Thompsonville is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Jefferson County, Kansas Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. Its county seat and most populous city is Oskaloosa. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 18,368. The county was named after Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president ...

, United States.

History

It was established in 1851 by a group of

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

settlers who refused to follow the main group led by

Brigham Young Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until h ...

into the

Salt Lake Valley Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City, Utah, Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably Murray, Utah, Murray, Sandy, Uta ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. Among those settlers was Emily Trask Cutler, one of the plural wives of

Heber C. Kimball Heber Chase Kimball (June 14, 1801 – June 22, 1868) was a leader in the early Latter Day Saint movement. He served as one of the original twelve apostles in the early Church of the Latter Day Saints, and as first counselor to Brigham Young ...

, counselor to Young and daughter of John Alpheus Cutler, who founded the Cutlerite sect at

Manti, Iowa Manti, Iowa is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community in Fremont County, Iowa, Fremont County, in the U.S. state of Iowa. Manti was founded in 1852 by Alpheus Cutler and Edmund Fisher, both of whom were prominent members of ...

while en route with the main body to the Salt Lake Valley. While there is no evidence that the founding group of the settlement had doctrinal differences with the main body of the church or were affiliated with the Cutlerite church, it is possible that they were opposed to the doctrine of

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

inasmuch as Emily Cutler Kimball did not accompany the main group. It is equally likely that the group saw no need to go so far west when new frontier lands were open and available in the

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

and were actively recruiting new settlers from anti-slavery parts of the country. However, the Mormon settlement did not last. Emily Cutler Kimball died not long after the settlement was established and is buried there. Two other Mormon women died there also, and until the mid-1960s the stones were still evident. Some of the settlers moved to Utah within the next two to five years as violence from the chaos of

Bleeding Kansas Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War, was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the ...

intensified, while others may have given up their Mormon identity and blended in with the local populace. The community was renamed Thompsonville in 1865 by C. L. Thompson, who erected a mill on the site of the old Mormon settlement of 1851. A

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

was established in 1878 with C. T. Tolles as postmaster.

Geography

The community is located on the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

, about 11 miles (17½ km) southwest of Oskaloosa, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, and 3 miles (5 km) northwest of

Perry Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England (particularly Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire), parts of South Wales, France (especially Normandy and Anjou), Canada, Austral ...

. It occupies a tiny portion of Section 8 of Kentucky Township (T11S R18E).

References

External links

* Jefferson County maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT {{Coord, 39, 06, 20, N, 95, 26, 01, W, type:city_region:US-KS_source:GNIS-enwiki, display=title Unincorporated communities in Kansas Unincorporated communities in Jefferson County, Kansas Topeka metropolitan area, Kansas Populated places established in 1851 1851 establishments in Indian Territory

History

Geography

See also

References

Further reading

External links