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John S. Thompson - CLICK ON PICTURE TO SEE THE PICTURE THAT WAS BEHIND IT (and then click on the larger picture to see it in an even larger size). .It appears to be of a different man, not an aged John Thompson. Look at the differences in the hairline, the ears, and the nostrils. It could be his father, though the jacket and tie on the older man look more recent. There is some reason this photograph (colored in - It wasn't a color photograph) was hidden behind the other one. The picture in front was taken in Nebraska as was the picture of Luanna on another page. |
John S. Thompson was born on May 3, 1838 in Illinois, possibly in Altona in Knox County. We believe we know who his parents were (both were supposedly from Ohio) and who some of his siblings might have been, etc., but we aren't including information going back that far in this Iowa family project, which is only about ancestors who lived in Iowa, either having immigrated from elsewhere or having been born there. John Thompson served in the Civil War in the 7th Illinois Cavalry. He was wounded during the war on September 18, 1863. By way of his military records we know that he had black hair, gray eyes, a fair complexion, and was 5' 6" tall. When he joined the Army he listed his occupation as "farmer." John married Lovina or Luanna (She was later referred to as "Lou" or "Luanna" but her signature on the marriage certificate looks like nothing other than "Lovina") Jane Ebright on May 8, 1864 in Bishop Hill, Henry County, Illinois. There is more about Luanna Jane Ebright on this page. John and Luanna had their first child, Franklin, in Illinois, in October of 1866, but by 1868 they were in Iowa, where Emma Thompson was born in March. She was born in Dallas County. They had three more children in Iowa: Oscar, Willmot, and Alvin, whose birth town(s) is/are not known to us. Their next, and last, child was our ancestor, James Thompson. He was born in Rock Rapids, in Lyon County, Iowa. Rock Rapids is about five miles from the Minnesota line and about 15 miles from South Dakota, 60 miles from Sioux City, Iowa, and from Nebraska, and about 50 miles or so from Cherokee, Iowa (where so much of our family ended up). John Thompson was a member of the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic - Civil War veterans) post in Dunlap, Iowa, in Harrison County. Although he didn't live near there, apparently that was where the closest post was. Dunlap is between Rock Rapids and Sioux City, Iowa -- Sioux City being adjacent to Nebraska -- the part of Nebraska where the photos of John and Luanna Thompson were taken. John and Luanna lived in Lyon County for the rest of their lives. John Thompson died on March 16, 1925 in Barnum, Minnesota ("at home"). His wife had died six years earlier and he must have been living with family there. He was buried in Riverview Cemetery as was his wife, and their first and last children, Franklin and James. We know very little about their lives, not even what John did for a living other than farming, if anything, but to get to know the place they lived in for more than half their lives, and where they raised their children, we've added a page on the history of Lyon County, Iowa to this section. It's a very small county, and even if they didn't settle there until the latest possible date [1876], they were among the earliest settlers and the place must have been something like it was described in the history (and it's not just a "history" - It includes beautiful descriptions of the countryside).
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