California Biographies Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time. Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905 Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176 MORTIMER G. THOMPSON. The Thompson homestead consists of one hundred and twenty acres situated five and one-half miles southwest of Dinuba and largely under alfalfa and in pastures, facilitating the dairy interests of the owner, who since 1894 has made this industry a special feature of his farm work. While it was in 1889 that he purchased this tract, it was not until three years later that he built a farm house and brought his family to reside on the place, and since then he has made various other improvements that have added to the value of the property. Besides the management of his land and dairy, he devotes considerable attention to the work of ditch tender of the Alta district, which he has filled since March of 1904, and in which one of his duties is to make daily inspections of many miles of canals. Of eastern ancestry, Mr. Thompson was born at Theresa, Jefferson county, N. Y, May 7, 1849, being the second among seven children, all but one of whom reside in California. His father, J. D. Thompson, was born and reared in New York, where he followed the milling busi- ness. After removing to Wisconsin and settling at Neenah, Winnebago county, he supplemented milling by agricultural pursuits, and became a prosperous and influential man in his community. From Wisconsin he came to California in 1888 and settled on a small ranch at Traver, Tulare count}'. His death occurred in Oakland when he was seventy-four years of age. While living in the east he married Mary E. Kennan. who was born in New York and now, at seventy-six years of age, makes her home with her children in California. From the age of three years Mortimer G. Thompson was reared in Wisconsin, where the family home was on a farm near Neenah. At nineteen years of age he began to farm for him- self and for this purpose rented land near Fond du Lac, Dodge county. While living there he established domestic ties through his marriage, March 30, 1870, to Miss Jennie Butler, a native of Leroy, Dodge county, Wis., and a daughter of James Henry and Sarah (Billings) Butler, na- tives respectively of Pelham, Hillsboro county, N. H., and Newburg, Cleveland, Ohio. Her paternal grandfather, James Butler, removed from his native locality in New Hampshire to New York and afterward became a pioneer of Wisconsin, where he improved a farm in Dodge county, but eventually moved to Adams county and there died. The maternal grandfather, Syl- vester Billings, removed in an early day from Vermont to New York, later settled in Ohio, and finally established himself in the sparsely settled region of Dodge county, Wis., where he im- proved a farm from a tract of raw land. Late in life, during 1874, he came to California, where he died at Healdsburg, aged seventy-eight years. At the time of settling in Dodge county, Wis.. James Henry Butler was twenty-one years of age, and at Leroy in 1850 he married Miss Bill- ings, after which he settled on a farm of his own near Leroy. During 1874 he came to the west and bought land near Healdsburg, Cal., where at first he devoted himself exclusively to agriculture, but later turned his attention to the trade of blacksmith and carriage-maker. At the time of his death, in 1895, he was sixty-eight years of age. His widow now makes her home with her oldest child, Mrs. Jennie Thompson, besides whom she has two other children now living, four being deceased. After his marriage for a time Mr. Thompson engaged as baggageman with the railroad at Fond du Lac. With other members of the family, in 1874 he came to California and settled on a farm near Healdsburg. Four years later he became a pioneer of the state of Washington. With the first boat that landed at Asotin Flats he sought the new country in the southeastern part of Washington, and took up one hundred and sixty acres as a homestead, situated south of Lewiston, Idaho, in the Nez Perces country. Fifteen miles back from the creek he built a log cabin, where he made his home. Hardships innumerable were crowded into the next few years. The struggle for a livelihood was fought amid the most discouraging environments, in a region where settlers were few and conveniences conspicuous by their absence. At harvest time he went to Walla Walla to earn money with which to buy provisions for his family. Tiring of the uncongenial environment Mr. Thompson in 1885 came south overland, bring- ing with him fourteen horses and household necessities. For his first location he settled one mile south of his present home in Tulare county and here engaged in grain-raising, operating at times as many as eight hundred acres. In 1889 he bought and began to improve his present prop- erty, and here he and his wife, with their son, James Earle, have made their home since 1892. Fraternally he was formerly connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Traver and is now a member at Dinuba, where he is past grand. With his wife he is connected with the Order of Rebekahs, in which he is past noble grand, and in addition he holds membership with the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Though not identified with any denomination, he is in sympathy with the work of the Christian Church, to which his wife belongs and in which he has been a contributor during the entire period of his residence in Tulare county. In politics he favors Republican principles and casts his ballot for the men and measures advocated by that party.