John Jamison Y. Thompson    

THOMPSON, JOHN JAMISON Y. Of the early history of the Thompson family we have nothing very authentic. They came from Ireland at an early day and settled in Cumberland or Franklin county, and were among the first emigrants to cross the Allegheny Mountains into Western Pennsylvania, as early as 1790, settling near Blairsville, in Indiana county. The family consisted of the father Robert Thompson, his wife, and their four sons, Alexander, Moses, Adam and William, with the father of Mrs. Thompson, Robert Gordon. About, the year 1816, Alexander removed to the State of Indiana, where he died; the rest of the family all lived and died in Indiana county. William, the father of the subject of this sketch, married Nancy Jamison, a daughter of Rev. John Jamison. He was born at Ellershie, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and was a student of John Brown, of Haddington. Mr. Jamison was a lineal descendant of the Wallace family that gave to Scotland its great patriot, Sir William Wallace. He emigrated to this country at the close of the Revolutionary War, landing in Philadelphia in 1783, when his daughter, afterwards the wife of William Thompson, was only six years old. He purchased a grist-mill and six hundred acres of land, in Cumberland county, including what is known as Big Springs. Mr. Jamison was for some years pastor of the Associate Reformed or Seceder Church at Shippensburg, one of the first churches established in Cumberland county.

About the year 1794, he crossed the Allegheny Mountains, and located near Blairsville. Here he preached the gospel as a missionary and pioneer minister of the Seceder Church, in all the territory west of the Alleghenies. He was a Scotch divine of more than ordinary ability, of large build, being six feet, two inches in height, and possessing powerful physical energy and endurance, traveling as far south as Georgia, preaching and organizing churches. He was somewhat hyper-Calvinistic in his theological views, and disposed to defend them with true Cameronian zeal.

John J. Y. Thompson, was born near Blairsville, in 1805; his father, William Thompson, died of small-pox, in 1817, and his mother lived and died on the farm near Blairsville.

Of his early boyhood days we have but little knowledge, except that he was unusually apt at school, where he was beloved by his schoolmates, and esteemed by his teachers. He excelled in civil engineering and surveying, and was invariably selected as an assistant, when there were lands to be laid out and surveyed, and in after years he did much of the surveying in Jefferson county. At an early age he left home and became a clerk in the store of Nathaniel Nesbitt, of Blairsville. He soon left this position and engaged in business for himself, but this venture not proving successful, he abandoned it, and in 1831 removed to Brookville, and with Thomas Reed, published and edited the first newspaper in Jefferson county, the Brookville Democrat. Their office was located in the hotel of William Clark on Jefferson street, and William Kennedy, now of Union township, a brother of Mrs. Thompson, was an apprentice in this office. On the 25th day of July, 1833, John J. Y. Thompson was married to Agnes S. Kennedy, and commenced housekeeping in Brookville, but in the fall of 1834, he removed to Dowlingville, where they remained until 1837, when they returned to Brookville again, and in 1838 Mr. Thompson built the saw-mill on Sandy Lick at what is now known as Belle’s Mills. About 1840 he sold the property to Alpheus Shaw, and returned to Brookville, where he remained three months, and then removed to Heathville, returning again November, 1841, to Brookville. He then removed to the farm, now owned by William L. Morrison, in Union township, where he resided one year. In 1843 Mr. Thompson purchased a tract of land from Daniel Stanard, of Indiana, at the crossing of the Waterford and Susquehanna, and Olean turnpike, where he erected a hotel, and engaged in the hotel business, and in merchandising, and secured a post-office at the place which he called Corsica, and to which he was appointed postmaster, November 29, 1843. In 1847 Mr. Thompson and Daniel Stanard laid out and surveyed the town of Corsica, calling it after the post-office already established.

In 1852 Mr. Thompson again returned to Brookville, and purchased from Judge Heath, the American Hotel and Arcade building, then the finest building in the town. He engaged in the hotel business, until May, 1856, when in the disastrous fire, which then visited the town, the hotel was destroyed with nearly all its contents. This fire left Mr. Thompson almost penniless: but nothing daunted, he commenced the morning after the fire to clear away the debris from the ruins, and began preparations for rebuilding. Owing to his well known business integrity, and his indomitable energy, he surmounted every obstacle, and in the winter of 1857, he had the American Hotel again ready for the reception of guests. He continued the owner and proprietor of this popular and well known hotel, until the spring of 1865, when he sold the property to Captain R.R. Means, and removes to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he engaged extensively in the lumbering business, until he was suddenly removed by death, caused by apoplexy, on the 19th of August, 1865, in the sixty-first year of his age.

