William Thompson (Iowa)

William Thompson ( born November 10, 1813 Fayette County, Pennsylvania, † October 6, 1897 in Tacoma, Washington ) was an American politician. Between 1847 and 1850 he represented the state of Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

William Thompson attended the public schools of his home. He later moved to Mount Pleasant in the Iowa Territory. He became a member of the Democratic Party and sat in 1843 as a deputy in the territorial House of Representatives. In 1846 he was secretary of the Constituent Assembly of Iowa.

In the congressional elections of 1846 Thompson was the first electoral district of Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Serranus Clinton Hastings on March 4, 1847. He was able to complete a term in Congress until March 3, 1849. In his re-election in 1848, he could beat his rival candidate Daniel F. Miller of the Whig party and begin his second term in Congress on March 4, 1849. In the elections, it was irregularities occurred, which is why Miller contested the election contradiction. On 29 June 1850, the seat was declared vacant and advertised special elections, which then won Miller. Between March 1849 and June 1850 Thompson was chairman of the committee responsible for supervising the expenditure of the Post Ministry.

In the following years William Thompson published the newspaper " Iowa Gazette". In 1861 he became chief clerk in the House of Representatives from Iowa. During the Civil War Thompson rose in the army of the Union to brevet brigadier general. After the war he was a captain in the U.S. Army and served in the Seventh Cavalry until 15 December 1875. Few months later his unit was wiped out by General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

After his military service, William Thompson moved to Tacoma in Washington State. He is also passed in 1897.