Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/117

He was widely known socially, and numbered among his friends nearly all the statesmen and politicians of the country.

THOMPSON, Joseph Parrish, scholar, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 7 Aug., 1819; d. in Berlin, •Germany, 20 Sept., 1879. He was graduated at Yale in 1838, studied theology for a few months in Andover seminary, and then at Yale from 1839 till 1840, when he was ordained as a Congregational minister. He was pastor of the Chapel street church in New Haven from that time till 1845, and during this period was one of the founders of the '• New Englander." From 1845 till his resig- nation in 1871 he had charge of the Broadway tabernacle in New York city. Dr. Thompson de- voted much time to the study of Egyptology, in which he attained high rank. In 1852-'3 he visited Palestine, Egypt, and other eastern countries, and from that time he published continual Contribu- tions to this branch of learning in periodicals, the transactions of societies, and cyclopaedias. He lectured on Egyptology in Andover seminary in 1871, and in 1872-9 resided in Berlin, Germany, occupied in oriental studies, took an active part in the social, political, and scientific discussions, and was a member of various foreign societies, before which he delivered addresses, and contributed es- says to their publications. These have been issued under the title of " American Comments on Euro- pean Questions" (New York, 1884). In 1875 Dr. Thompson went to England to explain at public meetings "the attitude of Germany in regard to Ultramontanism," for which service he was re- warded by the thanks of the German government, expressed in person by Prince Bismarck, and Dr. Thompson originated the plan of the Albany Con- gregationalist convention in 1852, and was a mana- ger of the American Congregational union and the American home missionary society. He also aided in establishing the New York " Independent." Harvard gave him the degree of D. D. in 1856, •and the University of New York that of LL. D. in 1868. He published "Memoir of Timothy Dwight " (New Haven, 1844) ; " Lectures to Young Men " (New York, 1846) : " Hints to Employers (1847) ; " Memoir of David Hale " (1850) ; " Foster •on Missions, with a Preliminary Essay " (1850) ; " Stray Meditations " (1852 ; revised ed., entitled " The Believer's Refuge," 1857) ; " The Invaluable Possession " (1856) ; " Egypt, Past and Present " •(Boston, 1856): "The Early Witnesses" (1857); "Memoir of Rev. David T. Stoddard" (New York, 1858) ; " The Christian Graces " (1859) ; " The Col- lege as a Religious Institution " (1859) ; " Love and Penalty" (1860); "Bryant Gray" (1863); "Christianity and Emancipation" (1863); "The Holy Comforter " (1866) ; " Man in Genesis and Geology" (1869); "Theology of Christ, from His Own Words" (1870); "Home Worship" (1871); " Church and State in the United States " (1874) ; "Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, for the Young" •(1875) ; " The United States as a Nation," lectures (1877); and "The Workman: his False Friends and his True Friends " (1879).

THOMPSON, Joseph Peter, A. M. E. Zion bishop, b. in Winchester, Va., 20 Dec, 1818. He acquired a common-school education, and at the age of twenty was licensed as a local preacher. In 1843 he joined the New York annual conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church, and he was ordained deacon in 1845 and elder in 1847. After serving as a missionary in Nova Scotia and holding pastorates in and near New York city, he was elected and ordained a bishop on 4 July, 1876, .in the general conference in Louisville, Ky. Bish- op Thompson organized a conference in the Baha- ma islands in 1878, and in 1882 was a delegate to the Methodist ecumenical council in London. He has studied and practised medicine successfully, having received his medical degree from Jefferson university in Philadelphia in 1858.

THOMPSON, Launt, sculptor, b. in Abbeyleix. Queen's co., Ireland, 8 Feb., 1833. At the age of fourteen he went to Albany, N. Y., and there entered the office of a professor of anatomy. While there he occupied his leisure hours with drawing, but later entered a medical college. When Eras- tus D. Palmer, the sculptor, offered to receive him as his pupil, he gladly availed him- self of the opportunity, and abandoned medicine for art. He worked in Palmer's studio for nine years, producing sev- eral portrait-busts and ideal heads of some merit, and in 1858 removed to New York city. Here, having shown a remarkable talent for medal- lion portraits, he found ample employment. He became an associate of the Academy of design in 1859, and three years later his bust, " The Trapper," secured his election as an acade-

mician. In 1868-'9 he was in

Rome, and in 1875 he went again to Italy, remain- ing until 1881, in which year he returned to New York. In 1874 he was vice-president of the Nation- al academy. Among his works are "Elaine," a bust ; " Morning Glory," a medallion ; statues of Abraham Pierson, at Yale college (1874), repre- sented in the accompanying illustration ; Napoleon I., at Milford, Pa. ; Gen. John Sedgwick, at West Point (1869) ; Winfleld Scott, at the Soldiers' home, Washington, D. C. ; Charles Morgan, in Clinton, Conn, (about 1871) ; and Ambrose E. Burnside. an equestrian statue, at Providence, R. I. (1887) ; " The Color- Bearer," at Pittsfield, Mass. ; a medallion por- trait of John A. Dix, made for the sanitary fair ; and portrait-busts of William C. Bryant, in the Metropolitan museum. New York ; James Gordon Bennett, the elder ; Robert B. Minturn ; Capt. Charles H. Marshall ; Edwin Booth as " Hamlet " ; Stephen H. Tyng (1870); and Charles L. Elliott and Samuel F. B. Morse (1871). Yale conferred on him the honorary degree of M. A. in 1874.

THOMPSON; Lewis O., clergyman, b. in Bergen, Norway, 13 March, 1839; d. in Henry, Ill., 16 July, 1887. He came with his parents in boyhood to Chicago, Ill., was graduated at Beloit in 1863, and at Union theological seminary, New York city, in 1866, and after being licensed to reach, and becoming, in 1866, a professor at orthwestern university, Watertown, Wis., he was ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian church, 28 Jan., 1869. In the spring of that year he became president of Northwestern university, and in 1875 he became pastor of a church in Peoria, 111., but in July, 1882, failing health forced him to resign. After 1886 he was in charge of a church at Henry, III., till his death by drowning. He published "The Presidents and their Administrations" (Indianapolis, Ind.. 1873); "Nothing Lost" (New York, 1876): "The Prayer-Meeting and its Improvement" (Chicago, 1878): "How to conduct Prayer-Meetings"' (Boston. 1879); and "Nineteen Christian Centuries in Outline" (Chicago, 1882) ; and left several uncompleted works.