Christen C. Thompson Biography


	This biography appears on page 299 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				CHRISTEN C. THOMPSON. 

	Christen C. Thompson, a representative and enterprising 
agriculturist of Minnehaha county, residing on section 34, Taopi 
township, owns and operates a well improved farm comprising one hundred 
and sixty acres. His birth occurred in Vernon county, Wisconsin, on the 
18th of February, 1864, his parents being Christen O. and Isabelle 
Thompson, both of whom are natives of Norway. They emigrated to the 
United States about 1845, as young man and young woman, crossing the 
ocean on the same sailing vessel, which consumed seven weeks in making 
the voyage. They took up their abode among the earliest pioneers of 
Vernon county, Wisconsin, and there resided until 1875, when they 
removed to Rock county, Minnesota, where they have made their home to 
the present time. Mr. and Mrs. Christen C. Thompson are the oldest 
couple in Rock county, being eighty-nine and eighty-seven years of age 
respectively. 

	Christen C. Thompson attended the district schools in the 
acquirement of an education. In 1888, when a young man of twenty-four 
years, he started out as an agriculturist on his own account and during 
the succeeding seventeen years cultivated rented land in Rock county. 
In the spring of 1905 he came to South Dakota, exchanging a Minnesota 
farm for one in Lincoln county, this state. The land, however, was low 
and flat and Mr. Thompson experienced much trouble on account of 
excessive moisture. In 1911 he traded his property in Lincoln county 
for a farm of one hundred and sixty acres on section 34, Taopi 
township, Minnehaha county, which he has operated continuously and 
successfully since. Under his able management this has become a 
productive and valuable property, and his success places him among the 
representative and prominent agriculturists of his community. 

	In 1896 Mr. Thompson was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Rue, of 
Rock county, Minnesota, by whom he has eight children, namely: Glen, 
Roy, Oden, William, Elsie, Inga, Amanda and Florence. Mr. Thompson 
gives his political. allegiance to the republican party and is now 
serving as constable of Taopi township. His religious faith is 
indicated by his membership in the Norwegian Lutheran church, to which 
his wife and children also belong. His life has been active, useful and 
upright and his many excellent qualities of mind and character have 
gained him a wide circle of friends.