Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/163

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THOMPSON


THOMPSON


for that of the ministry. He founded a Baptist church in Boone county, Mo., in 1855, where he served for several years. He was subsequently pastor at Fayette, Howard county; was president of Mount Pleasant college, Huntsville, 1856-57, and. the second president of 'SYilliam Jewell col- lege, Liberty, Mo., serving from 1857 until 1861, when the college was suspended upon the out- break of the civil war, resuming the presidency for a short time in 1863. He practised law, 1861-63, and was founder of a school in Sidney, Iowa, in 1863, and president until his death. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from William Jewell in 1857. He died in Sidney, Iowa, Sept. 12, 1865.

TH0nP50N, William Oxiey, educator, was born in Cambridge, Ohio, Nov. 5, 1855; son of David Glenn and Agnes Miranda (Oxley) Thomp- son; grandson of David and Sarah (Gordon) Thompson and of Joel M. (born 1806) and Nancy (King) Oxley; great-grandson of Andrew and Nancy (Montgomery) King of county Down, Ire- land. The Oxleys were from Maryland. He was graduated from Muskingum college. New Concord, Ohio, A.B., 1878, A.M., 1881; from the Western Theological seminary, Allegheny, Pa., 1882, and was ordained in the same j'ear to the Presbyterian ministry. He was missionary and pastor at Odebolt, Iowa, 1882-85; president of Longmont college. Col., 1885-89; pastor there, 1885-91, and i^resident of Miami university, 1891- 99. He was married, June 28, 1894, to Estelle Godfrey, daughter of Charles H. and Frances (Pettibone) Clark of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1899 he became president of the Ohio State university. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Muskingum college, 1891, and that of LL.D. from Western University of Pennsylvania. 1897.

THOMPSON, William Tappan, editor and au- thor, was born at Ravenna, Ohio. Aug. 31, 1812; of Irish-American parentage. His mother, a native of Dublin, Ireland, died in 1823, and with liis father he removed to Philadelphia. Pa., where, after the latter's death, he was employed in the office of the Chronicle. Subsequently he acted as secretary to Gov, James D. Westcott of Florida, and under his instruction began the study of law. He was associate editor of the States Rights Sentinel, Augusta, Ga., in 1835; participated as a volunteer in the war against the Seminoles, 1835-36; returning to Augusta founded the Mir- ror, and was connected with its successor, the Family Companion, at Macon until 1838. He conducted the Miscellany. Madison, Ga., 1840-45, in which he published his " Major Jones' Letters "'; was associate editor and subsequently sole editor and proprietor of the Western Continent, Balti- more, Md.. 1845-50. and in the latter year estab- lished the Morning Neivs at Savannah, Ga.,


which he edited until his death. He served as aide on the staff of Gov. Joseph E. Brown in the civil war, and as a volunteer in the Confederate army, 1864; was subsequently a wai-den of the port of Savannah; a delegate to the Democratic national convention in New York city, July 4, 1868, and a member of the state constitutional convention in 1877. He edited: " Hotchkiss's Coditication of the Statute Laws of Georgia" (1845); dramatized Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield," produced in America and in Europe, and is the author of the humorous publications: Major Jones' Courtship (1840); Major Jones' Chronicle of Pineville (1843); Major Jones' Sketches of Travel (1848); TJie Live Indian: A Farce, and John's Alive; or the Bride of a Ghost and Other Sketches, collected by liis daughter, Sirs. May A. Wade, and published posthumously (1883). HediedinSavannah,Ga., March 24, 1882. THOMPSON, Wordsworth, artist, was born in Baltimore, Md., May 27, 1840: son of Alfred Wordsworth and Anne (Burke) Tliompson, and grandson of John and Anne (Marriott) Thomp- son. His first ancestor in America came from Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, England, and set- tled in Virginia. The names of two of the Mar- riotts, his ancestors, who lost their lives at North Point in 1812, are inscribed upon the Battle monument, Baltimore. Wordsworth Tliompson was graduated from Newton university, Balti- more; studied law under his father, and became an amateur draughtsman. In 1861 he visited relatives in Virginia, where he began to make sketches of soldiers and battle-scenes, which were in great demand by Harper & Brothers and also by pictorial ne%vspapers, including the Illus- trated London A'efrs. In the same year he sailed for Paris, where he studied first with Charles Gleyre, and after a course at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, with Albert Pasini, exhibiting The Moor- lands of Au-Fargi at the Salon in 1865. He subsequently went on a pedestrian tour througli Europe, and after 1868 made his lieadquarters in New York city. He re-visited Europe in 1871; traveling also in Asia Minor and Africa, and while in France finished his painting of the Palace of St. Cloud, called Desolation, which in 1875 obtained for him an associate membership in the National Academy of Design. He later traveled and sketched in Spain, Algiers, the Desert of Africa and many other countries, 1881-94. In 1877 he was made an Academician, and in 1878 a member of the Society of American Artists. He was married in 1876 to Mary S. Pumpelly. daughter of George and Susan I. Pum- pelly of Owego, N.Y., and subsequently had his home and studio at Summit. N.J. His colonial and historical paintings include: Annapolis in 1776, owned by the Buffalo Fine Arts academy