Richard Henry Thompson

RICHARD H. THOMPSON is a native of Kansas and for the past twelve years has been one of the leading attorneys of Gove. His parents are residents of Horton and the family has been in this state for over forty years.

Mr. Thompson was born at Kennekuck in Atchison County, Kansas, May 15, 1879. The Thompsons came from Scotland and settled in Ontario, Canada, where Mr. Thompson's grandfather was a miller. A. J. Thompson, father of the Gove attorney, was born in Ontario, Canada, and as a young man went across the plains and prospected with a considerable degree of success in California. Later he returned east and about 1875 settled in Atchison County, Kansas. He was a farmer and stock raiser there until 1898, since which year he has lived retired at Horton. He is a republican, a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Episcopal Church. A. J. Thompson married Elizabeth Dawson, who was born at Madoc in Ontario. Her father was a minister of the Episcopal Church in Ontario for a number of years, and for a long period of time served as worshipful master in his Masonic Lodge. A. J. Thompson and wife had the following children: Daniel, a bridge builder living in Texas; Richard Henry, the second in age; Thomas, at home with his parents; Horton, who graduated in law from Kansas University but is now in the lumber business at Sanborn, Iowa; Andrew, also a graduate in law from Kansas University, and an attorney at Horton; Annie, a graduate of the Horton High School and now a teacher there.

Richard Henry Thompson attended the rural schools of Atchison County, graduated from the Horton High School in 1900, and in 1905 received his LL. B. degree from Kansas University at Lawrence. While in university he was a member of the Phi Delta Phi fraternity. Admitted to the bar in 1905, he came the next year to Gove, and in a short time had built up a civil and criminal practice that leaves little doubt of his position as one of the leading attorneys of the district. He has served three successive terms as county attorney and was reelected to that office in 1918. He is now government appeal agent for the draft service. Mr. Thompson has been mayor of Gove one term and for several terms city attorney. Mr. Thompson is a republican, a member and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to the county bar association, to Gove Camp, Modern Woodmen of America, and has long been prominently identified with Masonry. He is past master of Gove Lodge and served three terms as district deputy grand master of the Fifty-First District.

Like many professional men Mr. Thompson has acquired an interest in the agricultural prosperity of Western Kansas. He has 320 acres of good wheat land 4 1/2 miles south of Grinnell, 160 acres of similar land ten miles north of Pendennis, and a few years ago he homesteaded 160 acres in Caddo County, Oklahoma, this also being among his possessions. His home is a modern one at Gove.

In June, 1908, at Gove, Mr. Thompson married Miss Blanche Mendenhall, daughter of Joseph F. Mendenhall, elsewhere referred to in these pages. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have three children: Richard, born in May, 1909; Lucile, born in October, 1911; and Evelyn, born in May, 1917.

Pages 2172-2173.