Page:One of a thousand.djvu/614

6oo THOMPSON. THOMPSON. ity, while the plurality given the Republican presidential ticket in the district was be- tween four and live thousand. He was the Democratic candidate for governor in the years 1880 and '81. In 1877 Amherst College conferred the honorary degree of A. M. on Mr. Thomp- son. In 1861 he married Abbie Herrick, of Gloucester. They have two children : a son and daughter. THOMPSON, Francis M., the son of John and Elvira (Adams) Thompson, of Greenfield, was born at Colrain, Franklin county, October 16, 1833. His paternal ancestors were of the Scotch-Irish race, who settled Colrain, his great grandfather being an officer in the revolutionary army. His ancestors on the mother's side were the Quincy-Adams stock. FRANCIS M. THOMPSON Mr. Thompson received his early educa- tion at the common and select schools of Greenfield and at Williston Seminary. He studied law under the direction of ludge Chester C. Conant, and was admitted to the Franklin bar in August, 1S76. Mr. Thompson became a book-keeper in a banking house in Cincinnati in 1856, and in 1862 emigrated to what is now Montana, then a portion of Dakota. He was sent to Washington with others, and worked for the division of Dakota and the erection of Montana as a territory. He was a member of the first legislative council of Montana, and assisted in the organization of the ter- ritory. He returned to Massachusetts in 1865, and has since resided in Greenfield. He has held the offices of trial justice, as- sessor, town clerk, town treasurer, and selectman, and is now, and has been since 1870, register of probate and insolvency for Franklin county. He was for many years a trustee and member of the finance committee in the Greenfield Savings Bank, and is now man- ager of the Interstate Mortgage Trust Com- pany, a corporation organized by him. He is a member of the board of directors of the Greenfield Library Association, and a mem- ber of the Connecticut Valley Congrega- tional Club. Mr. Thompson married ( >ctober 25, 1865, Mary, daughter of the late Hon. Lucius Nims, of Greenfield, and of Susan C, daugh- ter of Eliel G. Amadou, late of Springfield. They have one sou : Francis Nims, born August 26, 1S72. THOMPSON, LEONARD, son of Leon- ard and Hannah Wright (Wyman) Thompson, was born in W'oburn, Middle- sex county, November 21, 1817. Intelligent parents gave him his first knowledge of books, which was supple- mented by private school tuition, until he was old enough to attend the district school one mile away. In the " red school- house," he learned successfully the " three R's," and Morse's Geography furnished the incentive for future travel. The Warren Academy was opened in 1829, and there a thorough course of study better fitted him for the activities of life. In 1837 he was clerk in an auction store in Boston; later in a shoe store in Hal- lowed, Me., and Hartford, Conn. In 1842 he returned to Woburn and opened a store for the sale of shoemaker's tools, hats, boots and shoes. This was carried on SUCI ess fully until 1S50, when he sold out his in- terest, and in company with another, started a general country store, in which he continued only a year. He was then out of business a year, ,m in 1852 pur- chased a hardware and stove store, and has continued in this business to the pres- ent time, assisted by his son, L. Waldo. Mr. Thompson was married in Lincoln, May 26, 1847, to Maria Laurens, daughter of Cyrus and Tryphena (Brooks) Smith. Of this union were four children : Jenny Lind (deceased), Louis Waldo, Nellie Smith, and Edgar Bradford Thompson.