Merced County Biographies

CHARLES RUFUS THOMPSON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
        Since 1920 Charles Rufus Thompson has been an active factor in the 
material development of Merced County. He first came to the county as 
superintendent of construction for the California Packing Corporation on their 
4000-acre ranch at Tuttle; later he went into the general contracting business 
for himself. His father, Charles Thompson, was a native of Scotland and was 
married in Detroit, Mich., to Miss Annie Eliza Deering, a native of 
Massachusetts, and together they came to California in 1867 and settled in 
Tulare County, where their son, Charles Rufus, was born on August 13, 1874. The 
father engaged in farming all his life and passed away February 14, 1923; his 
wife preceded him in 1907.
        Charles Rufus Thompson received his education in the grammar and high 
schools of Tulare County; he then assisted his father on the farm until he was 
twenty years old, when he learned the carpenter's trade. Later he moved to 
Exeter and was there in business for eleven years, during which time he built 
many business blocks, homes and packing houses, being one of the pioneer 
contractors of the town. As above stated he located in Merced County in 1920, 
where he has since resided and now enjoys a lucrative business. He erected the 
John Muir grammar school building and many of the finer homes in Merced.
        The marriage of Mr. Thompson united him with Miss Mabel Scoggins, one of 
California's native daughters; her father is a native son of California and is 
still living at the age of seventy years. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are the parents 
of three children: Pauline is now Mrs. Albert Hall, of Sacramento; Charles D. 
married Miss Cleo Parr and resides in Merced; and Evelyn Adell. Mr. Thompson is 
a Republican in politics and while residing in Tulare County served as justice 
of the peace. Fraternally he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of Merced.
 
History of Merced County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 854-855