The first house in the place was built and occupied in 1830, and they could all be counted on the fingers of one hand when he decided that in it and with it he would try his fortunes.

In the fall of 1832 Mr. Thompson opened a boot and shoe store, the first of the kind in the village. In 1834 he built and occupied a store on the south side of Main street, just east of the public square. Mr. Thompson was elected county clerk on the Democratic ticket, and served for the years 1836-7. He was one of the school board in 1837. In 1838 he sold his stock in trade to Walter Fish, and entered into partnership with George B. Cooper, who was transacting a general mercantile business. In 1841, upon the completion of the Michigan Central railroad to Jackson, Mr. Thompson was appointed freight agent. He continued on the road at Jackson and west of this point, as completed, to Niles, for a period of ten years, including the administration of the road while owned by the State, and after it had passed into the hands of the Michigan Central Railroad Company.

A period of two years elapsed after the completion of the railroad to Niles before it was built to Chicago, and during this time all the freight and many of the passengers were taken by boats to and from the railroad depot at Niles and St. Joseph, at the mouth on the river St. Joseph. This was the most desirable route from Niles to Chicago and the great West, then rapidly being settled by the emigration which had now assumed such magnitude that every avenue and means of conveyance was filled to overflowing. The service of the St. Joseph river was undertaken by Mr. Thompson on his own responsibility, and for his own account. It was conducted with marked success. During most of the time he owned and controlled a small fleet of steamboats and towboats. The extent of the business was such that while Commodore Thompson, as he was then called, conducted the business to the perfect satisfaction of the shippers and the railroad company, he also made it largely remunerative to himself. He, while at Niles, accumulated a capital which enabled him, on the completion of the railroad to Chicago, to return to Jackson, after closing out his stock on the river, and in connection with George B. Cooper, to establish the banking house of Cooper & Thompson. The integrity, strict attention to duty, and business ability displayed by Mr. Thompson in the several places at which he was stationed and in the positions which he filled, were so well understood and appreciated that he has ever since, in a marked degree, retained the confidence of the managers of the Michigan Central Railroad Company; and his influence has been, many times since, of decided advantage to Jackson, when questions of importance to the interest of the city have been under consideration by the officers of that company. In 1851 Mr. Thompson returned to Jackson and engaged in the business of banking. As a member of the firms of Cooper & Thompson, Cooper, Thompson & Co., and of the Jackson City Bank, he has ever since been the leading banker of Jackson. Of the Jackson City Bank, which does much the

largest business of any of the six banks of Jackson-and probably more than all the rest of them together-Mr. Thompson has always been general manager and president, and is now understood to be sole proprietor.

On the first of July, 1856, Mr. Thompson was married to Alma M. Mann, in Madison, Wisconsin. They have two chiidren, a son and a daughter.

Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have traveled in Europe, and the many works of art selected during their sojourn in the old world, which make their home attractive, bear ample testimony to the correct judgment and good taste manifested in their selection.

In 1862 Mr. Thompson took part in the organization of the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw Railroad Company. Its successful completion to Mason in 1865, to Lansing in the spring of 1866, and to Wenona, on the Saginaw bay, in 1867, is in a great measure due to the labors and influence of Mr. Thompson. He not only gave it his personal attention, but also furnished material aid at times when, but for the money advanced by him, the building of the road must have stopped for a time at least.

This railroad is now extended through the pine woods to within one hundred miles of the straits of Mackinac, and will doubtless soon be completed to that point, there to connect with a railroad to Marquette and the iron and copper regions of the upper peninsula. The one hundred miles of this road terminating at Gaylord were built exclusively by Mr. Thompson, and finished in July, 1873.

In 1866 the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw Railroad Company bought that part of the Lansing, Amboy & Traverse Bay railroad lying between Owosso and Lansing, and with it the land grant made by the United States to the latter company. This purchase gave much greater value to the stock of the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw Railroad Company.

