J.O. Thompson: Carpenter

J O Thompson, Sr
February 1962

My father was a carpenter (class A-1, of which he was very proud). He taught all of his 3 living sons the trade on the job. He usually walked to work unless the job was too far away. Then someone he worked with would pick him up and take him for which he paid.

Mama always packed him a lunch as there was no such thing back then as “going out to lunch.” He carried a lard bucket in which she would put a couple of biscuits with fried fatback or ham or whatever we had, a mason jar full of beans, maybe a piece of leftover cornbread from supper and that was it.

He left before sunup and got back about dark in the winter. In the summer they went in early and got off earlier in the afternoon.

I don’t know the companies he worked for over the years, but the reason we came to SC was following the building trade.

I don’t know from whom he learned the carpenter trade, but he was the best. His son, John Lloyd Thompson, later became the owner of his own company, John L. Thompson Construction. His grandson, Wayne Thompson, son of James O. Thompson Jr. is now part owner of Thompson-White Construction Co.* which was originally Patriot Construction, owned solely by Doug White, my son-in-law. (Wayne was trained on-the-job by his dad J.O. Jr. who was trained by J.O. Sr.; all of J.O. Jr’s sons who lived around him learned the carpenter trade.

Foy Thompson, the youngest son who went to Auburn Univ. and became a coach and later a principal, knew enough about carpentry to build his first home in Camden and help on his 2nd home. So J.O. Thompson Sr. was a good teacher of his trade.

-Izzy Thompson Connell, J.O's 8th child. Pgs. 205-206 of personal history. Written circa 1996

(reverse side)
J.O. Thompson Sr
daddy
looking a lot like Foy does now @ 75 w/out the big glasses

*Editor's note: Wayne Thompson's business partner Doug White said that Wayne was a talented carpenter, more talented than himself.

Stories of J.O. Thompson and Grace Campbell

Laura got some stories from Grandma Izzy about J O and Grace Thompson, and here are some of her notes!
____________

Grace was engaged to a wealthy man in town for 3 years, and JO was a humble farmer. And they got married - to each other. How did this all get started?

J.O. had married his sweetheart at 17 in Newnan, Georgia. He had his farm, his sweetheart, and two beautiful children - his happily ever after was coming true.

Then, a measles epidemic came, taking his two children and his wife.

The devastated young lover took residence with his uncle John on a neighboring farm. One day, JO said to John - I can't bear this place and its memories any more. John, I need to go - far away.

So JO hopped on the train in GA and rode the rails for – who knows where?

When he got to southern Virginia, he got off; found a job farming growing food for Mary Baldwin College (they grew all their own food at that time).

Unlike most men of the day, Grace's father believed women should be educated, and he paid her tuition for Mary Baldwin’s sewing college (located in southern Virginia).

She worked in a little sewing shop for high end alterations; furs, evening gowns, suits. etc. she'd been engaged for 3 years to a man in NC.

Just a few short months after leaving Newnan, JO decided to put his grief behind him.

He took notice of Grace Campbell, working in the office.

‘You have no ring. Do you have a fella?’

‘Yes, we’ve been engaged for three years.’

‘Three years! I don't know your fella at all, but I don’t think he loves you.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’ve been engaged for three years, and he hasn’t married you. I'll marry you right now!'

And so, they courted, fell in love, and had 9 kids together! (She got married at 27).

Including my grandma Izzy.

J.O. and Grace Thompson: A Complementary Pair

Here's a little blurb that my sister Rachel sent me:

"Grandma was telling us about us about her daddy (J.O. Thompson). She told us that if he ever got in a fight with the devil, he would win. She told him that if he ever got in a fight with the devil... And he said I already have many times. And you know where he told him to go? To go to hell. Where he belongs. "Get the hell out of my house!"

"Grandma also told us about her mother (Grace Campbell). Her mother was a very humble, compassionate, quiet person. She was also an excellent seamstress. When she was in college she learned about furs and of those sorts. In her community, in the Charlotte area, she was asked to help alter and make clothing for businesses in southern Charlotte. One of the things that her mother did that she was most proud of was when she helped a black couple that lost their baby. They didn't have enough money for a coffin. Grandma's mother decided to help for no money. They brought her a box and she used some of the scraps of blue silk from a woman's slip she was making for the lining of the coffin. Grandma said you had to keep from crying because the couple was so humble and so thankful."

Thanks for those tidbits, Rachel! It's fun to learn more about the personalities of our grandparents.

Where was J. O. Thompson after his mother died?

After J.O.'s mother died, his father was so upset by her passing that he didn't feel fit to care for his three children, so he sent them to live with his brother John Thompson. When J.O.'s father remarried, his new wife would take his two daughters to live with them, but said that she didn't want to have to raise a "big 'ol boy," so J.O. stayed with his uncle John. J.O. was only 12 years old.

