Ohio History Journal

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William Oxley Thompson 103

William Oxley Thompson          103

ber of men and women of the state than any other per-

son, he has, by personal example, set the impress of his

own character and ideals. To no one of his generation

is the commonwealth under greater obligations; to no

one does it accord higher respect. A power for civic

righteousness; a lover of his fellow-men; a broad-

minded, generous, courteous Christian gentleman:

"Truly he has had

The heart to conceive,

The understanding to direct,

And the hand to execute."

 

 

WILLIAM OXLEY THOMPSON*

BY JOSEPH V. DENNEY.

In his last paper before this Club--that on Wither-

spoon--and in his last funeral address--that on Profes-

sor Matthew B. Hammond--Dr. Thompson emphasized

the significance of family stock and inheritance. In his

own person he once told me he often felt the stirrings

and impulses of his own ancestry; the adventurous spirit

of that paternal grandfather who, a weaver by trade,

came from the north of Ireland in 1814 and settled on

160 acres of land in Guernsey County near New Con-

cord, Ohio, where he lived as a farmer until his death;

the more contemplative inclination of his maternal

grandfather, the wool-carder, of Irish-English stock,

who after losing most of his property by flood, moved to

Cambridge, Ohio, where his youngest son David, a

shoemaker, met and married Agnes Oxley, the school-

 

* Read before the Kit-Kat Club February 20, 1934.