William G Thompson
William G Thompson 26 June 1806 – 5 Dec. 1876
GGGGrandfather of Kathleen (Thompson) Green
William Thomson was born 16 June 1806 in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Arriving in America, he changed the spelling of his last name and added the “G” to distinguish himself from the many with the same name and became William G Thompson.
Immigrating to Canada, William and his wife, Elizabeth MacAulay, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, being baptized by Orson Hyde in July of 1836. They joined the Saints in Missouri only to flee persecution for the safety of Quincy, Illinois in 1839.
Excerpts from letter written to family in Scotland –
Quincy July 22, 1843
Dear father and mother brothers and sisters—I take my pen in hand to let you know that myself and wife and five children are all well in good health at this time of which we feel thankful to God our heavenly father for all his blessing toward us, hoping you are enjoying the same blessing…I feel glad that I am in this country which is a land of plenty and of liberty…I would be glad to see all my friends in this country if it was so ordered in the providence of God I would be glad to hear if my father and mother are yet alive…I will be glad if you will go and hear them (Elder’s) because I believe they preach the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ in its purity with all its gifts and blessings as in days of old and not according traditions and creeds of men…I am informed that to come from Glasgow to Liverpool to New Orleans is the best and cheapest and quickest way that you can come to this country and from New Orleans up the Mississippi to this place. All the way by water there is a number of people from Paisley living in this place that came the way I have directed you and they have told me that it only costs them ten pounds ten shillings from Glasgow to Quincy where I am living…I have lived in this place four years and worked at laboring work by the day I get plenty of work at a dollar per day…I conclude by saying may the God of Isaac and Jacob bless you all and keep you blameless to the coming of our lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I remain your affectionate son and then till death
William Thomson
Some time after the above letter was sent, the baby girl of William and Elizabeth dies (8th of July 1845). Then, on the 7th of October 1845, Elizabeth passes after receiving serious injuries in a fall down a staircase. William is left alone to raise their remaining five children. He pens another letter to family –
October 26, 1845
Quincy Adams County, Illinois Dear brother it was with much pleasure I received your last letter and to hear that your all in good health and in prosperous circumstances and to hear my father and mother is still alive and well. I have mornful news to rit in this letter, our youngest child died the morning of July 8 last and my wife has been confined to her bed four months entirely helpless with a severe pain and weakness in her back and she died on the 7th day of October and has left me with my four boys and one girl to mourn her loss. She was a virtuous woman and was respected as such by all that knew her both at home and in this country. Now she is gone and is numbered with the dead and she wished often that the Lord would take her to himself but she wished to live for the sake of her children and me and charged me to be good to the children. She has seen trouble and persecution in her days but now she is gone where the wicked cease from troubling and where the weary are at rest. My boys and myself keep house together. David feeds the cows and works out some times. Doneld cooks and washes and keeps the house and takes care of the two youngest and does better than some women would. William is living with a doctor and takes care of his children and goes on errands and takes care of his horse and we intend to stay in the same place till next spring and do the best we can and I wish you to write to me as soon as you receive this mournful intellengence that I may have a letter from you as soon in the spring as possible. I have no doubt but you have heard of the persecution that is got up against the Latter-day-saints as a people and how they have killed our prophets in prison and burning our houses we are satisfied as a body of people that we can live no longer among them as the latter day saints are making ready to leave here the United States of America this spring for some distant land unknown to me as yet where they can worship God according to the dictate of their own conscience without being molested and made afraid and I believe if God spares my health and life I and my family will go with them and I want to hear from you all before I start and may the Lord bless you all and your familys in there day and generation and may his holy spirit lead you and guide you in the way of all truth and enable you to prove all things and hold fast that which is good that we may be prepared for the messenger Death and be counted worthy to enter into that rest that remains for the people of God. I have no doubt but you feel to mourn my boys in a land among strangers but why do we mourn for dying friends or shake at deaths alarms. Tis but the voice Jesus sends to call them to his arms. From your affectionate brother till Death
William removes his family to Garden Grove on the Iowa side of the river where he meets and marries Mary Ann Hales, the widow of Stephen Hales Sr. Both families had adult children, and all proceeded west on the 17th of May 1851 in the Henry Walton Company. They were not long on their way when Mary Ann (Hales) Thompson died (8 Sept. 1851). The family buries “Mother Thompson” at the Ancient Bluffs, Reins County, Nebraska near the Platt River and continues on, arriving in Salt Lake City in October of 1851.
A testament of the determination and courage of the early Saints is evidenced in the letters that William G Thompson wrote to his family in Scotland. Letters retrieved by his grandson, Orville Thompson, while on his mission to the land of his forefathers in 1887.
