Portrait & Biographical Record of Tazewell & Mason Counties, IL 1894 pub. CHICAGO: Biographical Publishing Co. p. 557

ABRAM THOMPSON. There is no greater pleasure for the hand and pen of the biographer than to record the life and achievements of a man who has begun life's battles under adverse circumstances, and through his own unaided efforts her secured the general acknowledgment of being one of the best farmers in the county. Such a man is Mr. Thompson, who is the possessor of five hundred and three acres in Mason County; he has accumulated a sufficient amount of this world's good to enable him to retire and enjoy the fruits of his earlier toils.

Our subject, who was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, January 31, 1828, is the son of Archibald Thompson, a native of Virginia; he died when our subject was a lad of six years. The maiden name of his mother was Elizabeth Stout. She was born and reared in New Jersey, and by her union with Archibald Thompson reared a family of five sons and one daughter. Our subject, who was the fourth son and fourth child, grew to manhood in Shelby County, Ohio, and remained at home with his mother until his marriage. He learned the cooper's trade when sixteen years of age, and followed it for six years and thereafter turned his attention to farming.

Abram Thompson was married in 1848, while residing in Ohio, to Miss Cynthia A. Conroy, who was a native of Shelby County, that state. Soon after his union he located on a farm on which he resided until coming to Mason County in 1854. That year he purchased a quarter-section of land in Salt Creek Township, where he lived until 1891 engaged in general farm pursuits. His landed possessions include two hundred and forty acres of the old homestead, near which is located his one hundred and sixty-acre tract, and eighty acres on Pennsylvania Township, which with the twenty-three acres on which he resides, make in all five hundred and three acres, all of which he rents to good advantage.

To Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were born six children, of whom Sarah E. is the wife of Lorenzo House and resides in Union County, Iowa. Jemima J. is the widow of Thomas Norton and resides in Pennsylvania Township, this county. Rebecca E. married Joseph Barton, a farmer in Salt Creek Township. Harriet I. is now deceased; she was the wife of P. W. Stevens. George E. is also deceased, and Isaac M. lives on one of his father's farms in Salt Creek Township.

In politics our subject is a stanch (sic) Democrat and is foremost among the members of his party in the county. He has been Supervisor of his township for three years and has held numerous other offices of trust. The best interests of the community ever find in him a friend, and he is in sympathy with everything that tends to promote the general welfare. Genial and pleasant in manner, he has gained a host of warm friends and well deserves representation in the history of his adopted county.

Submitted by Betty Doremus