Roane County, West Virginia Biography of STEPHEN B. THOMPSON This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. 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. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 446 Roane STEPHEN B. THOMPSON was the first and has been the only cashier of the Roane County Bank, and his long and faithful service with that institution has undoubtedly con- tributed in large measure to its solid resources and un- doubted integrity as one of the most successful banking in- stitutions in this part of the state. Mr. Thompson, who first and last has had a number of other interesting and useful relations with his home com- munity, was born in Roane County July 5, 1867. His grandfather, William W. Thompson, was born in old Vir- ginia in 1812, and on coming West first settled in Ham- son County and in 1862 located in Roane County, where he lived until his death in 1882. His first wife and the grand- mother of the Spencer banker, was a Miss Jackson, a na- tive of Harrison County, who died there in 1845. She was the mother of three sons and two daughters, all now de- ceased. The second wife of William W. Thompson was Su- sanna Morrow, who was born in Harrison County and died in Roane County. Their family consisted of one son and two daughters, and the only survivor is Thomas Albert, now a retired merchant at Spencer. Francis M. Thompson, father of Stephen B., was born in Harrison County January 1, 1844, and was about eight- een years of age when his parents removed to Roane County, locating a mile south of Spencer. About that time he joined the Confederate Army, and served three years. He was at the battle of Gettysburg and later was cap- tured and for the last nine months of the war was in a Federal prison at Point Lockout, Maryland. His active civil life was devoted to farming, and he was one of the prosperous men of his day in Eoane County. He retired to Spencer in 1911, and he died at the home of his son William in Charleston in December. ]919. He was a demo- crat and a member of the Baptist Church. Francis M. Thompson married Susan S. Daniell, who was born in Eoane County in 1848, and died at Spencer in 1913. Stephen B. is the oldest of their children. William is a traveling sales- man with home at Charleston; Robert Lee died at the homestead at Walnut Grove at the age of fourteen; Charles W. is a resident of Vallejo, California, and for the past ten years has been an employe in the Mare Island Navy Yard; Rossell G. is a farmer at Radnor, Ohio; Homer F., a resident of Charleston, is district manager for the wholesale tea and coffee house of William S. Skull & Com- pany. Stephen B. Thompson spent his early life on his father's farm near Spencer, attended the rural school, and in 1886 taught a term of school in Eoane Connty. During 1887 he was a student in the Fairmont State Normal, and after leaving there resumed teaching in Roane County, and some of his older friends and associates recall his good work as a teacher during the years 1887 to 1891. In 1891 Mr. Thompson was appointed deputy County Court clerk, and those duties took him to Spencer. He filled that office un- til 1898, and on August 8, 1898, took his place as cashier of the Roane County Bank. This bank was opened for business on that date, and it hag steadily maintained its service as a general banking institution, with constant in- crease in resources and good will. This bank has capital stock of $50,000, its surplus and undivided profits amount to $115,000 and the deposits average $800,000. The exec- utive officers are: C. S. Vandal, president; Harry C. Wood- yard, vice president; and S. B. Thompson, cashier. Mr. Thompson is also treasurer of the Roane County Building & Loan Association, is a director and stockholder in the Eoane Grocery Company, wholesale, and does an ex- tensive business in general insurance, writing fire, accident and health policies. He is a democrat in politics and has served five different terms in the city council, his last term in that body expiring in April, 1921. He is treasurer of the Methodist Protestant Church, is a past grand of Campbell Lodge No. 101, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, at Spencer, and is a member of the Spencer Rotary Club. During the war he was treasurer of the Roane County Chapter of the Red Cross, and was chairman of the county committee for the third and fourth Liberty Loan drives, both of which went over the top with an excess of quota. Mr. Thompson and family live in a modern home at 212 Front Street. He married at Parkersburg in 1893 Miss Ida May McMillan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jordan R. McMillan, now deceased. Her father was a farmer. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Thompson. Ronald E., born August 23, 1894, is a druggist at Spencer; Ida Kathleen, born September 21, 1896, is a graduate with the A. B. degree from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, and is a member of the Zeta Alpha sorority. On the 5th of July, 1922, she was married to Austin Davis Twigg, of Baltimore, where they make their home. The youngest, Marion C., born in November, 1900, has recently graduated from the U. S. Military Academy at Annapolis, and is now a junior officer in the navy, being now an officer on the flagship of the Asiatic Fleet.