LAKE COUNTY OHIO - BIO:  THOMPSON, J. D.

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File contributed to the Lake County, Ohio Biographies Project by
Deb Breniser
rbcobb@ncweb.com
January 6, 2000
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This biography is taken from Biographical History of Northeastern Ohio,
Embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake; Lewis Publishing
Company, 1893.

J. D. Thompson

J. D. Thompson, who is ranked with the successful and prominent farmers of
Perry Township, Lake County, Ohio is a native of this place and is
deserving of more than a passing notice in the history of his county.
Following is a sketch of his life and ancestor: John Thompson, the
progenitor of this family of Thompson's came from England to America at an
early day and settled in Massachusetts.  Thomas Thompson, grandfather of J.
D., was a native of Massachusetts, and was a soldier in the revolutionary
war when he was a boy in his teens.    He was a farmer by occupation.
After his marriage, which occurred in Massachusetts, he went to Cornish,
New Hampshire, and lived there until 1816, when she with his family removed
to Stowe, Vermont, where he spent the rest of his life, and died at the age
of sixty years.    His widow, whose maiden name was Rheuhanna Barrows,
survived him many years. She came out to Ohio with her youngest son, Moses,
the father of our subjects, and died here at the ripe old age of 95 years. 
She reared two sons and three daughters.

Moses Thompson was born in New Hampshire, March 15, 1800, and lived in
Cornish, that State, until he was sixteen years old, when he went with his
father to Stowe, Vermont.  At the latter place, December 5, 1822, he
married Miss Rachel Dutton and in June 1831, he emigrated to Ohio with his
Family, making the journey by wagon and being several weeks on the way.    
In a few months after his arrival here he bought160 acres, narrows owned
and occupied by his son J. D., and moved on it in December 1831.  At that
time the cabins off the pioneers and here and there a few acres of cleared
land, were the chief improvements to be found in this part of the country. 
The Thompson farm was unenclosed, but a hewed-logged house and frame barn
had been built and a little of the land cleared.  Thompson was five feet
and ten inches tall, was broad shouldered and strong, and was full of
energy.  As the years rolled by prosperity attended his earnest efforts.
Trees and stumps gave way to well cultivated fields, and the log cabin was
replaced by a modern home.  At the time of his death, he and his son J. D.
had 180 acres, nearly all of which he had cleared.   He and his first wife
had nine children, J. D. being the eight born and one of the seven--four
sons and three daughters--who reached adult years.  Of this number only two
are living--J. D., and Thomas, both of Perry township.  The mother of this
family was a member of the Congressional Church and was a most amiable
woman.  She passed from earth to her reward July 21, 1861.  In 1863 Mr.
Thompson married Mrs. Arilla Johnson, whose death in 1870 again left him
bereaved of a loved companion.  Subsequently she married Parmelia C.
Crandall, who survives him, his death having occurred November 2, 1891. He
was a member of the Congressional Church in Painesville, from 1836 to 1863,
when he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Perry, of which he
remained a consistent member until death called him home.  In early life he
was Whig and Free Soiler.  See was a strong and Abolitionist, and after the
organization of the Republican Party identified himself with it.

J. D. Thompson was born on his father's farm, December 27, 1834, and was
reared amid the frontier scenes above described.  In the fall of 1856, he
made a trip to Wright County, Iowa, taking with him a drove of horses.
After remaining in Iowa a year, he came back to Ohio, and has since been
engaged in farming here with the exception of the time he spent in the
army.

When the war came on he was among those who responded to the call for
troops. He enlisted August 7, 1862, in Battery C., First Ohio Light
Artillery, and served until June 15, 1865, when he was mustered out at
Cleveland.  He joined the Army at Louisville, KY, and served under Generals
Buell, Rosecrans and Sherman, participating in many of the prominent
engagements of the war, among which were those of Perryville, Chickamauga,
Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, and others.  He was on the famous "March to
the Sea" and took part in the Grand Review at Washington, after which he
returned home, a veteran and a victor. 

Soon after the war, September 26, 1865, Mr. Thompson married Miss Mary J.
Tyler, a native of Mayfield, Cuyahoga County, and Ohio.  Their only child
died in infancy.  Mrs. Thompson' s father, Ralph Tyler, settled in Lake
County in 1850, first at Willoughby and the following year in the Perry
Township.

Mr. Thompson 's farm comprises 180 acres, all wells improved and devoted to
general farming.  He runs a dairy, taking his milk or through the summer to
the cheese factory, in which he is a stockholder, and in winter shipping to
Cleveland.  He has a commodious brick residence, built in 1852, a
comfortable tenant house, and several large frame barns.   In  1874 one of
his barns was struck by lightning and two were burned down.

Mr. Thompson is a Republican and a member of the O. H. Haskell Post, 462,
G. A. R., of Perry.  He is now serving as one of the township Trustees of
Perry township. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church of which he is a Steward and Trustee.