J.O. loved his uncle John. When Grandma was telling me about J.O.'s stay with John Thompson, she said this several times. "My daddy loved his uncle John." John taught him how to farm and run a farm, among many other things. The skills J.O. learned when he was with his uncle John helped him land his job as manager of a farm in or near Charlotte when he met Grace Campbell, my great-grandmother.

Here's the 1910 census showing him with his uncle John Monroe Thompson's family. J.O. was the oldest child there by a long shot. If you sign in to Family Search to view the picture, you will need to go to the previous image to see the rest of John M. Thompson's family.

Sources: Grandma Izzy, Cousin Rita, 1910 US census

J.O. Thompson and Grace Campbell's courtship

After J.O. Thompson's first wife and both of their children passed away from a measles epidemic, J.O. couldn't stand to be in Georgia any longer, so he bought a train ticket and rode until he ran out of money in Charlotte, NC. Once there, he got a job as the manager of a hospital's farm.

While he was working there, he met the beautiful and lovely Grace Campbell. At the time, she was engaged to another man. The two had been engaged for 3 years when J.O. came into the picture. After he assessed the situation, he told Grace, "That man is a fool," meaning, of course, that her fiance was a fool for being engaged to her for 3 years but not marrying her.

Grace saw his point, and broke off her engagement with the other man. She and J.O. were later married and had 9 children.

Grace and J.O. after a lifetime together

Source: Grandma Izzy

J.O. Thompson--Record Count: 3

When I made my initial search for J.O. Thompson, I only found one record for him. I ran into similar scarcity of records for his wife, Grace Campbell. In the process of looking for J.O.'s father (James Henry Thompson), I found two more records for J.O, and one record for Grace. This brings the record count up to 3 for J.O. and 2 for Grace (I found a record for each when I was researching them earlier)

One of the records was in the 1940 US census. You can see the image and the link at the bottom of this post. It's neat to see a record with so many people that I've actually met--Aunt Margaret, Aunt Sugie, Aunt Ruby, Uncle Foy, and of course Grandma Izzy.

The other record was a WWI draft registration card that contained his physical description and his date of birth. J.O was described as a man of medium height and weight with gray eyes and light hair, not bald (he was only 25). At the time of registration, he was already living in Charlotte, NC. J.O. claimed exemption from the draft because he was deaf in one ear (you can see that at the bottom of the first page). Also interesting is J.O.'s signature at the bottom of the card.

This record is about 2 years after J.O.'s first wife and children passed away. I can imagine the heartbreak he felt--but didn't show--as the registrar asked if he had a wife or children solely dependent on him for support and J.O. had to reply, "No." At this time, he may or may not have met his second wife Grace yet. They married about a year after J.O. registered for the draft. Here's the card:

WWI draft registration, circa 1917

The other record I found was for J.O. and Grace in the 1940 Census.

1940 Census, Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina

J.O. Thompson: Magic Tricks with Tobacco

I recently got a recording of some stories from a Thompson family reunion. I transcribed a few of them, and they'll be popping up on the blog over the next month or so. The following stories are both about J.O. Thompson.

Uncle Bob shared this story, and I think it's a good introduction for the next:

I never really knew him [Granddad Thompson] very well. I got back here when he was about ready to pass on. He was always chewing tobacco. I never knew anything about tobacco--you know in our family nobody chewed. You know, he looked like he really liked it. So I said, “Hey Granddaddy, can I have some of that tobacco? So I can chew some?” He said, “Sure, son! Here, son!” So I put some back and started chewing. I didn’t know you were supposed to spit it! So I was swallowing the juice. I was chewing it like chewing gum. That was one of my first experiences with Granddaddy. He was a funny guy.

One line from that story--"He was always chewing tobacco," made this next story seem more relevant. This one's told by my mom's cousin Wayne Thompson. I really enjoy his story telling style of quoting without introduction. It keeps you on your toes!

Granddaddy kept saying, “I can kill a snake if you bring ‘im to me.” So we was down there in the plum bushes picking plums and we saw a green snake about 20 inches long. “Let’s catch that snake. Take ‘im to Granddaddy. I wanna see ‘im kill it!” So we caught the snake and brought ‘im up there. “Granddady we got you a snake! We wanna see you kill it.” He says just a minute. Take that ol plug of brown mule [chewing tobacco] and cut the corner off it with a knife he always kept razor sharp. He set there and chawed and chawed and chawed. We kept lookin’ at him. “You better gonna get ready to kill it, y’know? We have it here.” So he turned to us and, “watch this,” he said. He spit there on the snake’s head and, “wraaaagh!” the snake said and when that snake come up and “wraaagh!” he spit again right there in its mouth. Chewing tobacco, brown mule. Anyhow, that snake wiggled and carried on awful “My God, this man’s killin’ me.” He spit on him the third time in three spots he died. It killed ‘im! It killed the snake.

Sounds like someone enjoyed fascinating little boys with how powerful his spit was! 

