| 518 cont'd | HISTORY OF ALLEN AND |
ROBERT L. THOMPSON.
ROBERT L. THOMPSON—In his early life Robert L. Thompson was encompassed by those environments which have ever fostered the spirit of personal independence and self-reliance, and which have produced the self-made men who form the bulwark of our nation's prosperity and her wonderful industrial development. At an early age he started out in life for himself empty handed and today he is accounted one of the leading and prosperous farmers of Allen county.
Mr. Thompson was born January 4, 1860, in Waterman, Park county, Indiana, a son of Robert N. and Elizabeth D. (Truman) Thompson. The father was born in Indiana in 1830, and in Park county, in 1855, married Miss Truman, who was born in Oldham county, Kentucky, in 1820. He died in 1868, and she afterward became the wife of James D. Roberts, with
| WOODSON COUNTIES, KANSAS. | 519 |
whom he removed to Iowa in 1870, and to Kansas in 1872. They located in what was at that time Howard county, now Chautauqua and Elk counties. The mother died near Iola in 1889, being cared for by her sons. By her first marriage she has two sons: Charles M., who is with the Lanyon Zinc Company at Iola, and Robert L.
In 1874, at the age of fourteen years, Mr. Thompson, of this review, left home and went to Humboldt, Kansas. His only capital with which to begin business life was a strong determination to succeed, and a pair of willing hands. For a year he worked on a farm of J. S. Fast, who was afterward register of deeds in Allen county, and who took great interest in helping the boy. Mr. Thompson received as renumeration for his services for the year, his board and clothing, four months schooling and twenty-five dollars in money. During the greater part of the time through the succeeding eight years he was in the employ of ex-Sheriff Hodson. Through perseverance, indefatigable energy and capable business management, he has become one of the prosperous farmers of Allen county, and in addition to the cultivation of his fields he is successfully engaged in dealing in short horn cattle and Polan China hogs.
On the 5th of June, 1881, Mr. Thompson wedded Miss Permelia C. Hubbard, who was born July 31, 1864, and is a daughter of Samuel F. Hubbard, a native of North Carolina, and one of the honored pioneers of Allen county, of 1857. She has one brother and two sisters living: A. D. Hubbard, of Memphis, Tennessee; Louisa, wife of J. F. Nigh, of Allen county, and Mrs. Charles M. Thompson, of Iola. Unto our subject and his wife have been born eight children: Blanche, Clyde, Grace, Truman, Frank, Ruth and Robert L., all at home, and Eugene, who died at the age of seventeen months. In politics Mr. Thompson is a Republican, and has always been an active worker in the party. Socially he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His life plainly indicates that prosperity depends not upon genius, upon influence or upon environment, but upon the man.
Pages 518-519, transcribed by Carolyn Ward from History of Allen and Woodson Counties, Kansas: embellished with portraits of well known people of these counties, with biographies of our representative citizens, cuts of public buildings and a map of each county / Edited and Compiled by L. Wallace Duncan and Chas. F. Scott. Iola Registers, Printers and Binders, Iola, Kan.: 1901; 894 p., [36] leaves of plates: ill., ports.; includes index.
