One of the original owners of the land where the Stage Stop now sits was F.M. Thompson.
Because of the many battles between the cities of Leon and Decatur over the location of the county seat, the courthouse was destroyed by vandals several times over the years and all the original records prior to 1890 were lost. Much of what we know today about the house is based on local lore and has yet to be documented adequately to place the building on the National Historic Register. We do know that F.M. Thompson was a prominent member of the community and lived in the exact same plat of land where the house has been since the 1870s.
“F. M. THOMPSON, farmer and stock-raiser, resides on section 13, Long Creek Township, where he owns 307 acres of land. He was born in Macoupin County, Illinois, August 9, 1830, a son of Andrew and Sarah (Woodring) Thompson. His father came from Illinois to Iowa in 1854, where he remained six years, then returned to Illinois, and remained another six years, thence to Dakota for the same length of time, then again to Decatur County, and eight years later went to Harrison County, Iowa, where he still resides, at the advanced age of seventy-three years.
F. M. Thompson, when seventeen years old, was bound to a farmer in Morgan County, Illinois, remaining with said farmer until of age, and was to have two suits of clothes and $100 for his labor, also sixteen months of schooling. He received the $100, but only one suit of clothes and about twelve months of schooling, scattered through the four years, going to school in bad weather and when there was no work to do on the farm. He was married in his native State, remaining there until 1859, then came to Decatur County, Iowa, and settled near his present home. He rented land two years, and then made a purchase of some land and entered vigorously upon the work of improving the same.
When he came to Decatur County his objective point was Kansas, but running short of money he was compelled to stop here and make a crop, and doing well he concluded to remain. He was married in Marion County, Illinois, to N. L. McDaniel, daughter of Eli and Mary McDaniel, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. She was born in Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1836. The following are their children – Henry A., Francis E., William D. and John T. Mary and two infants are deceased. Henry, the eldest son, married Eliza Devare, and their children are – Thomas L., Floyd, Bessie and Harry R. John T. married Lucinda Benefield, and has one child, Loraine. The rest of the children are still single.
F. M. Thompson has held school offices and most of the other offices of the township. He enlisted in the late war, in 1864, in Company L, Third Iowa Cavalry, and served a little over one year. He was mustered out at Memphis, Tennessee. F. M. Thompson is a self-made man. He had nothing when he commenced for himself, but by hard labor and good management has accumulated a competency. Politically he is a Republican. Post office, Van Wert."
From the "Biographical and Historical Record of Ringgold and Decatur Counties, Iowa," (Lewis Publishing Company (1887), p. 644. Submitted to the Decatur County GenWeb site by Christy Jay; abbreviated from its original form.
