Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2012, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Karen D. Foster for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. =========================================================================== Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== SOURCE: History of Genesee County, Michigan pub. Everts and Abbott - 1879 Page facing 130 HON. EDWARD H. THOMSON Among the names which are inseparably connected with the annals of Genesee County is that of Edward H. Thomson, who, during a residence of more that forty years in the village and city of Flint, has been promi- nently identified with its progress and prosperity, and has well and faithfully served his fellow-citizens in the places of honor and trust to which they have repeatedly called him. He was born June 15, 1810, at Kendal, in the county of Westmoreland, England, and at the age of three years came to the United States with his parents, who made their home in Boston, Mass. At the proper age he entered the White Plains Academy, in Westchester Co., N.Y., and there laid the foundation of this education during a four years' course of study. After leaving the academy he spent two years of his youth on the ocean, as a sailor before the mast. Having resolved to enter the legal profession, he removed to Buffalo, N.Y., where in 1830, he commenced the study of the law in the office of the Hon. Millard Fillmore (afterwards President) and the Hon. Thomas T. Sherwood. From this connection there grew up between Mr. Fillmore and himself a friendly intimacy which continued uninterrupted until the death of the ex-President. At the age of twenty-two years--having then been admitted to practice-- Mr. Thomson established himself in his profession, first in the city of Buffalo, and afterwards at Cleveland, Ohio. While practicing his profession in Buffalo, he started, in connection with Gen. Roberts, a daily newspaper called the Buffalo Transcript. At the time when the emigration from New York to Michigan was at its height he came to this State; located in the township of Atlas in 1837, and received from Gov. S. T. Mason the appointment of prosecuting attorney for Lapeer County, of which the town of Atlas then formed a part. In 1838 he removed to Flint, where he associated himself in business with John Bartow (then Register in the U.S. Land Office at Flint), under the name and style of Bartow & Thomson. In 1845 he received the appointment of prosecuting attorney for Genesee County, and held the office during that and the following year. In 1847 he was elected to the State Senate for the district embracing Genesee, Oakland, Lapeer, Shiawassee, Saginaw, Tuscola, and all of the counties to the Straits of Mackinac, and the whole of the Upper Peninsula, and served in that body for the years 1848 and 1849 as chairman of the judiciary committee, chairman of the committee on mines and minerals, and as a member of the committee on State affairs. During this term in the Senate he introduced the bills which resulted in the establishment of the Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, at Flint, of the Asylum for the Insane, at Kalamazoo, and also for the incorporation of the first copper and iron mining companies in the Upper Peninsula. (He had accompanied Dr. Douglass Houghton in his explorations of the Lake Superior region in 1844 and 1845, and has in this way become fully aware of its rich mineral resources.) Another bill introduced by him was one for the promotion of foreign emigration direct to Michigan. His services in procuring the adoption of this measure were recognized by Gov. Ransom, who gave him the appointment of commissioner of emigration under the law, a position which he filled for three years, first having his office at New York, but afterwards establishing it at Stuttgart, in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany. Here in a personal interview with the king, he laid before him the details of his emigration plan, and afterwards gave a full explanation of the vast resources of Michigan by the publication and distribution of a pamphlet of some sixty pages, giving in detail the resources of the State. This same information was also given to the public through the medium of the German press, and with such success that, during the first year, two thousand eight hundred persons emigrated from that country to Michigan. The total result of his energetic efforts was an accession of nearly twenty-five thousand to the population of the State; and these were principally of a hardy and enterprising class of mechanics and farmers, many of them possessing considerable pecuniary means. While in London, in 1851, he received the appointment of United States deputy commissioner to the great Industrial Exhibition in that city, generally known as the World's Fair. In this position his assiduous attentions to American visitors, and his efficient aid and timely advice to exhibitors, gained for him high encomiums, while his social qualities made him a welcome and honored visitor in the houses of the nobility and gentry of the world's metropolis. On his return to the United States he remained for a time in Washington City, but soon after resumed his profession in Flint. In 1858 he was elected Representative in the State Legislature, and in the session of 1859 served on the judiciary committee, and on the committee on State affairs. When the fires of treason burst forth into the great war of the Rebellion, the loyal State of Michigan gave to the cause of the Union no more earnest and ardent a supporter than Col. Edward Thomson. Although his political opinions had never been opposed to those of Gov. Blair, he received at his hands an appointment as a member of the State military board, and, upon the resignation of Gen. A. S. Williams, of Detroit, in 1862, became its president. This position gave him the military title by which he has since been generally known. Throughout the war he was intensely patriotic, and as untiring as he was successful in his efforts to promote enlistments. So high did he stand in the estimation of the Governor and of Adj.-Gen. Robertson that, in the face of the settled policy of the Governor not to establish regimental camps of organization away from railway communication, he procured the order naming Flint (which then had no railroad) as a rendezvous of the Tenth Infantry, whose camp was thereupon established there, and named in his honor Camp Thomson. An officer of that regiment afterwards said of the circumstance: "Col. Thomson directed the formation of the camp, and so fully and completely cared for the wants of the soldiers that he found a place in their hearts as the soldier's friend, and will not soon be forgotten. We learned to look upon him as a kind of father and always called him 'colonel,' and to this day he bears that title whenever his name is spoken among us." When his influence and energy were no longer needed in the raising of troops, Col. Thomson returned again to his profession and to the quiet enjoyment of social life in the city of Flint. Shortly afterwards he was elected a member of the school board of education, and in 1878 was elected mayor of the city of Flint. For many years Col. Thomson has been an ardent and enthusiastic student of English literature, and in particular of the works of the immortal Bard of Avon. His Shakspearean readings and lectures, which are frequently and freely given in aid of charitable and other benevolent objects, are always received with high favor and appreciation, as is evidenced by the invariably favorable notices of them given in the newspapers. In 1869, upon the occasion of his consenting to deliver a lecture in Lansing upon the "Genius of Shakspeare," for the benefit of the Reform School Band, the Lansing State Republican said: "The offer is generous; the object of it one that not only the citizens of Lansing, but the members of the Legislature can fully appreciate, and the subject one which will be treated by him in a masterly manner. His ability as a critic of the immortal dramatist and poet has long been recognized. He is a gentleman, a fine speaker, and will do full justice to the passages he may repeat for the entertainment of his hearers. And we may also add that the city of Lansing has always had a warm and earnest friend in Col. Thomson." And a lecture of his, delivered at Howell upon the same subject, was thus mentioned by the Livingston Republican: "Mr. Thomson is a Shakspearean enthusiast, and seems to possess the maximum of enthusiasm which will be satisfied with nothing short of knowing to the uttermost everything connected with it subject . . . . In literary gossip he is set down as one of the lions among Shakspearean litterateurs, and is said to possess one of the finest Shakspearean libraries in the United States. He is a fine elocutionist, a pleasant speaker, and we should like to listen again for an evening to such passages of his favorite author as he might select to read." Similar complimentary opinions find frequent utterance through the press, and are always sustained by the public who compose his audiences. Col. Thomson is a member of the Masonic fraternity, has just passed the chair of grand master in the I.O.O.F., and is now the grand representative to the grand lodge of the order at the city of Baltimore. ===========================================================================