Few men were more closely identified with the early history of Jefferson county than was Judge Thompson. He held many offices of public trust, being elected county surveyor, prothonotary, clerk of courts, etc., in 1845, and associate judge in 1861. For many years his services as surveyor were in requisition in all this region of country, and his name and face were well known in every cabin in the then backwoods. He was foremost in aiding and advancing every public enterprise of his day. He was of a genial, social disposition, inspiring all with the spirit of sociability, with whom he came in contact. Kind and sympathetic by nature, he was ever ready to aid the poor and distressed, who were never turned away from his door. A strong Republican, he was an uncompromising Union man during the war, and took the deepest interest in all that pertained to those times that tried men’s souls. Outspoken and bold in his utterances, he was nearly always found engaged in defending the principles for which his own boys were fighting. He was, during the war, the devoted friend of the soldier, and the families of those who were absent fighting the battles for freedom. He kept "open house" for the "boys," on their way to and from the front; and one of Jefferson county’s veterans said of him not long since: " One of the most vivid recollections of my departure for the army, is the close hand-shake, and the fervent ‘God bless you,’ of Judge Thompson, as bare-headed, and with tears running down his cheeks, he bade us good bye." Judge Thompson ever adhered to the faith of his fathers, and lived and died a member of the United Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Agnes S. Thompson was the daughter of Rev. William and Mary Kennedy, and was born near Lewistown, Mifflin county, in the year 1813; her father being the first Presbyterian minister to locate in Jefferson county. Her mother was Mary, daughter of Benjamin and Agnes, née Wallace, McClure, of Uwchlan, Chester county, so that Mrs. Thompson was descended from one of the oldest and most noted families in eastern Pennsylvania. The family still holds lands in Uwchlan township, that were granted to their ancestor, John McClure, by William Penn, in 1748. This John McClure, who was Mrs. Thompson’s great-grandfather, emigrated to the United States in 1730 from the north of Ireland, where he had gone from Scotland, and settled in North Carolina, afterwards removing to Chester county, where he died. The McClure family were staunch Presbyterians, and they left Ireland in order that they might worship God according to their own forms of worship. From conviction they were "Federalists," Mrs. Thompson’s grandfather, Benjamin McClure, serving in the Revolutionary Wars and with one or two exceptions they have held to the political faith of their fathers, and are today staunch Republicans.

Mr. Thompson was worthy of the good old Scotch-Irish ancestry from which she sprang, being a woman of sterling worth, possessing all those qualities of mind that caused her to be beloved and respected by all who knew her. She spent the greater part of her life in Jefferson county, with the exception of five years residence in Portsmouth, Ohio, from whence she returned to Brookville in 1870, and where she resided until June 27, 1877, when she exchanged her home here for that "better one" to which her husband and some of her children had preceded her.

The children of John J. Y. and Agnes Thompson numbered ten, of whom two died in infancy, James, aged about one year, and Blanche, aged about three years. Laura Edith Thompson married George T. Rodgers, and died at the age of twenty-three years. Clarence Russell Thompson was but a boy in his teens when the war cloud burst upon the land, but he promptly enlisted "for the war" as a private in Company I Sixty-second Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was soon promoted to sergeant. He was in all engagements in which his gallant command took part, up to the battle of Gaines’s Mills, Virginia, where he was last seen in a hand to hand encounter with the rebel foe. His superior officers being all hors de combat, Sergeant Thompson was in command of his company at the time. Clarence was an intelligent, brave and noble youth, and his uncertain fate was a great grief to his family and friends.

Those of the family now living are William Kennedy, who resides in Portsmouth, Ohio; John Jamison, of Brookville; Annie M., wife of John N. Garrison, also residing in Brookville; Albert Clifton, of Portsmouth, Ohio; Robert Means, of New York city, and Ella Agnes, wife of John L. McNeil, of Denver, Colorado.

History of Jefferson County : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers. Syracuse, N.Y.: D. Mason & Co. 1888   Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.