The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-07-30
= r. = T.
RISE OF TAFT'S AID. 4
= = 3 . Z . .
lRI. Francis r GeSSnar

~ L.
Carmi Thompson, the new secretary
20 the president. was appointed from
Ohio, but he was born in West vir-
einia. His political honors We're won
in Ohio. and he retains his voting res
idence there. But West Virginia
proudly claims him as a native son.
And Carmi is rather proud of 1t, too.
Carmi Thompson has been promi-
nent in Ohio republican affairs less
than ten years. but in that short time
he has zen out of Office less than for
in 1908. again in 1905 and was chosen
speaker. Then it was easy to win the
nomination for secretary of state, an
Office mex in rank to hat of governor.
and he was elected while yet speaker
of the assembly. He was reelected in
spite of the disturbed condition of
things in the state. In March, he vas
appointed assistant secretary of the
interior.
Mr.. Thompson is not ashamed of his
early struggles as a bricEyard helper
and a coal miner.
When Secretary Thompson took
hold at the white house he was asked
by the newspaper writer's to give some
data covering his career and family
history. He responded with a dozen
lines. giving dates of the most import
ant happenings IN MS HE.
Ancestors Came From Ireland.
The Observation-Disclosures of Car
mi Thompson came from Ireland, with
two brawny brothers. during the
American revolution. In fact. the rev.
olution was what brought them here.
They We're scotch-1rish from County
Ulster. Ireland, and they didn't APP
prove of the British sovereign doing
business at London. The Thompson
lads could not fight George III very
handily at home, so they came to this
side of the Atlantic, where their serv-
ices would be more appreciated.
Landing at Baltimore, they made
haste to join Washington's army, and
We're gladly welcomed. They proved
good soldiers, and the direct ancestor
of Carnli became a captain. The Con-
t~inental army did o pay captains
very much, but a big grant of and in
the wild n remote part of old Vir-
ginia was given Capt. Thompson, and
he went out to look at it.
The Virginia land grant handed to
Capt. Thompson was in hat is now
known as Wayne county, West Virgin
was not of much value then. and pos
sibly the soldier liz not think so much
Of the grant given by the new govern
ment. Anyhow, he made h most Of
it, and his descendants named Thomp-
son number about 1900 in the lower
West Virginia region.
Some of the earlier Thompson be-
came slave owners, as was the fashion
in old Virginia, and others became vi
there was many family feuds and Bit
ter wranglines, all growing out of the
slavery question. All the Thompsons
forgot their personal differences, how
ever, when a war came on prior to
1861. There were Thompsons, all an
cestors of the presidential secretary,
who fought in the wal of 1912, in all
Mexico.
The ~Thompsons were in the civil
war. but on both sides. Those who
had been Shareholders stood by the
south, and the old line whig Thomp.
sons too by Lincoln. The grand
father of Carmi Thompson was a whig
and he hated slavery.
Father a Coal Miner.
1t was in Wayne county, not far
son had settled nearly a century be-
fore, that the father of Carmi Thomp-
son took up the work of a coal miner.
He followed this occupation thirty
years. and when the son Carmi was a
lad worked in West Virginia. Ken
lucky n Ohio. finally settling in
Ironton. possibly so that the son
could enter Ohio politics later on.
Both the father and mother Of the
new secretary are living at %Ironton.
AS a lad Carmi Thompson had to
work. but he determined very early
to secure an education and to achieve
something beyond the routine of a
miners life. After the usual high
school training he decided upon a col
lege course, and he saved his money
while working in q brick yard ana in