Franklin County Missouri Obituaries - Pleasant Thompson

This obituary was provided by non-subscriber, Norman Atkins:

PLEASANT THOMPSON OBITUARY
                                    Contributed by Norman Atkins

Following is a newspaper obituary from an unknown paper - known
only as the Journal (assumed to be a King City paper). Obituary
probably
was printed about Feb. 20th, 1907 or shortly thereafter.

                                     PASSING OF A PIONEER

Pleasant Thompson, one of Salinas Valley's earliest pioneers,
joins the silent majority.

The Journal regrets to chronicle the passing of Pleasant
Thompson, one of the earliest pioneers of the Salinas Valley,
whose death occurred at 2:30 Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 19,1907),  
at his home near King City. He had been ill since Thanksgiving, 
but bore his suffering uncomplainingly
to the end. He was a good citizen, kind hearted and true to his
friends and always ready to relieve distress to the extent of his
ability.

Pleasant Thompson was born December 26, 1830 in St. Louis County, Missouri.
He lived in St. Louis county with his father (William Thompson) until about
15 years of age, then moved into Franklin county, Missouri. In 1845, he
moved to Texas. At the age of 18 years he volunteered as a Ranger in the
Mexican war. He was never called on to serve and in
six months the war closed.

In 1846 his father died, and in 1848 (Feb. 1850) his mother (Nancy Bacon
Thompson) married a man by the name of (Uriah)
Burns. At 18 years of age , he started to do for himself. Before he was 21
years old, he was married to Sarah Ann Hamilton, aged 15, in Sherman,
Grayson County, Texas on June 12, 1851.

In May 1856, with his family, wife and two small children, Alex and
William, he started across the plains, by ox team, for
California. In the fall of '56 they arrived in Los Angeles and spent the
winter there. In the spring of '57 they came to Salinas Valley, and settled
near the present site of Salinas. In 1870 he moved to San Antonio, Monterey
county and engaged in farming and stock raising. Several years later he 
went into the hotel (The Last Chance Stage stop) and food yard business at 
the place now called "Thompson Gulch".

In 1882 he sold his estate to the late William Dumphy and moved to
Watsonville. After remaining there two years, he came back to Pine Canyon
near King City and remained there several years. Three years ago he bought
seven acres of land from Charles Bischoff, half a mile from King City,
where he made his home up to the time of his death.

Their union was blessed with twelve children - eight girls and four boys.
Six children, four girls and two boys, are dead, Viz:
W.R. Thompson, Mrs. W. J. (Martha) Grigsby, Nellie, John Franklin,
Elizabeth and Mary Thompson. The six surviving children are Alexander and
Martin Thompson of King City, Mrs. J.N.(Nancy) Marston of Paso Robles, Mrs.
Fronie S. Harris of Pemena, Cal., Mrs. W.H. (Frances) Lawrie of
Watsonville, and Mrs. W. H.(Jane) Weaver of King City, all of
whom, with their aged mother, were at his bedside when he passed away.

Note: those items in parenthesis I have added to clarify known
errors or to add names. Norm Atkins

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