The Thompson Brothers Boat Manufacturing Company of

Peshtigo, Wisconsin Peshtigo ( ) is a city in Marinette County, Wisconsin, Marinette County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,420 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census The city is surrounded by the Peshtigo (town), Wisconsin, Town of Peshtigo ...

was a manufacturer of

pleasure boat Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, su ...

s and

canoe A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the term ...

s. Founded by brothers Peter and Christ Thompson in 1904, the company became prominent in the field and built boats for nearly one hundred years. The Thompson Antique & Classic Boat Rally celebrates the company's history with a boat show every other year and in 2013 the Thompson Brothers canoe was celebrated at the Annual Assembly of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association.Scroll to poster at
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History

Early years

The Thompson family came from

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and settled at

Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...

. About 1899 they moved to undeveloped farmland near Peshtigo. The Thompson Brothers firm started operations at Peshtigo in the early months of 1904. Peter and Christian (Christ) Thompson, the elder brothers of a large family, made their first wooden boat in the

hayloft A hayloft is a space above a barn, stable or cow-shed, traditionally used for storage of hay or other fodder for the animals below. Haylofts were used mainly before the widespread use of very large hay bales, which allow simpler handling of bulk ...

of the family barn in early 1904. Local lumber was used, harvested in along the banks of the

Peshtigo River The Peshtigo River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed December 19, 2011 tributary of Green Bay in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Peshtigo Fire happened in the river ...

. The first product was a modified lapstrake canoe, dubbed the "Anti-Leak" canoe by the brothers. Thompson deck with nameplate

Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. was incorporated in 1912. By that time, six Thompson brothers were involved: Peter, Christ, Edward, Theodore, Adolh (Tom), and Richard. Their sister Hanna (Johanna) was

office manager Office management is a profession involving the design, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of the process of work within an office or other organization, in order to sustain and improve efficiency and productivity. Office management i ...

. A new

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

complex was built within the city limits of Peshtigo in 1912 and the operation was moved from the cramped quarters at the Thompson farm, a few miles north of town. Thompson soon became the largest builder of outboard boats in the world and in 1924 a branch factory was secured in

Cortland, New York Cortland is a city and the county seat of Cortland County, New York. Known as the Crown City, Cortland is in New York's Southern Tier region. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 17,556. The city of Cortland, near the county's western ...

.Rhude, Andreas Jordahl. "The Thompsons and Their Boats". ''Classic Boating'', September/October 1999, pp. 10–15.Rhude, Andreas Jordahl. "Thompsons and Their Boats". ''Marinette County Historian'', Fall 2004, pp. 1–5. Thompson hiawatha deck

Middle years

In 1953 second generation Thompson family men (Ray, Glenn, Roy, Grant, Bob, and Ted, Jr.) started Cruisers, Inc., a builder of wooden lapstrake boats at

Oconto, Wisconsin Oconto is a city in Oconto County, Wisconsin, Oconto County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,609 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is part of the Green Bay, Wisconsin, Green Bay Green Bay metropolitan area, Metropol ...

. Cruisers was formed with the full knowledge, encouragement, and cooperation of the elder Thompson men and Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. In fact, for the first year of operation, Cruisers, Inc. made boats for Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. which were badged with the "Thompson" logo. By the mid 1950s Thompson Bros. Boat switched from primarily making cedar strip built hulls to

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

lapstrake boats. The greater

horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

outboard motors were better suited to the very strong yet lightweight lapstrake hulls. Effective 1 January 1959 the three boat operations owned by the Thompson family at Peshtigo, Cortland, and Oconto were split amongst family branches. Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo became property of Ray Thompson and family. The former branch at Cortland, New York became Thompson Boat Company of New York, Inc. with ownership in the hands of brothers Bob and Ted Thompson, Jr. and their cousin Glenn Thompson. Brothers Roy and G.Grant Thompson gained sole ownership of Cruisers at Oconto. All three firms made wooden lapstrake outboard boats. In 1960 Glenn Thompson decided to return to

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and venture out on his own. He established T & T Boats, Inc. and a factory was built in Wausaukee, Wisconsin. T & T also made wooden lapstrake outboard and

inboard An inboard motor is a marine propulsion system for boats. As opposed to an outboard motor where an engine is mounted outside the hull of the craft, an ''inboard motor'' is an engine enclosed within the hull of the boat, usually connected to a pr ...

/outboard boats. It lasted until a

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...

auction signaled the firm's end in May 1965. Thompson Bros. Boat at Peshtigo was one of the earliest

boatbuilder Boat building is the design and construction of boats and their systems. This includes at a minimum a hull, with propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other systems as a craft requires. Construction materials and methods Wood W ...

s to embrace the new inboard/outboard propulsion unit that was introduced to the

boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether Motorboat, powerboats, Sailing, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sp ...

public at the New York Boat Show in early 1959.

