BIOGRAPHY: N. F. THOMPSON, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 438-41
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N. F. THOMPSON, secretary of the Board of Trade of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is a 
son of Joseph and Ann E. (Cary) Thompson, and was born December 25, 1844, in 
Bedford county, Tennessee. His paternal grandfather, Samuel Thompson, was one of 
the pioneer settlers in Middle Tennessee, and, together with a brother, founded 
Shelbyville, the present county seat of that county.
     Joseph Thompson, father, was born in North Carolina in 1807, and when eight 
years of age was taken with his parents into Tennessee. There he was given such 
an education, as the meagre facilities of this uncultivated section at that time 
afforded. Early in life he embarked in mercantile pursuits in the State of 
Alabama, where he remained five years, when he again returned to Tennessee, 
locating at Shelbyville, the county seat of Bedford county. There he was engaged 
in mercantile and agricultural pursuits until 1846. Upon the latter date he was 
elected sheriff of Bedford county on the old-line Whig ticket, and, excepting a 
few short intervals, served in that office until 1868, when he retired, dying in 
1874. He was prominent in Masonic and Odd Fellow circles, and was one of the 
founders of the order of Masons in the county of Bedford.
     Ann E. Cary, the mother of subject, was a descendant of one of the old and 
highly respectable families of Livingstone county, Alabama. She was a woman of 
fine education and literary taste, being an authoress of local reputation, and 
as an educator was known throughout the States of Tennessee and Alabama.
     The primary education of N. F. Thompson was under the intelligent direction 
of his mother, who gave it her own personal supervision. He also attended the 
public schools and entered the college at Shelbyville, Tennessee, where he came 
under the instruction of Dr. A. L. Hamilton. Leaving the college at Shelbyville, 
he went to school at College Grove, a village founded by his uncle, in 
Williamson county, Tennessee. He remained there until 1862, when he entered the 
service of the Confederate States of America as a soldier. He enlisted in 
company D., First regiment, Rock City guards of Tennessee. He served in that 
regiment six months, when he was discharged for being under age. Afterward he 
re-enlisted, this time in Wheeler's cavalry, and served a short time as 
secretary to the inspector. Later he joined the escort of General Forrest, with 
which command he remained until April 11, 1865, surrendering on that date, with 
General Forrest, to the Federal General Canby at Gainesville, Alabama. During 
his service the engagements in which he participated included all of those hotly 
contested ones of the Army of the Tennessee and a number of other skirmishes and 
engagements. In the fighting above and at Selma, Alabama, which was the closing 
of the war, he had five horses shot from under him and fourteen bullet holes 
through his clothing, yet he escaped unhurt; after the war he returned to 
Bedford county and entered upon the study of the law, and was admitted to the 
bar in that county in 1866. He then for five years practiced his profession in 
Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1871 he entered actively into the work of the order 
of Good Templars as grand secretary and treasurer of the State of Kentucky. 
