Henry Harry Thompson

Autobiography of John Thompson

Contributed By: HESM · 20 August 2013 ·

Short Sketch of the Life of John Thompson As He Told It, and As He Wrote It In March 1922.

I, John Thompson, lived in London a little over two years. My father being an expert gold and silversmith was immigrated by Gorham & Company from London, England, to Providence, R. I., to look after their shops in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. My father brought part of the family from England in the spring of 1855. My mother brought the rest of the family late in the fall of the same year.

We crossed the ocean in a sailing vessel, and was nine weeks on the water. While crossing the ocean our ship was caught in a dense fog. It was only possible to see a short distance ahead. Suddenly there came into sight another ship sailing crosswise to us and directly ahead in our path. Our ship couldn't stop and we crushed into the side of the other ship, and it sank. Everyone on board the other ship was drowned. Our ship was so badly damaged our Captain had to put to port for repairs. Quickstep was the name of our ship. My father worked for Gorham & Company at Providence until the spring of 1862. My parents had joined the Mormon Church in the year 1848. They wanted to come to Zion; so in the spring of 1862 we left Providence to come to Utah. We came by rail and steamboat to Florence, Nebraska. Stayed at Florence a few days, and then we loaded into a wagon that was drawn by four yoke of oxen. The names of the four yoke of cattle were as follows: Dim and Duke, Lion and Bay, Speck and Buck, Balley and Brand. Our Captain's name was Murdock, and our Teamster's name was John Middleton.

We arrived in Salt Lake City that fall, 27 September 1862. We went to Logan and stayed in Logan until the summer of 1864, when Israel J. Clark heard of the place which is now known as Clarkston. He and my father came here to see the place and brought me along to take care of the oxen. They looked around to see about timber and a place to make a settlement. They thought there was enough water for about twenty-five families, and said they thought it was the prettiest place they had seen. They yoked up their oxen and went back to Logan and scattered the news of the things they had seen. Lots of timber and meadows with hay up to your armpits. A lot of people wanted to come to Clarkston. Brother Myler, Jessie Pearson, Gideon Harminson, Andrew Heggie, Simon Smith, and others came over and cut hay and stacked it on the north west corner of what is now known as the lower five acres belonging to Henry Griffin.

We lived in Logan that winter and moved to Clarkston in the spring. My father had charge of the cow herd and a sheep herd, and I helped to herd them for two or three years.

On December 9, 1865, my mother died. She was the first person to be buried in Clarkston Cemetery. The next one buried was Ole A. Jensen's wife. After the death of my mother we had a very hard time. The winter was very hard. We could not get out to get flour and things we needed to eat. We lived for months on boiled wheat, milk and turnips. We got the turnips from Andrew McCombes. We got into a bad condition. We got the itch and had it bad. We got body lice, and head lice, and we were covered with sores and little boils from our heads to our feet. We were in this condition until my father got married to Caroline Griffin the 5th of October in 1867. After that we got rid of our itch and lice.

In the spring before my father married Caroline Griffin we were advised to leave Clarkston on account of Indians. Some people went to Smithfield, and some went to other towns. We took our sheep over on the Mendon range and herded there that summer. The people came back to Clarkston in the fall and built a fort, and everyone lived in the fort for two years, then they moved out on their city lots.

I herded cattle out on the promontory for two years for William V. Corbine and Robert Curley. Some of our own cattle were in the herd. On March 10, 1872, I married Hannah Jensen. I was twenty years old. If we live to March 10, 1922, we will have been married fifty years. We have had a family of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters. While we were living in the fort, Brother Martin Harris, came here and lived with his son and son's wife, Martin and Mary Harris. They lived in a house in the fort owned by Andrew Quigley. After the people moved out of the fort onto their city lots, the Harrises moved into a house owned by WIlliam V. O. Corbine. While living in the Corbine house, Martin Harris died on July 10, 1875. He was buried in the Clarkston Cemetery. The Book of Mormon was put in his right hand and the Doctrine and Covenants was placed in his left hand. I was called to wash and dress him and get him ready for burial. At one time I took a couple of apostates, Henry and John Serman, to see Martin Harris. One of them asked Mr. Harris if he believed the Book of Mormon to be true. "No," he said. Then they told him they heard that he had never denied the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. He then told them that he knew the Book of Mormon is true, and said, "That is past believing." He then bore his testimony of seeing an angel bearing witness to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. There was a chopping block there by the house, and he pointed to it and said, "Before I would deny the Book of Mormon, I would lay my head on this block and let it be chopped off." John Serman went to Salt Lake City, joined the Church, and married a bishop's daughter. That last I heard of him he was living a good life.

I am glad to have had the privilege of hearing Martin Harris bear his testimony and getting him ready for burial. Since that time I was called to wash and dress and lay out the dead in Clarkston. In those days the people of Clarkston didn't have doctors and dentists. I used to extract teeth, set broken bones, and help to take care of the sick. I also doctored the sick animals in the town.

I bought a farm and a home. I owned a dry goods and grocery store. I also had the Post Office for a few years. I held many offices in the town. I helped to build the first railroad that came into Cache Valley, and the first railroad leading out to Montana.

[John Thompson wrote this history in March 1922. He died June 5, 1922. He was buried in the Clarkston Cemetery.] https://familysearch.org/tree/person/LLMX-HY4/memories

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