Daniel A. Thompson, Cortland County Pioneer

 

Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, February 10, 1896.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD.

DANIEL A. THOMPSON OF McGRAWVILLE.

Will Pass the Century Mark on Thursday, Feb. 13—Sketch of His Life—He Was a Pioneer.

   To comparatively few people is it given to reach the age of one hundred years. A still smaller number reach it in good health and in the possession of physical and mental vigor. Within a few years Cortland county has had three residents who have celebrated their one hundredth birthday; Mrs. Sarah Chaplin Rockwood of Cortland celebrated her one hundredth birthday on Nov. 8,1885, and died Nov. 26, 1889, being 104 years and 18 days old. Mr. Hosea Sprague of Homer celebrated his centennial on Dec. 28, 1893, and died July 19, 1895, at the age of 101 years, 6 months and 21 days, Mrs. Ora Brown of Cortland was one hundred years old on Jan. 31, 1894, and died twenty-six days later, at the age of 100 years and 26 days.

   There is a fourth claimant for centennial honors in the person of Daniel A. Thompson of McGrawville whose cut we publish today and who will celebrate his one hundredth birthday on Thursday of this week, Feb. 13.1896. Mr. Thompson is one of the pioneers of this region and one of the founders of McGrawville.

   A STANDARD reporter called at his home to get a little sketch of the life and career of this aged gentleman. He was politely treated and was shown the old Bible with its family record and other records and papers.

   In Chatham, Columbia Co, N. Y., there lived in the last century a sturdy pioneer, John Thompson by name, who was the father of some twenty children, he having been several times married. By one wife he had nine children, the sixth of which in genealogical order was the subject of this sketch, Daniel A. Thompson who was born in Chatham, Feb. 13, 1796.

   While a boy he determined to learn the blacksmith's trade and was apprenticed to John Merrill who had married a cousin of the boy. As the section along the Hudson river was quite thickly settled, Mr. Merrill decided to emigrate to a new country and came to this town (then Homer township) and built a blacksmith shop near the present residence of Reuben Brown on the Cortland road. Mr. Thompson soon followed him coming in 1816 and finished his apprenticeship in the shop, the location of which is marked by a large stone which still covers the old well.

   When he had finished his apprenticeship he worked for a while in a gun shop in Cortland and then came to this place, building a log shop near where the house of John Gilbertson now stands on Clinton St. This shop burned and was replaced by a frame building which was afterward torn down.

   On June 15, 1820, he was married to Miss Sally Frink who had moved upon the present Thompson farm with her mother and stepfather, Nehemiah Lewis. About that time he bought an acre of ground on the west side of the Freetown road (now Clinton St.), running from the creek to where Frank Webster's residence now stands. This he afterwards sold and then moved to Schuyler county where he purchased a farm and remained two years. Then he returned to McGrawville and bought the farm now owned by Samuel Doud. He sold this farm and in 1835 purchased the house where he now resides, having his shop in the building now used by Lewis Warren as a barn and later in a building near the Clinton St. bridge until he purchased the land on the east side of Clinton St. extending from the old cemetery to the old M. E. parsonage (now J. J. Isaacs' residence) and there built a shop on the site of the one now owned by him and in which he carried on his trade up to a few years ago. Mrs. Thompson, his wife, died in 1887, aged 87 years.

   Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were the parents of eight children: Albert E., born July 16, 1822, who emigrated to Pennsylvania, where he married Sarah Kitchen. He died in Muncy in that state in 1876. Clarissa A., born Jan. 19, 1826, who died Aug. 12, 1830. Lewis A., born May 19, 1830, who married Eunice Madison and died in Salisbury,  Mo. in 1883. Clarissa A. (2d), born Oct. 10, 1831, who married Ned Whipple and died in California in 1873.  Mary Jeanette, born Aug. 28, 1833, who married Seneca Mudge and died in McGrawville,  April 6, 1895. Fannie I., born Aug. 8, 1835, and died July 31, 1843. Sallie Rosella, born Sept. 1, 1837, who married Charles Woodworth and died in Virginia City, Nev. in 1866. A. P. Thompson, who was born Nov, 10, 1842, and who is the only surviving child.

   The grandchildren living are Alonzo H. Mudge of Cortland and Daniel and Will Thompson, sons of A. P. Thompson, the former of whom is partner in a marble yard in Brighton, Mich., and the latter a photographer in Chicago, Ill. Of the great grandchildren there are Albert, Alonzo, Belle, Ernest and Enos Mudge and Earl, Nettie and Sarah Leach, all grandchildren of Seneca and Jeneatte Mudge.

   Mr. Thompson resides in the house he purchased over sixty years ago and is cared for by his son, A. P. Thompson, and son-in-law, Seneca Mudge. His great grandchildren, Albert and Alonzo Mudge and Earl Leach also reside with them, He is confined to the house by the wintry weather, but in the summer months spends much of his time out of doors walking around without a cane or other assistance. He does not wear glasses, although at one time he could not see to do his work without them.

   One day some thirty years ago while working at his anvil he found that he could not see through them and upon removing them found that his sight had returned to him. He has often of late years in a joking manner referred to a fortune-teller having told him when but thirteen years of age that he would live to be one hundred and but a few days ago told his son that he guessed he would do so.

   The old Empire block is one of the buildings erected by Mr. Thompson, who, coming to McGrawville but seven years later than its godfather, Samuel McGraw, helped to lay the foundations of the present thriving city of corsets.