History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/William G. Thompson
WILLIAM G. THOMPSON, one of the pioneer legislators of Iowa, is a native of Butler County, Pennsylvania, where he was born January 17, 1830. He was reared on a farm, receiving his early education in a log schoolhouse, and became a teacher. At the age of nineteen he entered the Weatherspoon Institute, remaining two years when he began the study of law, supporting himself by working for his employers. He was admitted to the bar in 1853 and immediately came to Iowa, locating at Marion in Linn County, which became his permanent home. He was a member of the State Convention at Iowa City in 1856 which founded the Republican party of Iowa. The same year he was chosen a member of the State Senate, serving in the Sixth and Seventh General Assemblies. He was one of the presidential electors in 1864, and was elected District Attorney, serving six years. In 1879 he was appointed Chief Justice of Idaho Territory, and in the same year was elected to Congress from the Fifth Iowa District to fill a vacancy and was reëlected for the next regular term. In 1885 he was elected to the House of the Twenty-first General Assembly, serving on the committee chosen by the House of Representatives to prosecute the impeachment proceedings against Auditor Brown. In 1894 Judge Thompson was appointed Judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District and has been elected since to a full term.