John R. Thompson, M. D. Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1656-1657 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	JOHN R. THOMPSON, M. D., one of the leading members of his 
profession in Spink county, was born in Burlington, Kane county, 
Illinois, on the 13th of September, 1858, and is a son of Thomas J. and 
Hannah A. (Tucker) Thompson, who were numbered among the pioneers of 
that state, whither they removed from their native state of West 
Virginia. In 1880 the father, accompanied by the subject, came to Spink 
county, South Dakota, and took up land. He then returned to Kane county, 
Illinois, and the following year moved the family out. He is now living 
in Northville. The mother died April 8, 1904, aged sixty-five years. 

	After completing the curriculum of the public schools the Doctor 
took a two-years academic course in the academy at Elgin, Illinois, and 
thereafter was engaged in farming in that state until 1880, when he 
came, as a young man of twenty-one years, to the present state of South 
Dakota and cast in his lot with its pioneers. He arrived in Spink county 
in May of that year, and took up government land, whose improvement he 
at once instituted, continuing to be engaged in farming on this property 
until September, 1882, when, in harmony with plans previously conceived, 
he went to the city of Chicago, where he was matriculated in the Bennett 
Medical College, in which he was graduated in March of the following 
year, having previously devoted much personal study and investigation to 
the science of medicine. He then entered the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, in the same city and was graduated in the same in March, 1885, 
thus receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine from each of these well-
known institutions. In April, 1885, he began the active practice of his 
profession in Northville, Spink county, where he has ever since 
maintained his home and where he has built up a large and representative 
business as a physician and surgeon, his success having been most 
gratifying from the start. He still retains his original ranch and has 
been consecutively identified with farming and real-estate interests 
since coming to the state, while he is now the owner of two entire 
sections of valuable land in this county. He is a member of the American 
Medical Association, the Aberdeen District Medical Society, and is 
identified with the fraternal insurance societies known as the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Modern 
Brotherhood of America. In politics he is a stalwart Republican, but has 
never manifested aught of predilection for public office of a political 
nature. 

	On the 29th of May, 1887, Dr. Thompson was united in marriage to 
Miss Etta M. Gregory, who was born in Waybridge, Vermont, on the 3d of 
August, 1846, being a daughter of Leander A. and Eliza A. Gregory, who 
removed from the old Green Mountain state to Beloit, Wisconsin, where 
she was reared and educated. Dr. and Mrs. Thompson have one daughter, 
Ketha A., who was born on the 28th of October, 1888.