Frederick Earl Thompson Biography Barbour County, WV ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** Submitted by: Valerie Crook The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 566-567 Barbour FREDERICK EARL THOMPSON, editor and publisher of The Belington Progressive, has made this vital weekly paper a potent force in furthering the interests of the City of Belington and Barbour County, his father having the active management of the business at the present time, and Frederick E., while having active editorial management, finding further claims upon his attention through his effec- tive work as salesman in Barbour County for the Morris Grocery Company, one of the leading wholesale concerns of Clarksburg, which he has represented since 1917. Mr. Thompson was born on a farm near Belington, on the 15th of October, 1883, and in the schools of Barbour County he acquired his early education. He attended sum- mer normal schools, and at the age of sixteen years he taught his first term of school, his pedagogic service hav- ing continued two years. He finally fortified himself fur- ther by taking a course in a business college, and he then became stenographer in the office of Kane & Keyer, whole- sale dealers in hardware. With this concern he won ad- vancement to the position of sales manager, and in 1912 he made a wholesome swoop into the local newspaper realm by purchasing the three weekly papers then published at Belington-the Independent, The Central Repnblican and The Observer, which he promptly merged into The Beling- ton Progressive, of which he has continued the publisher and which he has made a vigorous champion of the pro- hibition and woman-suffrage causes. Prior to the passage of the national laws eliminating the liquor traffic Mr. Thompson had been actively allied with the prohibition party and had been candidate on its ticket for various local offices. In 1920, on the republican ticket, he was elected to represent Barbour County in the House of Dele- gates of the State Legislature. In the legislative sessions of 1921 he was chairman of the committee on privileges and elections, and also of that on enrolled bills, besides having been a member of the printing and contingent ex- penses committee. He took a stand for economy in the management of state affairs, and fought for the reduc- tion instead of the increase of salaries on the state pay roll, besides opposing the creation of new offices which would involve further drain upon the state treasury. He was specially active in championing appropriations and legislation in behalf of the construction of good roads, and previously had made his newspaper the stanch advocate of such improvements. He also advocated in the Legis- lature liberal policies in connection with the public schools of the state. He was a member of the City Council of Belington when the municipal sewer system and street pav- ing were under way, and he loyally supported these and other progressive movements, including the bond issue for the erection of a new high school building. He has served as city recorder also, and one of the most loyal and pro- gressive men of his home city. Mr. Thompson is a charter member of the local organizations of the Woodmen of the World and the Loyal Order of Moose, and he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The plant of The Belington Progressive is modern in equipment and facilities, with linotype machine, Babcock cylinder press, two platen presses, and electric and gas-engine power provisions. Its excellent job department was one of the first in Barbour County to take a contract for the printing of a book, and the work was performed in most creditable manner. The Progressive is issued on Thursday of each week, a model in letter press and in its presentation of news of local and general order. December 25, 1904, recorded the marriage of Mr. Thomp- son and Miss Lenora Stalnaker, who was born and reared in Barbour County, a daughter of Garrison and Mary M. (Newlon) Stalnaker. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have four children: Wilfred A., Robert E., John A. and Mary Anna. Francis L. Thompson, father of him whose name initiates this review, was born in Barbour County, in December, 1859, and was a student in one of the first free schools established in the county. He learned in his youth the blacksmith trade under the direction of his father, John B. Thompson, who was a Union soldier in the Civil war, as a member of Company F, Fifteenth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. John B. Thompson was born in Bar- bour County, where his father, David Thompson, and mother, Polly (Wyatt) Thompson, settled at the time when Gen. Andrew Jackson was President of the United States. David Thompson here purchased an extensive tract of land, for which he paid four cents an acre, and his old home was six miles north of the present City of Belington. John B. Thompson married Sarah Ann Jones. Both are dead. John B. died in Taylor County. Their eldest son, Solomon David, became a successful farmer near Moatsville, Bar- bour County; Francis L. was the second son; Mrs. Mary Ogden died at Clarksburg, this state; Excella is the wife of M. D. Gainer, of Belington; Donna is the wife of Solo- mon Skidmore, of Grafton, this state; Alphonso resides at Belington; and General Ord was shot and killed by a desperado while in discharge of his official duties as chief- of-police at Gassaway, West Virginia. Francis L. Thompson, now manager of The Belington Progressive, married Anna Weaver, daughter of William and Ellen (Skidmore) Weaver. The Skidmore family have been one of prominence in this section of West Virginia since the early pioneer days. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Francis L. Thompson, Frederick Earl, immediate sub- ject of this sketch, is the eldest; Mrs. Edna Richardson resides in Los Angeles, California; Harry D. is engaged in the candy jobbing business at Morgantown; Omer C., a commercial traveling salesman, resides at Belington; W. Wayne, a printer by trade, is a resident of Los Angeles, California; Miss Carol holds a position with the agricul- tural department of the University of West Virginia; Hugh A. is a linotype operator at Los Angeles, California; Georgia is in the employ of the Belington Light & Water Company; and Roma, Theodore and Sallie, who remain at the parental home, are, in 1922, students in the public schools of Belington.