Thompson was born and raised in
Butler, Pennsylvania, the younger brother of future Pennsylvania Congressman
John McCandless Thompson. In 1853, he was admitted to the
bar and moved to
Marion, Iowa. He became the prosecuting attorney for
Linn County, Iowa in 1854, then left in 1856 to serve in the
Iowa Senate, serving until 1860. When the
Civil War broke out he became a
major in the
20th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. After the War, he served as district attorney for Iowa's eighth judicial district for six years. He then was nominated by President
Rutherford B. Hayes as
Chief Justice of the
Idaho Territorial Supreme Court on January 20, 1879, and was confirmed by the United States Senate three days later. In April 1879, Thompson resigned as chief justice to run as a Republican to represent
Iowa's fifth district in the
Forty-sixth Congress, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of
Rush Clark. Thompson won the special election, and served in most of the
Forty-sixth Congress. In 1882, he was re-elected, serving in the
Forty-seventh Congress, but chose not to run in 1884 for the
Forty-eighth. On his return to Iowa, Thompson served on the Marion City Council and ran for the
Iowa General Assembly. He served in the
Iowa House of Representatives from 1885 to 1887. Returning to the bench, he was elected as judge of Iowa's eighteenth judicial district, serving from 1894 to 1906. He retired to
Kenwood Park, Iowa where he died April 2, 1911. He is interred at
Oak Shade Cemetery in Marion. ==References==