There's another story that Mom told me about J.O. Thompson that was pretty funny, too. She said that whenever he'd located a honey tree, J.O. would work up a sweat and make sure his B.O. was all over him, and then he'd go and get the honey. The bees never bothered him because he smelled so bad!

Grace (nee Campbell) and J.O. Thompson

What We Get from Our Scottish Roots

Recently I've been reading up on Scotland and Scottish roots in America to better understand the people that we came from, as I know we do have Scottish ancestors. Until today, I hadn't come across anything that I felt was worth sharing. Today, however, I found some awesome stuff in a book called "How the Scots Invented the Modern World" by Arthur Herman. The first half of the book is about Scots in Scotland, and the second half (which I started today) is about the Scots in America. I'm going to use several direct quotations from the book, because they are just put so well.

"They said ... 'thar' for 'there,' 'critter' for 'creature,' 'nekkid' for 'naked' ... and 'young-uns' for 'young ones.' They were always 'fixin' ' to do something...The language was also shamelessly intimate and earthy: passersby were addressed as 'honey' ...

"Ulster Scots [the Scots Irish] were quick-tempered, inclined to hard work followed by bouts of boiserous leisure and heavy drinking ..., and easy to provoke into fighting. The term used to describe them was rednecks, a Scots border term meaning Presbyterians."

I have to say, I have been teased about saying "nekkid" instead of "nay-kid" like people in other parts of the US. I've also noticed a divide between my family in the South--friendly, gregarious, opinionated, fond of sports--and my family in the North--also friendly but more reserved, a bit geeky, leaning more to technical issues. My dad's side (Northern side) has a lot less heritage from the Scots.

Herman also describes the intense religious zeal that was typical of the Scots (note the previous reference to Presbyterians), and which is also typical of Southerners, as we know.

Some of the characteristics I read about also reminded me of things I've learned about J.O. Thompson: He was zealous about the Gospel and he was "inclined to hard work" and was a little rough around the edges, as this post by Laura shows.

Thompson, Campbell, Dunn, Peebles, Alexander, Wallace--all Scottish surnames. Connell and Dunn are either Irish or Scottish surnames. These are all names from our family tree.

**Edit: the second half of How the Scots Invented the Modern World only has a few chapters about the Scots in the United States. There are many chapters about Scots in Scotland and England, as well.

J.O. Thompson's first family

I asked my mom's cousin Rita (my 1st cousin once removed) about J.O.'s first wife, Lula J. Hanson. Lula was only 13 when they married (J.O. was a few days away from his 22nd birthday), and she died when she was only 17. While looking at her information, I noticed that she and their two children all died around 1915, and I wondered if there was some sort of tragedy associated with their deaths. This is what Rita told me:

"Their children were Emma and then Leonard. Then in 1919 the great flu epidemic came along and got all three of his little family. Granddaddy about lost his mind. He was studying to be a preacher like his grandfather David Nolan. He took to hoboing on trains back and forth across the country and reading the bible as he went. He read it over and over. I believe that's why our granddaddy had the power to heal. He could stop blood and fire. He told God he couldn't go on and start another family if he might loose them like he lost his first. He asked for the power to heal and God gave it to him. And that is the story of J.O.'s first family."

Amazing story, right? Also definitely a tragedy. I had wondered what had taken J.O. away from his home in Georgia that made him end up in Charlotte, North Carolina, and now I know.

EDIT: Lula, Emma, and Leonard died of measles (source: Grandma Izzy); the flu epidemic came a few years after they had already passed away. When Grandma told me about it, she said, "Isn't it ridiculous that someone died from something as easy to cure [now] as measles?" She seemed to still feel the pain of their deaths, even though she had never met them.

Vital information - James Oren Thompson, Sr.

James Oren "J.O." Thompson, Sr. 


He was described as "about 5'10", Dark Brown hair, blue eyes, ruddy complexion, with a darker skin tone."

Birth date: July 2, 1892

Marriages: 

1. June 30, 1912 (Three days before his 20th birthday) to Lula J. Hanson
2. July 30, 1918 (26 years old) to Grace Viola Campbell

Death date: February 5, 1968

Records of James Oren Thompson:

• In the 1920 census. It shows that he was married to Grace Thompson, had a son James under a year old, lived in Mecklenburg County, NC, was born in Georgia, and that his occupation was that of electrician.

Click image for greater detail

• Information about him on a web page dedicated to descendants of David Atticus Nolan
• Marriage information to Grace Viola Campbell at Mecklenburg County register of deeds

James Oren Thompson "J.O."

J.O.  was a headstrong man. He worked at the mill for a dollar a day, and kept a large garden/farm off to the side. He motivated his children to do important things (like finishing highschool) by daring them. "You'll never be able to do that." Then they would - just to prove him wrong.

He was a religious man, and a renowned healer. People would come for miles around to have him pray over them.

Also, since lovers lane was near his house, he would "happen" to shoot birds near them, scaring too-frisky couples back to appropriate affection.

More later...