John W. thompson, who ranked high as a member of the Daven port bar and was greatly beloved as a citizen and public official, was born in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1823, and died in Davenport, August 11, 1883. He began teaching school in his native County when only nineteen years of age and for two years followed teaching as a profession, when, on reaching his majority, he began the study of law in the office of Thomas P. Campbell of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
Two years later he commenced practicing law in Williamsburg and Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where he remained until the spring of 1854, when he took a trip throughout the West. In April, 1855, he moved to Davenport and immediately afterward formed a law partnership with Colonel H. G. Barner.
The partnership was dissolved in 1861 and he continued in his profession alone for five years and then formed a partnership with Captain J. D. Campbell. This arrangement was dissolved in 1870. In 1877 he entered into partnership with Judge Nathaniel French. As a lawyer he stood in the front ranks of the Davenport bar. He was a plodding student rather than a versatile and forcible speaker, while he was always a very conscientious attorney, and particularly strong as a safe and prudent counselor. He never resorted to petty intrigues in trying a case, but labored on the merits of the cause he represented.
He cast his first vote for Henry Clay as a Whig and entered the Republican party at its organization, becoming a warm supporter of its principles and policies.
By this party he was elected to represent his district in the Iowa Legislature in 1857 and two years afterward was elected State Senator. He was a member of the convention of 1860 that nominated Lincoln for President, and also a delegate to the convention of 1880 that nominated Garfield for President of the United States. In the spring of 1878 Mr. Thompson was elected Mayor of Davenport. In speaking of the nomination a few days before the election, the “Daily Gazette” of April 5, 1878, said: “During the quarter of a century of Mr. Thompson's residence in Davenport he has steadily, and without approach to an exception, maintained the character of a worthy, reliable, and honest citizen. For years, too, his counsel upon any and all questions of public interest has been implicitly relied upon by all who have known him. A man of rarely vigorous and clear judgment, unswerving in his integrity, urbane and courteous in all his intercourse with his fellow-citizens, John W. Thompson is just the man for the place.” How well the statement of the “Gazette” was fulfilled his subsequent successful history as mayor satisfactorily demonstrated even to his political opponents. He served in that capacity until the spring of 1879, and in 1883 was again elected and held the office up to the time of his death.
BIOGRAPHIES