THOMPSON, WILL HENRY: 1846-1918.
Will Henry Thompson , brother of Maurice and son of the Rev. Grigg and Diantha Jaeggar Thompson, was born in Missouri , on March 10, 1846. (The year 1848 is sometimes given.) He was educated by private tutors, at Calhoun Academy, and at Georgia Military Institute. (See also, sketch of James Maurice Thompson for details of early life.)
During the Civil War he served in the Fourth Georgia Infantry of the Confederate Army, taking part in the campaigns of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor , and Petersburg .
In 1868, with his brother Maurice, he came to Crawfordsville, Ind., and from 1868 to 1871 was employed as a civil engineer occupied with building railroads in western Indiana . In 1871 he was admitted to the bar and opened a law office in partnership with his brother which continued until he removed to Seattle in 1889. From 1896 to 1904 he served as western attorney for the Great Northern Railway System.
Will Henry Thompson and Maurice Thompson were responsible, through their writings, for creating a nation-wide interest in the sport of archery. Both had hunted with the bow during plantation days in the South. Will Henry Thompson was champion page: 321[View Page 321] archer of America in 1879, 1884, 1888, 1901, and 1908.
He married Ida Lee of Crawfordsville, Ind., on June 11, 1874. In addition to his books, Thompson contributed to CENTURY MAGAZINE. He is best known for his poem, "High Tide at Gettysburg."
He died in 1918.
Information from Who's Who in America and Burke and Howe–American Authors and Books, 1640-1940.
- The Witchery of Archery–A Complete Manual of
Archery with Many Chapters of Adventure by Field and Flood, Etc. (withMaurice Thompson). New York, 1878.
- How to Train in Archery: Being a Complete Study of the York
Round (withMaurice Thompson). New York, 1879.
