"Hardesty’s West Virginia Counties - Gilmer, Ritchie, Lincoln, Wayne"
Volume 7 - Pages 223-224 - Published 1973
by Jim Comstock


Finley Thompson - was born September 29, 1816, on Mill Creek, two miles east of the present site of Cassville, Wayne County. John and Elizabeth (Kirby) Thompson were his parents. His father, born in 1775, died in 1857; his mother was born in 1783, and died in 1867. His father was one of the pioneers of this section of the country, emigrating from Virginia about 1805, and settling first on the Big Sandy, subsequently removing to Mill Creek. Richard Thompson, father of John, was born in Ireland, and Margaret, mother of John, was English by birth. William Thompson, uncle of Finley, put up a grist mill on Mill Creek in 1825, one of the first in this part of the country. Nancy, daughter of Alexander and Sarah (Ball) Wilson, was born in what is now Wayne County, August 25, 1823, and here became the wife of Finley Thompson on the 7th of March, 1839. Their children are recorded: Laban, born September 1, 1840, lives on Flat branch of Twelve Pole; Eliza Jane, March 5, 1843, died December 3, 1871; Cynthia Ann, July 3, 1845, died December 17, 1857; Lafayette, June 9, 1848, lives on Flat branch; James, July 26, 1852, died December 16, 1857; Sarah E., March 5, 1855, lives on Twelve Pole; Bernard, June 25, 1857, lives on Toms Creek of Twelve Pole; Flenamon W., December 22, 1859, died December 24, 1861; Albert, April 24, 1862; Henry B., November 25, 1865; Marcus L., May 20, 1868 - these three at home. The oldest son served through the Civil War in the Confederate Army. Lafayette has been a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church for six years past. Finley Thompson was elected magistrate in 1852, and served four years; received appointment from the county court as magistrate in 1865, and resigned in 1867; was member of the board of education of Butler district, and one year deputy sheriff of Wayne County; has also been executor and administrator of many estates, and in all positions of trust has been found efficient and faithful. He owns 350 acres of mineral and farming land, and has deeded 450 acres, which was part of his estate, to his children, settling them in the vicinity of his home. He has been forty-one years a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South), and most of that time a class leader. His wife has been in the same membership for thirty-one years, and three of their living children are in the same membership. His postoffice address is Forks of Twelve Pole, Wayne County, West Virginia.