lently adapted to the raising of all kinds of grain, fruit and vegetables. He settled on this land in 1869, it being then wild, and he has brought it to its present admirable state of cultivation by industry, intelligence and perseverance. In those days C. P. Page was the only man living between his home and Nevada, and wolves were very abundant and destroyed much property. He used to, occasionally, see deer and other wild animals. Mr. Thatcher has done his full share in bringing the county to its present state of improvement, and has aided, by voice and purse, all enterprises of a worthy nature.
James Thompson, farmer and stock-raiser, Iowa Centre, Iowa. The father of Mr. Thompson, Isaac Thompson, was a native of Pennsylvania and of Irish descent. The latter moved with his parents to Ohio when three years of age, and was reared in Perry County, where he resided until his death in 1880, at the age of eighty-three years. His wife died in 1840, and he afterward married again. He carried on a distillery for a number of years. His marriage was blessed by the birth of four sons and one daughter, all of whom grew to mature years. He made one trip to Iowa when an old man, to visit his son living there. James Thompson, the second in order of birth of the above-mentioned children, grew to manhood in Perry County, Ohio, and remained with his parents until twenty-one years of age. He came west in 1855, locating in Story County, Iowa, and was first on a stationary engine for three years. After this he traded for the place. where he resides, then nearly all wild prairie land, and now has a good native timber tract of ten acres. He has ninety-five acres of land, all in a good state of cultivation, and has good, substantial buildings on the same. He commenced with little or no means, and has made what he has by industry and frugality. After settling here, he was for four years without a team. In politics he was formerly a Democrat, but is now a Prohibitionist, and acts with that party. Mr. Thompson served as township trustee for a number of years, and held other local positions. He was married in Grandville, Licking County, Ohio, on the 24th of December, 1857, to Miss Harriet Haynes, a native of Licking County, and the daughter of John Haynes. This union resulted in the birth of one son-Dr. Frank Thompson, a physician at Iowa Centre. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Thompson is a Master Mason, having joined that organization in 1887.
Frank D. Thompson is an attorney at law and the present postmaster of Nevada, Iowa. He was born in Erie County, Ohio, December 13, 1835, and is a son of Jason K. and Eliza Ann (Frisbee) Thompson, who were born in the " Green Mountain State" and died in Erie County, Ohio, aged about seventy-eight and sixty-seven years, respectively. They were members of the Presbyterian Church, and the father was a farmer by occupation. Frank D. Thompson is the third of five children, two now living, and in his youth was initiated into the mysteries of farm life by his father, and attended the country schools near his home. He afterward entered the high school of Berlin Heights, and later spent some time at Oberlin College, Ohio. Leaving this institution, he taught a number of terms in the country, and later at Milan, Ohio, where, for four terms, he was principal of the graded schools. In 1858 he took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in Huron County, Ohio, in 1860. On the 30th of September, of that year, he came to Nevada, and until February, 1864, he was associated in the practice of law with George A. Kellogg. He then enlisted in Company D, Twelfth Iowa Volunteer Infan-