California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

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

 
JAMES R. THOMPSON.  In according recognition to the representative members of the bar of Santa 
Barbara County there is distinct consistency in giving special consideration to James Roderick 
Thompson, whose ability and character have gained to him secure vantage-place as one of the 
resourceful and successful attorneys and counselors at law in the City of Santa Barbara and who, as a 
native son of the West, fully expenifies in his civic attitude the progressiveness that has so significantly 
denoted his portion of our great national domain.
 
Mr. Thompson was born at Goldendale, the judicial center of Klickitat County, Washington, and the 
date of his nativity was September 18, 1881. He is a son of Rev. James and Frances (Mackenzie) 
Thompson, the former of whom was born in Denmark and the latter of whom was born in the 
Province of Ontario, Canada, of Scotch and English lineage. Rev. James Thompson was a youth when 
he came to America, in 1863, and he first settled in California, whence he later removed to the State of 
Washington, where he continued his residence for many years. He has labored long and faithfully as 
an earnest and able member of the clergy of the Presbyterian Church, and he and his wife now 
maintain their home in Santa Barbara.
 
James R. Thompson acquired his preliminary educational discipline in the public schools, supplemented 
this by an effective preparatory course in the collegiate institute in Salt Lake City, Utah, and then was 
matriculated in historic Princeton University, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1905 and from which he received the degree of bachelor of arts. For two years thereafter he 
was a successful teacher in the "Asheville School" of Asheville, North Carolina, and he then followed 
the course of his ambition by pursuing the study of law with characteristic vigor and earnestness. He 
continued his technical studies under effective private preceptorship until he had gained a 
comprehensive knowledge of the involved science of jurisprudence, and in 1909 he was admitted to 
the California bar, his examination having shown him to be splendidly fortified for the work of his 
chosen profession. He forthwith opened a law office in Los Angeles, where he was engaged in practice 
two years, with Oscar Mueller as his professional associate. He then removed to Santa Barbara, where 
he formed a law partnership with Alfred W. Robertson, with whom he has since been associated in the 
conducting of a substantial and representative general law business, under the firm name of 
Thompson & Robertson. Recognition of his ability has been shown in his retention as counsel for a 
number of important corporations, and he has made an excellent record as one of the versatile trial 
lawyers of the younger generation at the bar of Santa Barbara County.
 
Mr. Thompson is a stalwart in the camp of the democratic party and has been active and influential in 
its councils and campaign activities in Santa Barbara County. In 1914 he was the unsuccessful candidate 
of his party for the office of district attorney, and in 1916 he was elected on the democratic ticket as 
state senator for the twenty-fifth senatorial district. He served as a member of the democratic central 
committee until he became a candidate for district attorney, when, in compliance with the laws of 
California, he resigned this post. Mr. Thompson is a director of the Santa Barbara Associated Charities 
and Humane Society, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and is a popular member, as well as a 
director of La Cumbre Golf and Country Club of Santa Barbara, besides which he holds membership in 
the Princeton Club of Southern California and the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce. Both he and 
his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church.
 
At Santa Barbara, on the 25th of October, 1913, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Thompson to Miss 
Mary Merriman, who was born in the City of Chicago, where her father, the late Dr. Henry P. 
Merriman, was a prominent physician and surgeon, the Merriman family having been founded in 
America in the colonial era and having given patriot soldiers to the Continental forces in the War of the 
Revolution, besides which a member of this family served at one time as president of Princeton 
University. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have two children: James Roderick, Jr., and Mary Elizabeth.