Columbia County PA Archives Biographies.....THOMPSON, Joseph D. 1821 - living in 1899
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  JOSEPH D. THOMPSON, one of the prominent and well-to-do citizens of the town of
  Berwick, Columbia County, Pa., whose portrait is shown on the opposite page, is
  principally engaged in hauling sand for The Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing
  Company. He was born in Berwick November 7, 1821, and is a son of Hugh and Ann
  (Dodson) Thompson and a grandson of Paul Thompson.
  
    The Thompsons are of Scotch-Irish descent, and Paul Thompson, the grandfather
  of our subject, was born in County Deny, Ireland, March 1, 1754, and died at his
  home in Berwick, Columbia County, Pa., July 8, 1807. His wife Nancy was born May
  10, 1754, and passed from this life September 16, 1823. Mr. Thompson and family
  bade farewell to their native country July 9, 1792, sailed for America and
  located in Dillsburg, York County, Pa. Paul Thompson learned the trade of a
  potter in his younger days and followed that occupation throughout his entire
  life. He remained in York County until 1798, when he and his family moved to
  Berwick, Columbia County, and there he built the first pottery that was erected
  in that section of the county. His plant was located where the Methodist Church
  now stands, and the earthernware he made he sold to the settlers along the
  Susquehanna River; he owned a flatboat which he used to convey his goods up and
  down the river. When the grandfather of our subject took up his residence in
  Berwick there were but few houses in the town, and he lived to see a fair-sized
  and prosperous community grow up around him. In religious views he was a member
  of the Presbyterian Church. He was the progenitor of two sons and three
  daughters, namely: Hugh, the father of our subject; Jane, born in Ireland
  November 21, 1781, died April 14, 1807; Margaret, born January 1, 1783, died
  April 15, 1855; Alexander, born May 1, 1790, who was engaged in the pottery
  business all his life; and Ann, born January 6, 1792, and died November 29, 1856.
  
    Hugh Thompson, the father of our subject, was born in Ireland in 1780 and came
  to this country with his parents in 1792. He spent his boyhood days working with
  his father and learning the pottery trade, which he continued to follow until
  within a few years of his death. Upon his father's death he succeeded him in his
  business, immediately enlarged the plant and built up a large and paying
  business. He was also engaged in the cultivation of the soil and was the
  proprietor of a farm consisting of 150 acres of productive land. A part of his
  farm is now in the town of Berwick and a part is now the homestead owned by our
  subject. He was an emergency man during the War of 1812. Mr. Thompson was one of
  the valued members of his community, and his home for many years was made the
  stopping-place of the Methodist ministers of the section. He was united in the
  bonds of wedlock with Ann Dodson, and to this union three sons and three
  daughters were born, as follows: Paul, who died in infancy; Richard, born June
  14, 1811, died May 25, 1895, who was a farmer by occupation and a partner with
  his brother in the pottery business; Alexander, born October 6, 1813, died
  December 12, 1881, was formerly engaged in the pottery business and later in the
  foundry at Tunkhannock, Luzerne County, Pa., and also was justice of the peace
  many years; Susan, born February 22, 1816, died December 27, 1895, was the wife
  of Rev. Ege, a well-known Methodist minister of the Baltimore Conference; Jane,
  born December 5, 1818, was the wife of Dr. Berket; our subject; and Elizabeth
  Ann, born March 3, 1828, who is the wife of P. C. Wadsworth, who was justice of
  the peace of Townhill, Luzerne County, Pa., many years.
  
    Joseph D. Thompson, our subject, acquired a good education in the common
  schools of his native town and then worked in his father's pottery, and when he
  attained the age of twenty-one years he and his brother, Richard, succeeded
  their father in the business and successfully carried it on until 1853, when the
  firm dissolved partnership and our subject became sole proprietor. In 1863 Mr.
  Thompson discontinued the business, as the demand for earthernware became very
  light, moved upon his present farm, where he has since resided. Since 1870 he
  has been engaged in hauling sand for The Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing Company
  of Berwick, for which work he requires the continual use of from six to eight
  mules.
  
    Mr. Thompson was wedded in 1846 to Mary Bonham, and this union was blessed by
  the birth of one child, Almira, who died in infancy. Mrs. Thompson passed from
  this life December 21, 1850, and on February 23, 1858, our subject was again
  united in marriage to Mary Hull, and they are the parents of two children,
  namely: Hugh, who is engaged in hauling sand with his father; and Annie E., the
  wife of J. S. Housneck, treasurer and bookkeeper for the Armour meat market at
  Shenandoah, Pa.
  
    Aaron Hull, father of our subject's wife, was a native of Easton, Pa., and was
  a millwright by trade. He removed to Berwick in 1840 and served as toll
  collector on the Berwick bridge a number of years. His death occurred in 1867,
  at the age of sixty-nine years. Religiously he was a member of the Methodist
  Church. He was married to Elizabeth McPherson, who passed from this earth in
  1858, aged fifty-six years. They reared a family of two sons and three
  daughters, namely: Esther, deceased, who was the wife of Samuel E. Smith of
  Berwick; William, who was a dispatch-bearer in the Civil War, and passed from
  this life at Fort Schuyler, N. Y., in 1864; Edward, formerly a butcher residing
  at Shickshinny, Pa.; Mary, the wife of our subject; and Kate, widow of the late
  J. H. Mears, a contractor and builder.
  
  
  Additional Comments:
  Extracted from:
  
  Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District
  Published by 
  Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899)
  
  
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