Mr. Thompson is noted for his broad and comprehensive business views. Many enterprises which have added much to the growth and prosperity of Jackson owe their success to the fearless manner in which he in some cases invested his capital, and in others sustained those who were interested in building them up. He is one of the firm of Bennett, Knickerbocker & Co., who built and still own and run the extensive steam flouring mill known as the "City Mills." The same firm also own and run the "Stone Mills "" at Albion, and is one of the largest manufacturers of flour in the State. Mr. Thompson is one of the principal stockholders in the "George T. Smith Middlings Purifier Manufacturing Company, now extensively engaged in the manufacture of their "purifiers" in Jackson. He is also largely interested in the costly "Chemical Works" and "Pulp Mills " located in the northern part of the city, and he has aided to develop, and is one of the proprietors of coal mines now worked within the city limits. But it is as a banker that Mr. Thompson is most widely and favorably known. No man in Michigan enjoys a higher reputation in his particular

calling than does the subject of this sketch. The business men of Jackson look to him and rely upon him in time of need; and to him his customers never look in vain for those accommodations often so necessary to success in their business.

Mr. Thompson stands prominent among the citizens of Jackson for his generosity and benevolence. His name is always found among the most liberal subscribers to all projects of a business or charitable nature, and the calls are many in a city so fertile in new enterprises as in Jackson. Both Mr. and Mrs. Thompson make the most praiseworthy use of the goods of this world, with which they are so amply endowed, in dispensing that unostentatious charity most acceptable to its recipients, and most creditable to themselves, fulfilling the Scriptural injunction: "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth."

The integrity and liberality of Mr. Thompson have placed him in the front rank in the State in the estimation of its people. He also stands prominent as one of the very few remaining of those pioneers who cast their lot in Jackson, when it had little to boast of and was held in light estimation by villages now of far less importance, because of its marshes, sand-hills and the general uninviting appearance of its surroundings. There are now living in Jackson but two of its citizens who made it their home previous to the advent of Mr. Thompson.

Without the knowledge attained by actual experience, it is impossible to realize the changes which have taken place in Jackson, in Michigan, in the Northwest, and in the great West, extending to the Pacific Ocean, during the business lifetime of a man even now in the midst of his usefulness. No succeeding generation will be able to look back upon and realize the wonderful growth of an empire, and the spread of a civilization in their own time, as can Mr. Thompson in contemplating what he has seen grow up under his own observation since he came to Jackson in 1831.

JACOB CORNELL'S REMINISCENCES.

"In the autumn of 1833 my father, Stephen Cornell, of Poughkeepsie, New York, came to Michigan and purchased of the United States 120 acres of land in the township of Unadilla, and with the help of two men, a yoke of oxen, and a rope, erected the first log house in the county. He hauled the clapboards and the lumber for the floor from Dexter, 14 miles southeast of our home. He and his men built a camp of brush and marsh hay in which they lodged and cooked for three weeks, using brush for a spring bed. My father returned home late in the fall, preparatory to removing his family the following spring to our home in the Territory of Michigan. About the middle of April, 1834, we packed up our little all, together with a year's supply of provisions and medicines, and employed a sloop to carry us to Albany, a distance of 80 miles, on the Hudson river, the trip from Poughkeepsie occu-.

pying nearly a week. At Albany we took a boat on the Erie canal for Buffalo, reaching that city in about nine days; thence by way of Lake Erie, on the steamboat Daniel Webster to Detroit. At Detroit we made a contract with two teamsters to take us the remainder of our journey, 60 miles, through the mud. We counted up our funds and found we could foot the bill and have 50 cents left. We left Detroit, plodding our way, when not stuck in the mud, over a wild and horrible road to Dexter, being then within 14 miles of our new home, for eight miles of which we were blessed with an Indian trail to guide us, the remainder being trackless marshes and lakes. We waded about 50 rods through a lake, and this seemed close akin to shipwreck, and my mother and sister thought that if this was Michigan life their days were numbered; but we reached the shore in safety, and three miles more brought us up in front of our new log house, and although without paint or cornice, and having a chimney of sticks plastered with mud, we all repaired to it with great relief from a long and fatiguing journey of three weeks, being obliged to walk most of the way from Detroit. We soon discovered that several hundred miles lay between us and our New York home, and to return, with but 50 cents in the treasury, was impossible, so we resolved to submit to the fortunes of the pioneer and protect our scalps from the swarm of Indians that surrounded us as best we could; they were so numerous we felt that we were completely in their power. When our goods were unpacked and the rough floor was cleaned my mother remarked that she was now prepared to receive company.

