| One of the
representative men of Madison county, Illinois,
is this well known and highly honored citizen of
Collinsville, where he has maintained his home
since 1887. He came here to superintend the local
business of the Illinois Hydraulic Pressed Brick
Company and he has been identified with various
lines of business and civic enterprises, and here
has made an unblemished record as a man and a
citizen. Among Mr. Thompson’s distinctions
is that of having been a gallant soldier of the
Civil War, serving almost throughout the entire
struggle and participating in some of the most
important actions. He is a native Southerner and
naturally his sympathies were with the
institutions of the south, which he strove to
defend in the dark days of the 60’s. William H. Thompson was
born January 2, 1842, in Perry county, Tennessee,
and is the son of Oliver P. and Eleanor
(Marshall) Thompson of Kentucky. The father was a
native Scottsman, the son of Austin Thompson, who
with his wife and their one child, William’s
father, severed their associations with the
“land o’cakes” and came to
America. They eventually located in Tennessee and
there Oliver grew to manhood. He adopted the
trade of a moulder and later took the management
of a large iron plant, at the head of which he
remained for twenty years. He was the owner of a
large farm in Tennessee, upon which his family
resided and the cultivation of its fertile fields
he superintended as a side issue. His iron
business was located in Stewart county,
Tennessee. Oliver Thompson and his admirable wife
became the parents of eight children, seven of
whom are living at the present time, namely,
William H.; John Bell; Buxton L.; Mary Jane, wife
of Sam Lawrence; Martha E,; wife of William
Black; Ella, wife of Milton Brewer; and Oliver,
Jr.
 Until the age of sixteen
years Mr. Thompson attended the schools of
Tennessee and the he engaged in farming for a
short time, or until the outbreak of the Civil
War. His youth had been clouded to some extent by
its approach and being high spirited young fellow
he enlisted almost at the first, becoming a
member of the Fourteenth Tennessee Infantry,
under Colonel Forbes of Clarksville, Tennessee.
His service in Virginia was under General Lee and
“Stonewall” Jackson, and was with the
former at the time of the surrender to Grant at
Appomattox. Engagements in which he participated
were First Bull Run, Cheat Mountain, Bath,
Hancock, Winchester, Seven Pines, Mechanicsville,
Beaver Dam, Savage Station, Frazier’s Farm,
Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill and Cedar Mountain. At
the last named battle he was seriously wounded
and taken to the hospital at Staunton, where he
remained about eight months, returning to his
command the last of March,1863. The following May
he participated in the battles at
Chancellorsville and at Gettysburg July 1, 2 and
3. He was slightly wounded twice and taken
prisoner, being sent to Fort Delaware, Delaware,
where he remained for twenty-one months, being
exchanged there April, 1865, shortly previous to
the surrender. After the termination of the great
conflict, he returned to Tennessee, and there he
resided beneath the parental roof-tree until he
attained to the age of twenty-five years.
Mr. Thompson was
married December 20, 1866, to Frances Keel, also
a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of W.T.
Keel. The first years of their married life were
spent in the Big Bend state, and there Mr.
Thompson served in various public capacities
until the year, 1881. He then entered employ of
the Lagrange Iron Company as a superintendent of
a mine in Stewart county, Tennessee, and remained
there until 1887, when he made a radical change
by removing to St. Louis. In that city he was
employed as Clay Hill foreman of the Hydraulic
Brick Works in St. Louis. He came to
Collinsville, Madison county, November 1, 1887,
where he assumed the important position of
Superintendent of the Illinois Hydraulic Pressed
Brick Company, and his splendid executive
ability, judgment and progressiveness as
displayed in the management of this large
industry has greatly contributed to his
prosperity.
The happy union of
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson has been blessed by the
birth of ten children. Seven of who are living at
the present time, as follows: Robert E. Lee;
Minnie B., wife of Ernest Morris; Lena Dell, wife
of H.W. Whitaker; Lillie May, wife of Henry
Hedden; Ethel, wife of Ernest Wilson; Clarence
Clifton and Jack S. They maintain a hospitable
home and are prominent in the best social life of
the community in which their interests are
centered.
In the matter of
politics, Mr. Thompson inclines toward the
policies and principles of the Democratic party,
but he is decidedly liberal, and esteems the best
man and the best measure high above mere
partisanship. He was reared in the faith of the
Methodist church and he has not departed from it,
being a valued member of the local church. He is,
in short, an excellent citizen and a valuable
member of society.
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