Elisha K. Thompson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1162-1163 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	ELISHA K. THOMPSON, one of the honored pioneers of Charles Mix 
county, was born in Meigs county, Ohio, on the 18th of March, 1822, 
being a son of Reuben and Falindie (Kent) Thompson, both of whom were 
born in the state of New York, while they became the parents of five 
children, of whom two are living. The father of the subject devoted his 
life to agricultural pursuits, and both he and his wife died in Ohio. 
The paternal ancestors on both sides were of colonial stock and both 
families were represented by valiant soldiers in the war of the 
Revolution, assisting in gaining the boon of independence. Elisha K. 
Thompson received a common-school education and was reared on the 
homestead farm to the age of seventeen years, when he came west to 
Illinois, where he worked as a farm hand and ran on the Mississippi 
river until his marriage, in 1847. He resided on his farm in Ohio until 
1861, when he went to Whiteside county, Illinois, where he purchased 
land, to whose cultivation he devoted his attention about eight years. 
He then moved to Lyndon, Illinois, where he invested in a pump works. In 
1877 he disposed of the property and moved to Iowa, where he purchased a 
farm in Sac county, where he continued to follow agricultural pursuits 
for the ensuing five years, or until 1882, when he came to South Dakota 
and took up a homestead claim in Charles Mix county, and on this 
property, now finely improved, he has ever since continued to reside. 
When he came to the county the settlers were few, and the Indians were 
found in the vicinity in considerable numbers, but he found them at all 
times peaceable and kindly. During the first season of his residence in 
the county Mr. Thompson states that he secured the best sod crops ever 
raised in any locality, but the several years of drought which followed 
brought financial ruin to many of the settlers in this section. A 
radical change later ensued, the rainfall being more copious and 
regular, so that crop failures are practically a thing of the past. Mr. 
Thompson has one of the most attractive homes in the county, having a 
substantial and commodious residence, around which he has succeeded in 
raising some very fine maple and cedar trees, which he personally 
planted and which have now attained such a size as to make the home a 
picturesque and beautiful one. In politics he was originally a supporter 
of the Whig party, but upon the organization of the Republican party he 
transferred his allegiance to the same and has ever since been a 
stalwart advocate of its principles. He has been a zealous member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church for the past sixty years, and his loved and 
devoted wife has also been a zealous worker in and a member of the 
church. 

	On the 13th of June, 1847, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Thompson to Miss Nancy Gilman, who was born and reared in Meigs county, 
Ohio, being a daughter of Henry Gilman, a prominent farmer of that 
locality, where he also conducted a large saddlery business for many 
years. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson became the parents of six children, one of 
whom died in infancy. Of the others we offer the following brief record: 
Reuben died at the age of eleven years; Nancy died at the age of ten 
years; Emma is the wife of Henry Van Schoonhoven, a prominent farmer of 
Charles Mix county; Edward, who married Miss Lulu Tenny, is engaged in 
the livery business at Platte, this county; and Josephine is the wife of 
Clarence Vermillion, the leading dry-goods merchant in the city of 
Mitchell, this state.