HON. WILLIAM L. THOMPSON. This gentleman affords in his life and its success another evidence that industry, economy and integrity constitute the keynote to honorable competency. His walk through life has been characterized by the strictest probity and he has at all times manifested exceptional business ability and foresight. Popular, efficient and faithful would be the verdict passed upon the character and the official standing of Mr. Thompson by any good citizen of Cleburne County of whom the question might be asked, and that he is deserving of these titles is well known. He is a native of the State in which he now lives, his birth having occurred in Arkansas County August 1, 1861, and is a son of Rev. Zachariah and Abigail (Freeman) Thompson, who were born in Louisiana, New Orleans being the mother’s birth-place. The father was a traveling Methodist Episcopal minister, a member of the Little Rock Conference, and became a presiding elder. He died at De Witt, Arkansas, in 1867, at the age of forty-seven years, and the mother died in 1888 when about fifty-seven years of age. After the death of Rev. Thompson she married Rev. R. H. Sanders, also a Methodist minister.
William L. Thompson was fifteen years of age at the time he left his native county, and for some time thereafter he clerked in a store and worked on a farm in Clark County, and from 1879 to 1882 was in a saw mill at Dobyville. He then located in Quitman, Cleburne County, and for some time after kept the books for Skillem & Co., and when the county of Cleburne was organized he became deputy clerk under Col. T. J. Andrews, and for three years was elected clerk of the county, a position for which his abilities eminently fitted him. Two years later he became a member of the real estate firm of Moore, Case & Thompson, and with these gentlemen did a great deal to build up, improve and make Cleburne the magnificent agricultural region and flourishing county that it now is. Mr. Thompson has given time, influence and money to the good of his section, has identified himself with every interest of the county and is one of the most substantial and highly honored of her citizens. He is the owner of 1,300 acres of mineral and timber land, the result of good management and enterprise, and has ever shown himself to be up with the times, wide-awake and pushing. In 1888 he was married to Miss Lutie Audigier, a daughter of Emile Audigier, by whom he has three sons. Mr. Thompson is a stanch Democrat in politics and has ever labored for the good of his party, although he has never been an aspirant for public office. He is a citizen of whom the county has every reason to be proud, and has left an impress on his section that will long be felt.
