Butte County
Biographies
JOHN W. THOMPSON
JOHN W. THOMPSON.—A resident of Butte County, Cal., since the fall of 1872, John W. Thompson was born at Charleston, Coles County, Ill., March 10, 1869. His father, James Thompson, was born in Ross County, Ohio, and removed to Illinois, where he became a pioneer of Coles County. He enlisted in Company C, One Hundred Twenty-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and became orderly sergeant, serving three years and eight months until the close of the war. After the war he married Miss Elizabeth Coon, born in Ohio, the daughter of John Coon, a native of Virginia, who served in the War of 1812. Her great-grandfather spelled his name Kuhn, was also named John, and served as a bugler in the Revolutionary War.
In 1872, James Thompson brought his wife and only son to California, soon locating at what has since been known as Thompson’s ranch and hotel, four miles south of Inskip. Here he kept hotel and engaged in stock-raising. In 1881 he built the new hotel, which is still owned and run by his son, John W. James Thompson died at Centerville, aged seventy-two, while his wife lived to be seventy-four years old.
John W. was the only child and came out to California with his parents in 1872. He attended school at Inskip and Powellton, four and three miles respectively from his home, in the winter going on skis, as there is usually ten to twelve feet of snow. From a lad he learned the stock business, riding the range, roping and branding cattle. As early as seventeen years of age he bought a claim near Centerville and started in cattle-raising, later purchasing two hundred forty acres from the railroad company. He later took charge of his father’s cattle interests and after his parents’ death became possessor of the old home place, which he still owns. For over twenty years he has been engaged in butchering and has run a butcher wagon to the different mining and construction camps. His brand is the well-known combination J T followed by a circle.
Mr. Thompson was married, at Centerville, to Sarah Laughlin, who was born at Centerville, the daughter of John Laughlin, a pioneer miner and stockman. Mrs. Thompson died February 7, 1904, mourned by all who knew her. She left an only child, Irene, who presides over her father’s home.
Mr. Thompson is a member of the California State Cattle Grower’s Association, and fraternally is a member of the Stirling City Lodge, No. 178, I. O. O. F., and with his daughter is a member of the Rebekahs. He has served as trustee and clerk of the Centerville school district.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1143-1144, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies