Luther Thompson
who in his time was one of the prominent lawyers of the county, was born December 10, 1848, In Oliver Township, the only son and child of Archibald and Sarah Ann (McKenzie) Thompson. He was reared in the county. His education was in the public schools of the county and at the Lebanon Normal School. As a boy, he was serious, conscientious and exemplary. He was strictly truthful and was never known to use a profane or vulgar word. His moral character as boy and man was perfect. He was ambitious and studious and always honest and conscientious. He began the study of law with the Hon. F. D. Bayless, in 1869, and continued it while engaged in teaching until April 24, 1873, when he was admitted to the bar and began practice at West Union. It has been a custom in West Union to have a lawyer, young or old, as justice of the peace, and in 1874, Mr. Thompson was elected as such and served two terms.
On January 5, 1876, he was married to Miss Jennie Smith, daughter of the Hon. John M. Smith. They had six children, but only two survive—Charles L., born October 22, 1877, and Matilda, born April 1, 1883.
He was, at one time, a school examiner for the county. He had no ambitions for political honors, but an intense ambition to succeed as a lawyer. In his profession, he was thorough in all he did. never tired in his legal work. He had a love for his profession and delighted in the performance of its duties. He had in his work that most essential element of success, enthusiasm. The elements of his character held for him the confidence of all who knew him. His attainments and his conscientious discharge of his professional duties gave him the respect of the court and his fellow lawyers, and secured him the devotion of his clients.
From 1879 to 1881, he was in partnership with the late George C. Evans, under the firm name of Thompson and Evans. From 1882, until his death, he was in partnership with his father-in-law, Hon. John M. Smith under the firm name of Thompson & Smith.
He was only thirteen years at the bar, but in that time he demonstrated that had he been permitted to live, he would have made a noble success in his profession, but consumption had marked him as its own, and at thirty-eight years, when the world is brighest and fairest, he was called away. For nine years he had been a member of the Presbyterian Church and lived up to his religious profession. Politically, he was reared a Democrat and adhered to that party, but never was a partisan and had as many friends in the other party as in his own. In the testimonial the lawyers gave him, they said he was a good citizen, an able lawyer and an honest man.
What greater tribute could he have earned or could have been given him than this? All that is grand or good, all that is valuable is character, and Luther Thompson left the memory of one, which his widow, his children and his friends will be proud, and which will be a beacon light to those who come after.
One of the editors of this work, Mr. Evans, knew Luther Thompson well. He respected him for his high personal standard of life, for his attainments and his work as a lawyer. He knew from his own lips how bitter it was to him to turn his back on the world and face death at the early age of thirty-eight, and he knows how bravely and well, how like a philosopher and a Christian, he met the inevitable and submitted to it. No truer man, no more honorable and noble in his life ever lived, and the passing of one so endowed, but illustrates that irony of fate which takes those best qualified to live.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900