Thomas Thorson Biography

	This biography appears on pages 1014-1015 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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	THOMAS THORSON, one of the leading citizens of Canton, Lincoln county, 
where he is  engaged in the real-estate business and where he holds the 
office of president of the First  National Bank, was born in Norway on 
the 15th of November, 1848, and was there reared to  the age of six 
years, when, in 1854, he accompanied his parents on their immigration to 
the United States, the family settling in northeastern Iowa, where his 
father became numbered among the  pioneer farmers, taking up government 
land near the town of McGregor. There our subject  availed himself of 
the advantages of the public schools, continuing to assist his father in 
the work  and management of the home farm until 1869, when he secured a 
position as clerk in a  hardware establishment in Sioux City, Iowa. In 
1871 he removed to Beloit, Lyon county, that  state, where he opened the 
first store in the county, building up a successful  general-merchandise 
business and becoming one of the influential citizens of that section. 
In the  autumn of 1871 he was elected the first recorder of the county, 
and in 1874 was elected county  auditor. After the expiration of his 
term in this office, in 1875, he accepted a position as  traveling 
representative of the Sioux City Journal, and continued in this line of 
work for the  ensuing six years, at the expiration of which, in 1881, he 
located in Canton, South Dakota, and  here engaged in the real estate 
business, doing much to further the development and settlement  of this 
section and having ever since continued to be here prominently 
identified with this  important line of enterprise, in which connection 
he has become the owner of much valuable  city realty and farming and 
grazing ]and. He at once identified himself intimately and helpfully  
with public affairs, and he served two terms as mayor of Canton, while 
he was elected to  represent his county in the provisional legislature 
of 1885. He has been at all times an  uncompromising advocate of the 
principles of the Republican party and an active worker in its  cause, 
and in 1892 he was shown further distinction at the hands of his party 
and the voters of  the state in being chosen secretary of state, giving 
an able administration and being chosen as  his own successor in 1894, 
on which occasion he received the largest plurality ever given to any  
candidate on the state ticket —a significant evidence of popular 
confidence and esteem. After  his retirement from office he again turned 
his attention to his real-estate business, which he has  continued with 
marked success. He became one of the stockholders of the First National 
Bank of Canton at the time of its organization, was a member of its 
directorate for many years and in  January, 1903, was elected to the 
presidency of the institution, which is one of the solid and  prosperous 
banks of the state.  

	On July 12, 1882, Mr. Thorson married Miss Jessie Hunt, of Dodge 
county, Minnesota.  Fraternally, he is a Knight of Pythias and in the 
Masonic order he has attained all the degrees of  the York and Scottish 
rites, up to and including the thirty-second, and is also affiliated 
with the  Mystic Shrine. His religious connection is with the Lutheran 
church.