Orlando Stephen Thompson

I keep putting off writing this post because I keep thinking I'll find something more interesting on Orlando. Alas, searching for newspaper articles on both Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com comes up with a lot of nothing. And a lot of articles from Orlando, Florida. Curse being named after a city!

Orlando Stephen Thompson

Orlando Stephen Thompson. Born 26 Feb 1894 in Harvey, Illinois to parents Wilder B Thompson and Laura Cloud. He married Polly Anna Randall and had a daughter Doris Jean (born 27 Jun 1919 also in Harvey, Illinois). He died 18 Jul 1988 in Englewood, Florida.

I actually found a pretty interesting article that mentioned Orlando's father Wilder from 1899. 

HARVEY HAS A SALOON FIGHT
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Liquor Me Win First Round and Buy Lot Owned by Methodist

Harvey's saloon fight is on in earnest. Mayor Braley vetoed the license ordinance passed two weeks ago. Monday evening the ordinance was passed over the mayor's head by the two-thirds license majority in  the council. A saloon location near the Grand Trunk depot at One Hundred and Fifty-Second street and Columbia avenue has already been secured by George Freeman, alderman of the Second ward, and the keeper of a saloon just across the Harvey bored in Thornton.

Until the sale of this land to Freeman by Wilder B. Thompson, a prominent member of the Methodist church, the Anti-Salloon league had confidently counted on the inability of prospective seekers for saloon sites to find any desirable ones inside the city limits. 

"Brother Thompson will never sell his lot for saloon purposes," said a speaker at an anti-saloon mass meeting held in the Congregational church last Sunday afternoon. When the announcement concerning the probable action of "Brother" Thompson was made there were many "amens," and the meeting adjourned with a sense of security insofar as the invasion of the down-town section of Harvey was concerned.

Mr. Thompson, when seen in reference to the sale of his land, admitted it. There was another available lot adjacent to his property and if a saloon was to come he might as well sell as another. It was a business proposition and Mr. Thompson said he treated it from that standpoint.

The hope of the antis lies in Mayor Braley. The major is a large property owner. He will only sign the ordinance passed over his veto upon compulsion. There are said to be material flaws in the ordinance as passed, which even the friends of the measure admit to be one of the most "liberal" saloon license ordinances ever passed by a city council. 

Ejectment proceedings will be brought against certain border saloons. Eugene Carey, trustee, has served notice to vacate permises upon Simon F. Schuts, who recently purchased the saloon formerly kept by "Billy" McHatchy at Halsted street and One Hundred and Fifty-Fifth place. The ground of the action is a prohibitory clause in Eugene Carey subdivision similar to those upon Harvey lots.

Orlando had two brothers, Harwell Cloud and Albert Wilder Thompson. Harwell was a US air mail service pilot who died tragically in a plane crash.

Harwell Cloud Thompson

MAIL PILOT KILLED WHEN PLAN FALLS

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Pilot Harwell C. Thompson of the United States air mail service crashed to his death yesterday near Liberty Center, O., while carring mail from Cleveland to Chicago.

A veteran of this war, during which he served overseas as a lieutenant in the air service, and with three years experience in the air mail division. Thomspon came to his end when his plane sideslipped while he was trying to make a forced landing. He died shortly after being taken to the Wauseon (O.) hospital.

He left Cleveland with the Chicago mail yesterday morning at 9:07 and was due in Chicago at noon. Immediately upon receipt of word of Thompson's death, H.B. Shaver, superintendent of the air mail station at Glenn L. Martin field, sent Pilot Warren D. Williams to the scene of the wreck with orders to pick up the mail and carry on.

The article goes on to mention he left behind his wife who was 6 weeks away from giving birth. :( So sad.

His other brother Albert, lived the ripe old age of 95.

Albert Wilder Thompson, 95, former dean of the College of Sciences and Arts at Washington State University, died Sept. 19 at his Princeton, N.J. home of cancer.

He was born in Harvey, Ill. He recieved his bachelor's degree from the university of Illinois in 1922, a master's degree from Harvard in 1923 and a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1929. His specialty was old French.

He married Edna Sackett in 1923. 

In 1930 the couple came to Pullman, were they remained for 46 years. He became full professor at Washington State College, now WSU, in 1947, and later that year became chairman of the Division of Humanities. 

He was named dean of the College of Sciences at Arts in 1953, a position he held until his retirement in 1964. She died in 1982.

After his retirement he studied the history of the Northwest, in particular the early French Canadian explorers.

In 1972, the oldest building on the WSU campus, which had been declared a National Historical Landmark, was renamed Thompson Hall.

He and his wife moved to Princeton in 1976 to be near their daughter. 

He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Modern Language Association, the Medieval Academy of American and other professional organizations. 

He was a life  member of the NAACP and a patron of the Princeton NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He enjoy playing piano and traveling in Europe and the Northwest. 

I can only imagine... since both is brothers were such fascinating, brave, intelligent men, that Orlando was cut from the same cloth. 

I did find a school photo of him on DeadFred.com from 1917, but I don't know what he was majoring in. 

Orlando Stephen Thompson is #3.  Class of 1917.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I know that Orlando married Polly Anna "Annie" Randall in 1916 and that they had a daughter Doris Jean in 1919. I also know that Doris married a James Douglas Youd... and that they had 3 children (at least that I could find) together. Doris died in 1998. I assume her children are still alive, but nobody that I reached out to with the photo of Orlando has replied yet. :(

This photo was purchased from Covered Wagon Antique Mall in Mesa, Arizona