyment that only comes to boyhood and at the age of thirteen years he left home and worked upon a farm until May 26, 1850, when he married Miss Agnes SHARP, and at once emigrated to America, landing at New York harbor. They at once came to La Porte, Ind. Their voyage on the ocean occupied five weeks, and then they were tossed to and fro two weeks longer on the Erie Canal and Great Lakes. They made their home at La Porte until 1852, when they came to this county.

Of Mrs. THOMPSON let it be said that she was born in Berkshire, Scotland, August 5, 1829, and remained there until married. Our subject and his wife are the parents of eleven children, six sons and five daughters�Robert, born October 29, 1851, and died January 10, 1852; Isabel, born April 13, 1853; Agnes, March 16, 1855; Nettie, September 2, 1856; Wallace, September 29, 1858, and died December 16, 1858; Thomas, born December 16, 1859; William, November 3, 1861, died September 19, 1878; Jane, born January 6, 1863; George, December 29, 1865, and died April 15, 1868; Anna born April 1, 1867; James, September28, 1872.

Upon coming to Harrison County Mr. THOMPSON settled on the banks of the creek now bearing his name, at the north side of BIGLER'S Grove, and on section 18, where he now lives, the same being in Boyer Township.

He entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, erected a log cabin in 14x18 feet, in which he lived until 1856, and then built the house in which he now lives which is a frame structure 14x24 feet, and in 1876, he made an addition of twelve feet to this building, making his present residence 24x26 feet, and one and one-half stories high. During 1881 he erected a barn 14x30 feet, with twelve-foot posts. His present farm comprises three hundred acres of choice, well-improved land in Boyer Township. When our subject came to the county his nearest post-office was Kanesville, now Council Bluffs, and to that point he had to go for whatever article he wished to purchase, and the journey required two days' time. Land was not in the market at that time, so he pre-empted his place and held on until it was for sale at Government price.

The way of the pioneer was hard, and Mr. THOMPSON relates how, that during the winter of 1856-57 (one never to be forgotten by those who lived within the Hawkeye State at that time), he went to the neighbor's a mile distant, the entire day being consumed in going and coming, so drifted was the snow. Again, that he, in company with a neighbor, started to mill with one sack of corn, and an ox-team. They had to go five miles, which journey took them two days. Their bread stuff at that date consisted of corn and buckwheat. The mill referred to was L. D. BUTLER'S, on the present site of the Woodbine Mills, and what little machinery there was derived its motion from the waters of the Boyer, but, alas! The mill building was not there. The burrs stood out in the open air, and they ground their corn, and Mr. BUTLER, proprietor of "The Mill," bolted the coarsely ground meal by means of a hand bolt, which was within a rude shanty, and was turned like a grind-stone.

The first winter our subject lived in the county they had to go to Crescent City to mill, which is in Pottawattamie County, and bought feed for his horses, nine miles east of Council Bluffs, and two years after his arrival, Magnolia was started, where they could procure some of the necessaries of life, providing they had the money.

In the autumn of 1855, the Indians came here to hunt deer. They came from near where Omaha now stands, and the people thought they would run them out. So the settlers living at Magnolia, headed by the Sheriff of the county, gave them chase. They were on the Willow, in Lincoln Township, and numbered about sixty, and they turned upon the whites whereupon the brave settlers ran with all possible speed, a more complete account of which will be found elsewhere in this work.

Sufficed it to say that pioneering in Western Iowa before the Civil War was not fraught with a vast amount of ease and pleasure.

Of Mr. THOMPSON'S political views it may be said he has affiliated with the Republican Party ever since its organization.

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