<< Chris,
The first article you mentioned on John Charles F. Thompson does have a
couple names that match people in my line. I would be interested in
that one.
Thanks!!
Bruce Ryan >>
JOHN CHARLES F. THOMPSON, a thriving and enterprising farmer of Kirklin
township, Clinton county, Ind., was born May 3. 1854, in Rush county, Ind ,
and through his great-grandfather is of English descent. His grandfather,
Thomas Thompson, was a native of this country, was a farmer of Franklin
county, Ind., and married Nancy Walker, by whom he became the father of two
children~Alfred and Thomas. The last named was born in Indiana in 1814, was
reared a farmer, and married Hannah Williams, who was born in 1818, in Wayne
county, Ind., and was a daughter of Jonas and Samantha Williams. In 1844,
Thomas Thompson and wife settled in Rush county, Ind., where Thomas died in
1862, his wife surviving to reach the age of seventy-three years. They were
in very good circumstances, owning 160 acres in Boone county and 240 acres in
Rush county, and both were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Their
nine children were born in the following order: Samantha, died when a child;
Alfred F.; Sarah; Ward; Everett; Winfield; John Charles F.; Oliver, deceased,
and Thomas, deceased.
John C F.. Thompson was reared to the toils and pleasures of farming,
lived most of the time on the home place until he had reached the age of
twenty-five years, when he married Belle Kemple, who was born October 18,
1856, in Butler county, Ohio, the daughter of David and Sarah (Jones) Kemple,
and to this happy union of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have been born Clayton E.,
May 22, 1881; Myrtie, March 28, 1884, and Goldie, September 28, 1886. The
parents began housekeeping on thirty acres, on which they lived four years,
and then sold for $80 per acre and moved to Kirklin township, when Mr.
Thompson bought sixty-three acres on the Michigan-town road, at $40 per acre.
This he cultivates with the utmost care, having laid 785 rods of tiling to
increase its fertility. The old log cabin has given way to a fine modern
dwelling, at a cost of $1,300, and a commodious barn has been erected worth at
least $600, together with other outbuildings that denote the thrifty and
prosperous farmer, Mr. Thompson devotes special attention to the raising of
horses and hogs, and he has, also, a fine young orchard, with an abundance of
small fruits, and his entire surroundings are those of comfort and beauty.
Mr. Thompson is in politics a republican and has served as deputy prosecutor
and as delegate to the republican county convention. In religion he is a
Presbyterian, and has filled the position of deacon in his congregation the
past four years. He is a stock holder in the Kirklin and Terhune Natural Gas
company, and of course uses the natural product in his own tasty dwelling, and
he and his faithful wife live in the enjoyment of the respect of all their
friends and neighbors.