THE INDIAN FRIENDS.

After a hearty laugh over the remark, sure enough, in marched her company in single file, to the number of nine, all red men, squaws and pappooses; this was a stunner, as was shown by the pale face of my mother, who soon distributed among them all the cooked provisions she had in the house, hoping to save her life thereby, but they soon departed in a friendly manner, and we found it a great convenience to have such friends, for they often brought us venison to exchange for flour, and we ever found them friendly and honorable unless influenced by whisky. We experienced very close times the first two years, and one year our scanty supply of provisions gave out before harvest time, and we were compelled to cut the unripe wheat, dry it in the sun, thresh it on sheets, fan it in the wind, grind it in the coffee mill and bolt it through crape, and this flour made into biscuits we partook of with a relish that I shall never forget. were 14 miles from post-office, mill, or store, it required three days to make the trip with an ox team, so that the bread box sometimes got lonesome before the new grist came from the mill.

As we

WOLVES AND WHISKY.

The howling of wolves of a winter evening was of frequent occurrence, but we were never disturbed by them or any other wild animals; the worst enemy to mankind with which we came in contact was whisky; some of our nearest neighbors who settled about us the first year being intemperate men who sought to injure every outspoken temperance man; my father, being of the latter class, undertook to raise a barn without the customary aid of intoxicating liquors, but inviting all to the raising. The whisky lovers came with bottles of whisky of their own, and a more disgraceful scene than the one that occurred on that occasion I never witnessed. After furnishing them with a good supper, they remained till a late hour drinking and carousing; they broke our dishes, butchered the dog, tore down all the outbuildings, and threatened to destroy the barn frame. Nearly all of these rioters have dropped into drunkards' graves.

REMINISCENCES OF HON. JONATHAN SHEARER.

Mr. Shearer was in the county 43 years ago, and stopped at Ring's tavern, the site of which he could not find during his visit in 1877. Then he could see the whole city easily; but now it had been built up so that he could not. Forty-three years ago he settled in Ingham county, in the town he himself christened Bunker Hill. There was no school-house there, none in Jackson, and none in Flint, so he went to Plymouth, and finding one there located in that town, and has lived there ever since. In that time he lost his way near Lansing, while traveling through the woods, and fell in with Col. Hughes and Maj. Wilson, who were in the same predicament. They wandered together looking for the trail, but without success. Their provisions ran out and they ate elm bark; and after that failed then they used bass-wood root bark as a substitute. After a time they fell in with an Indian who directed them to a house which had just been built, eight miles or so from Jacksonburgh. They walked along and at last saw a cow, and then Mr. Shearer exclaimed to his companions, "Glory to God! we have reached the pale of civilization."

They found the house was newly built, with a blanket hung up for a door. They were delicate about putting the blanket aside; so they knocked on the logs, and a beautiful little woman showed her face. The travelers saw there no floor, but on the shelf they saw johnny-cake that made their mouths water. They told her they were hungry, and asked for food. She told them they might have all they wanted, and she supplied them with bread and milk, and kept them over night. When they went away next day, they left her four silver dollars. Afterward, he learned, she told a neighbor that they were angels, and that money never was so good before, as they were entirely out of it at the time. Her name was Mrs. Tanner, and the narrator was quite affected by the intelligence of her death.