THOMPSON 



5795 



THOMPSON 



by birth, and was educated at Oxford Univer- 

 sity, but he deserted the university, at the age 

 of nineteen, to enter the service of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company in Canada. For some years 

 he was a clerk for the company, but after 1797, 

 when he became an employee of the Northwest 

 Company, he gave practically all of his time 

 to exploration. In 1798 he discovered Turtle 

 Lake, one of the sources of the Mississippi 

 River. Four years, 1807 to 1811, he spent in 

 the valley of the Columbia, and for ten years, 

 1816 to 1826, he worked on the Canada-United 

 States boundary survey. Later he had charge 

 of various surveying and exploring expeditions 

 in the Canadian Northwest. 



THOMPSON, DENMAN (1833-1911), an 

 American actor who endeared himself to a na- 

 tion with The Old Homestead, a homelike play 

 with a rural setting, was born at Beechwood, 

 Pa. When he was seven years of age his par- 

 ents moved to New Hampshire. The typical 

 New England life he saw there influenced his 

 entire career, for all of Thompson's success as 

 a player centers about the humorous New Eng- 

 land character, Joshua Whitcomb, created and 

 acted by him for so many years. Thompson 

 cared little for school and at the age of seven- 

 teen ran away with a circus, in which he served 

 as an acrobat for a year. He then returned 

 home and tried to be content in the mercantile 

 business, but the lure of the stage was too 

 strong, and in 1853 he joined a theatrical stock 

 company at Worcester, Mass. 



For some years he played unimportant parts 

 in Canada, the United States and England, but 

 it was not until 1875 that he gained favorable 

 notice. During that year he wrote Josh Whit- 

 comb, a sketch showing the peculiarities of the 

 old-fashioned New England farmer, and this 

 was so successful that in 1876 he enlarged it 

 into a play of the same title and produced it 

 in Chicago. This was still more happily re- 

 ceived, and Thompson presented it in nearly 

 every state of the Union. In 1887 he again en- 

 larged and revised the story, and this comedy 

 under the name of The Old Homestead was en- 

 thusiastically received at its first performance 

 in New York. Since that time it has not missed 

 a season on the stage. Thompson wrote an- 

 other successful play, The Sunshine of Para- 

 dise Alley, but he will be remembered mainly 

 for the one vivid character he gave American 

 drama. 



THOMPSON, JAMES MAURICE (1844-1901), an 

 American writer, best known as the author of 

 Alice of Old Vincennes, a romantic novel of 



Revolutionary days. This entertaining and 

 well-written story his best literary achieve- 

 mentwas published the year before his death, 

 and was the culmination of a group of writings 

 that included poems, literary reviews, books on 

 nature and a treatise on archery. Always a 

 lover of outdoor sports, he was an enthusiast 

 on the subject of the bow and arrow. Thomp- 

 son was born in Fairfield, Ind., but spent most 

 of his boyhood in Georgia and Kentucky, and 

 while still a youth enlisted in the Confederate 

 army. 



After the war he returned to his native state, 

 settling in Crawfordsville. There he engaged 

 in law practice and civil engineering and at the 

 same time began his career as a writer. He 

 became a regular contributor of the New York 

 Independent in 1883, and for fifteen years was 

 a member of its editorial staff, writing a large 

 portion of its book reviews. His style was 

 fresh and unconventional, and his books bore 

 testimony to an enthusiastic love of nature and 

 out-of-door life. Thompson's writings include, 

 besides his Alice of Old Vincennes, Hoosier 

 Mosaics, The Witchery of Archery, Songs of 

 Fair Weather, By-Ways and Bird Notes, The 

 Boy's Book of Sport, The Ethics of Literary 

 Art and My Winter Garden. 



THOMPSON, SIR JOHN SPARROW DAVID (1844- 

 1894), a Canadian jurist and statesman, Premier 

 of the Dominion from 1892 until his death. Sir 

 John became Premier, as successor to Sir John 

 J. C. Abbott, at a time when the Conservative 

 party was showing signs of disintegration. He 

 planned many reforms, not merely for the party 

 but for the Dominion, but he died before he 

 could put many of these into effect. Sir John 

 was a quiet man, who never advertised himself 

 or his deeds, but he stands forth as a man of 

 solid and honest achievement. 



Thompson was born at Halifax, N. S. There 

 he received a common school education, studied 

 law in a barrister's office, and was called to the 

 bar in 1865. From the first he took an active 

 interest in political affairs, and in 1877 was 

 elected to the Nova Scotia assembly. A year 

 later he entered the provincial cabinet as attor- 

 ney-general and in 1882 became premier of 

 Nova Scotia. He held office for only a few 

 weeks, resigning to become chief justice of the 

 provincial supreme court. In 1885, however, he 

 again entered politics, was elected to the Do- 

 minion House of Commons, and accepted the 

 place of Minister of Justice in the Macdonald 

 Cabinet. In 1887 he was legal adviser to the 

 British representatives who negotiated the Fish- 



