John Edwin Thompson (1850–1929)

John Edwin Thompson was born in St. Louis, Missouri on 15 November 1850, son of Almon B. Thompson and Emma (Lewis) Thompson, who were married 5 October 1843 in St. Louis. He had a sibling named Almon Benoni Thompson.

John had an extensive career in banking and financial management, beginning as a cashier at the St. Nicholas Hotel in St. Louis. He later worked at Valley National Bank and the National Bank of Commerce, both in St. Louis. Because of John’s occupation as a financial agent, he and his wife Fannie traveled extensively, particularly to Sweden and Russia.

John married Frances “Fannie” Howell Marston on 2 October 1876 at the U.S. Indian Agency in Muscogee, Indian Territory, at a ceremony officiated by the bride’s father. Fannie was born 21 May 1854 in Middleboro, Massachusetts, daughter of Reverend Sylvester Witt Marston, D.D. and Susan Hodsdon Carpenter. John and Fannie did not have any children.

Fannie’s parents were married on 12 January 1848 in Medway, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. They were the parents of at least six children: Nellie Ann, Frances “Fannie,” Ella Sue, Freddie E., Edgar Lewis, and Albert Benjamin Marston. Rev. Marston’s obituary states that in 1876, President Grant appointed him as U.S. agent for the 57,000 civilized Indians in the Indian Territory.

John Edwin Thompson died on 21 March 1929 in St. Louis, at the age of seventy-eight. His wife Fannie died on 10 July 1933 at the age of seventy-nine. Both John and Fannie are buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

For more information see the St. Louis Genealogical Society Quarterly, Spring 2023, Volume 56, No.1.

Written by Shirley Wadell
January 2025

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