During his incumbency in this office, which was for three years, he vigorously 
pushed the work of the order with the satisfactory result that thirty-three 
thousand members were added to the organization. In 1872 he was elected a 
delegate to the world's convention of that order at Boston. During his three 
years' official connection with the Good Templars he was editor and proprietor 
of the Louisville Riverside Weekly, which he disposed of in 1874. In 1875 he 
entered the employ of the Standard Oil company as southern salesman, was later 
promoted to the position of manager of their station at Wilmington, North 
Carolina, where he remained until 1881, when he resigned and became southern 
manager of the United Gas and Improvement company of Philadelphia, with 
headquarters at Savannah, Georgia. He remained with the above company until 
1885, when he went to Birmingham, Alabama, and engaged in the real-estate 
business, and was thus engaged during the great boom in that city. He became the 
southern manager of the Commercial Alliance Life Insurance company of New York, 
in 1888, and continued as such until 1892. In 1893 he was one of the prime 
movers and a charter member in the organization of the Birmingham Commercial 
club, which organized with seven hundred members. This gave a great impetus to 
the growth of the town and contributed much to its development; he was also 
secretary at the same time of the Alabama Commercial association. Of his 
connection in this relation, we quote the following extracts from two worthy 
Birmingham papers. The following is from the Birmingham State-Herald, January 
31, 1896: "To-day Birmingham will lose a citizen who has, during his residence 
here, proven himself to be a man who will prove a valuable acquisition to any 
community. We refer to Mr. N. F. Thompson, whose name heads this article. For 
ten years Mr. Thompson has been a live, active, enterprising citizen of 
Birmingham. During the last two years of the ten he has occupied the position of 
secretary of the Commercial club. Since entering upon the duties of that 
position he has devoted his entire time and talents to Birmingham, and that he 
has accomplished a great deal of good for the city is a fact known of all men in 
this community. Notwithstanding he went into the place long before the shadows 
of the panic of '93 had begun to pass away, he has succeeded in locating some 
industries here; but, best of all, he has taken care to see to it that outside 
interest in Birmingham was not allowed to languish. He has constantly kept the 
city, its advantages, resources and possibilities prominently advertised to the 
world. During his term as secretary Mr. Thompson has contributed freely to the 
press, both local and foreign, able articles on industrial matters, never 
failing to take care that those who read them might learn of the great 
advantages that Birmingham and this district offer to outside as well as home 
capital. Mr. Thompson has accepted the position of industrial agent of the city 
of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, at a salary something like double the amount the 
club here can afford to pay, and several days ago tendered his resignation to 
the directory of the club. He will leave for Johnstown to-night. For the present 
his family will remain in Birmingham. At a meeting of the directors of the 
Commercial club yesterday, strong resolutions endorsing Mr. Thompson were 
passed, as well as resolutions expressing the regrets of the directory that Mr. 
Thompson has seen proper to depart. Mr. Thompson has many friends in Birmingham 
and throughout the country who wish him all the success possible in his new 
field.
     "While the State-Herald regrets that Mr. Thompson has determined to leave 
Birmingham, it cheerfully commends him to the Johnstown people, and heartily 
congratulates them on having secured him as a citizen and as their industrial 
agent, assuring them that they have gotten the right man in the right place. In 
his new field we wish Mr. Thompson much success, and hope ere long that 
Birmingham may claim him again as a citizen."
     And the following is from the Birmingham News: "Birmingham loses to-day an 
active, energetic and enthusiastic citizen, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, gains 
one in the person of Mr. N. F. Thompson, who has for nearly two years been 
secretary of the Commercial Club of Birmingham. Mr. Thompson received the offer 
of promotion--salary, if not in the field of work--directly through his labors 
for Birmingham. Johnstown saw how he kept Birmingham's interests to the front, 
and called him at figures he could not, with justice to himself, refuse.
     "The position of secretary to the Commercial Club is full of peril to the 
incumbent's popularity. It is a very difficult place to hold satisfactorily to 
one's self, to the membership, and to the public. No living man could fill it 
through such years as 1894 and 1895 and not enlarge the circle of his critics.
     "The News believes that few, very few, men possessing force of will and 
enthusiasm, full of a go-ahead spirit and constantly moving, could leave as many 
associates as Mr. Thompson does, who feel that the absence of his intense 
partisanship for Birmingham will be a serious loss, and that for snap, zeal and 
loyalty his place will be hard to fill. Good-bye, Mr. Thompson; may success 
attend you."
     In February, 1896, he came to Johnstown, and became secretary of the board 
of trade and has since done much toward securing for that place many profitable 
and substantial business enterprises, among which are the following: Motor 
Works, Radiator Works, Wall Paper Factory, Shirt Factory, etc., and has in every 
way shown himself the "right man in the right place." In June, 1896, he was 
selected as general manager of the Pennsylvania State Fair, held in Johnstown, 
and this he made a brilliant success, the attendance being very large, with the 
best class of exhibits from a large number of adjoining States. During the Bryan 
and McKinley campaign he wrote a number of strong articles in favor of sound 
money, and against the free coinage of silver by this country, without 
international agreement, which had a wide circulation in both northern and 
southern newspapers, although he had been a life-long democrat, but never a 
partisan.
     He is a convert to the Catholic faith, and has been, ever since his 
reception, a regular monthly communicant in that church.