Volvo Penta Volvo Penta was founded as Penta in 1907 with the production of its first marine engine, the B1. The Penta company soon became an established internal combustion engine manufacturer, which in 1927 delivered the engine for Volvo's first passenge ...

of Sweden was the first to make a practical inboard/outboard engine and

outdrive A sterndrive or inboard/outboard drive (I/O) is a form of marine propulsion which combines inboard power with outboard drive. The engine sits just forward of the transom while the drive unit (outdrive or drive leg) lies outside the hull. Oper ...

. By the summer of 1959 Thompson was installing these in their 17-ft. Sea Lancer and 19-ft. Off-Shore models as options. The transition from

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

at all the Thompson operated boat firms was difficult. The family resisted the switch and felt that any high quality wooden boat could out perform, outlast, and outsell fiberglass; however, the 1960s consumer shied away from wood and purchased fiberglass or

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

pleasure boats, and sales plummeted.

Twilight years

Thompson Boat Company of New York, Inc. of Cortland, New York was purchased by

Chris-Craft Industries Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly held American corporation that was traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. In 1962, the company adopted the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris ...

in January 1962 and it became a wholly owned subsidiary. An immediate program of fiberglass boat development began. This initiative created the Corsair fiberglass division of Chris-Craft. The Corsair boats were made by Thompson Boat Company of New York in Cortland. In late 1964 Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo, Wisconsin subcontracted with Crownline, Inc. of

Cairo, Illinois Cairo ( ) is the southernmost city in Illinois and the county seat of Alexander County. The city is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Fort Defiance, a Civil War camp, was built here in 1862 by Union General Ulysses ...

to have the latter make fiberglass boats for them. This was a low cost means for Thompson to get an abbreviated line of fiberglass boats to supplement their wooden boat line. The arrangement did not last long as Crownline was having major financial difficulties. When Crownline closed down, Peter Thompson - the grandson of the original Peter Thompson - and another team member went to Cairo and retrieved the Thompson molds and tooling. It was too little and too late. The Thompson

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...

s in 1966 forced the sale of the company and Saul Padek got control of all the stock for less than $4,000 cash layout. The Thompson family was out of the boat business at Peshtigo. Under Padek's ownership Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. declared chapter 11

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

in September 1966. Padek began the slow painful switch from wood to fiberglass and by 1969 the last wooden boat rolled out of the plant at Peshtigo. Cruisers, Inc. also resisted the change from wood to RFP. Grant Thompson researched markets, production methods, designs, and costs. Slowly they began making some fiberglass products. The relationships they had made with other boat makers over the years paid off. Cruisers, Inc. was able to get licensing deals with other entrenched fiberglass builders. This helped ease them from wood to glass. By 1967 they had dropped all wooden boats from their

product line Product may refer to: Business * Product (business), an item that serves as a solution to a specific consumer problem. * Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution Mathematics * Produ ...

. The financial loss was significant. The company went from one of the most successful in the industry to just barely hanging on in a matter of a few years. The rebuilding took many years. Today, this is the only Thompson originated boat firm that still operates. It is called Cruisers Yachts and is a division of KCS International. T & T Boats of Wausaukee never made fiberglass boats. A liquidation auction in May 1965 signaled their demise. Chris-Craft closed the Cortland plant in 1974 which had been a Thompson operation. Thompson Boat at Peshtigo went bankrupt and closed in 1980. A Thompson dealer in the

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

area bought the assets from the bankruptcy court and the entire operation was moved from Peshtigo to

St. Charles, Michigan St. Charles is a village in Saginaw County, Michigan, Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The village is located in the northwest corner of St. Charles Township, Michigan, St. Charles Township with portions of the village located within B ...

that year. 76 years of boat building tradition at Peshtigo came to an end. The revitalized Thompson Boat at St. Charles slowly rebuilt, but bankruptcy was declared in 1993. A new owner came in and got the firm going again. By about 1997 regular production ceased and all boat production stopped by 2000 or 2001. A liquidation auction in 2002 signaled the end of almost 100 years of boat building history. The 2013 Assembly of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association featured Thompson Brothers canoes.

Thompson canoe models

*Indian: Standard Thompson model, without half ribs. *Hiawatha: Built on the same mold as the Indian Model; has half ribs with ends covered by a stringer. *Ranger: This model has a very flat sheer.Miller, Daniel, Dragonfly Canoe Works: Discovering the History of Wooden Canoes, Thompson Brothers (citation applies to all Thompson models).

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Thompson boats

Thompson marketed boats of types that reflected the evolving desires of consumers: skiffs, duck boats, a variety of fishing boats, racing boats, sailboats, various boats for the military during World War II, and small cruisers. Their signature boat was the lapstrake lake runabout of the 1950s and 60's.''The Thompson Dockside''
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References

{{reflist

External links

The Thompson Dockside
Thompson Antique and Classic Boat Rally Inc. *Video documenting the 2013 Assembly of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association, which featured the Thompson Brothers canoe

American boat builders Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1912 Companies disestablished in 2002 1912 establishments in Wisconsin Marinette County, Wisconsin Defunct manufacturing companies based in Wisconsin Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York (state)