newspaperman, politician, author, b. Pittsburgh, Pa. He moved with his parents to Ohio in 1824, and attended the Western Reserve normal school at Kirtland, Ohio. In 1848 he moved to Wisconsin, settling on a farm near Hartford, Washington County. A Republican, Thomson began his newspaper career as co-editor (1859-1860) of the Milwaukee Wisconsin Free Democrat, an abolitionist newspaper, and from 1860 to 1864 issued the weekly Hartford Home League, a farmer's protest paper. He was sergeant-at-arms of the state assembly (1863-1864) and in 1864 Thomson moved to Janesville, where from 1864 to 1870 he was co-editor of the Janesville Gazette. At first an avid supporter of Matthew Hale Carpenter (q.v.), Thomson managed his campaign for the U.S. Senatorship in 1868-1869, and as state assemblyman and speaker of the assembly (1868-1869) helped secure Carpenter's election to the U.S. Senate in the state legislative balloting of 1869. As a result, Thomson was awarded the editorship of the Milwaukee Sentinel, at that time one of the most powerful Republican newspapers in the state. Thomson edited this paper from 1870 to 1873, when he was removed from the editorship, partly at the insistence of Senator Carpenter. In 1875, Thomson turned against Carpenter, and with the aid of James R. Doolittle (q.v.) and others, organized a party bolt in the legislature which eventually with the aid of a Democratic coalition secured the election to the U.S. Senate of Angus Cameron (q.v.) in the balloting of February, 1875. Although he continued active in newspaper work for several years, Thomson eventually turned to wheat farming, and from 1882 to 1892 lived in North Dakota. In 1892 he returned to Wisconsin, spending his last years in retirement. He was the author of Political History of Wisconsin, published posthumously. A. M. Thomson, Political Hist. of Wis. (Milwaukee, 1900); E. B. Thompson, M. H. Carpenter (Madison, 1954); Milwaukee Sentinel, June 10, 1898.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
