Portraits

Henry Thompson

Henry Thompson was born 4 February 1844 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. He was the third of four children born to Henry Thompson Sr., a cordwainer, and Ann McCabe Thompson in Liverpool. Henry was an American Civil War veteran. According to his obituary, Henry spent time trying to homestead in Michigan after the war and then went West and traveled to Alaska in search of gold. Henry spent years traveling the west coast of America from Alaska to Mexico searching for gold. He returned to Milwaukee about 3 years before his death.

Henry – called Harry – was a favorite bachelor uncle of my husband’s grandmother. She often remarked that he had a twinkle in his eye. I can recall her talking about Henry’s service in the American Civil War and about how he went missing for a time and the family did not know where he was. I had understood this to mean that Henry went missing during the war, but in attempting to learn more about his life, I think she may have meant he went missing in the years just after.

Henry’s family immigrated to the US in 1848 and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where his father set up a shoe store. Henry worked in his father’s store as a young man. The family is living in Milwaukee on the 1850 US Federal Census in the 1st Ward in a neighborhood that is made up of other tradesmen and their families. Henry appears in the home with his parents, older sister Mary Ann, older brother John, and baby sister Eliza Jane who went by Lila as an adult.

By 1860, Henry’s father had passed away and the family was divided. His mother Ann was living with his sister Mary Ann and her husband in Milwaukee’s 4th ward. I have been unable to locate John, Henry, or Lila on the 1860 US Federal Census. By 1862 Henry was in New York and enlisted in Company J of the 100th New York Infantry where he served until his discharge at the end of the war in June 1865.

After Henry’s discharge from service, his paper trail disappears until the 1890 Veteran’s Census where we find him in Marquette, Michigan. In 1900 he is missing again – presumably this is when he is traveling the west coast because he appears again in 1906 at a Veteran’s Hospital in Sawtelle, California for an unreduced dislocated right shoulder which caused paralysis of his right hand. He listed his place of residence as San Diego, CA on his hospital forms.

Henry remains in California as an inmate at a home for disabled veterans in Malibu for the 1910 and 1920 censuses and in 1930 Henry was living at the National Home for Disabled Veterans in Los Angeles. Henry’s obituary stated that he returned to Wisconsin three years prior to his death in 1936. Henry’s sisters Mary Ann and Lila, died in Milwaukee in 1932 and 1933 respectively, so perhaps their deaths were the reason for his return home. He is said to have been living with his nephew, Lila’s son Ralph, until the time of his death at the Soldiers Home in Milwaukee. Henry was laid to rest in the cemetery on the grounds of the Soldier’s Home.

My husband and I were just in Milwaukee and decided to stop and visit Henry’s grave while we were there. We arrived on a Sunday so were unable to see inside any of the buildings on the grounds, but the complex of the Soldier’s Home is beautiful with several of the buildings renovated and several more under renovation. The grounds were very impressive, peaceful, and well maintained. It is very moving to see the acres of matching white headstones and think of the lives that have been given in service of our country.

I have a lot of holes to fill in Henry’s life. There are several missing census years for both him and for his siblings. His brother John disappears altogether after the 1850 census and is not mentioned in any family lore or in the obituaries of his siblings. I intend on ordering Henry’s military records and hope that they may shed light on his missing years.