• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • The Latest
  • Families
  • Archives
  • Contact

Thompson Family History

Telling the story straight, no matter how painful or unsavory.

By Boyce Thompson

Deathbed Letters: Coming to Blows

Dear Bill:

My father, after serving in the legislature and helping write the Constitution of Montana, was elected Mayor of Butte. That meant I was free to run around the City hall where I met an “expug” who was City Jailer. He taught me to punch bag and the manly art of self-defense.

I was going to school and one afternoon I was misbehaving and the teacher pulled me out of my seat and for some ungodly reason set down on me. A girl across the aisle motioned for me to pinch her. I did. I was in the wrong and sorry. I made my apologies before the class before being asked to.

Nothing I could say made any difference. She took me to the principal. He went for a raw hide whip. I told him not to hit me. He raised the whip, I raised my fist. My blow hit first on the point of the chin. He hit the floor.

I sat down at his desk and wrote out my resignation on my last day at public school. He was after years my lawyer.

Dad

Editor’s Note: The proceeding slightly edited story, written by J.E. Thompson (1875-1950), was taken from a collection of letters, the so-called “Deathbed Letters,” written to his son, William Boner Thompson, shortly before J.E.’s death.

Filed Under: Deathbed Letters, Families, Thompson Tagged With: J.E. Thompson, William Boner Thompson, William Boyce Thompson

Primary Sidebar

Families

  • Thompson
    (80)
  • Kruttschnitt
    (30)
  • Boyce
    (14)
  • Simmers
    (11)
  • Benjamin
    (10)
  • Gingras
    (7)
  • Boner
    (6)
  • Pickering
    (6)
  • Ough
    (5)
  • Maguire
    (5)
  • Wright
    (5)
  • Clark
    (4)
  • Biddle
    (4)
  • McCullen
    (4)
  • Woodhouse
    (3)
  • Wigmore
    (3)
  • de Mendes
    (3)
  • Kock
    (3)
  • Libby
    (2)
  • Cunningham
    (2)
  • Wilson
    (1)
  • Williams
    (1)
  • Mercier
    (1)
  • Hohenlohe
    (1)
  • Filor
    (1)
  • Herman
    (1)
  • Kithcart
    (1)
  • St. Martin
    (1)
  • Hickman
    (1)

Latest from Boyce

Greer Historian Preserved Relic from J.E. Thompson Lodge

10:55 am 27 Apr 2023

The Unexciting Truth About William Boyce Thompson’s Picket Post Mansion

4:14 pm 24 Apr 2023

Philip Benjamin: Portrait of a Small-Time Con

11:27 am 03 Apr 2023

Explore the History

Benjamin Biddle Boner Boyce Clark Cunningham Deathbed Letters de Mendes Doty Families Fiction Filor Folklore Gingras Herman Hickman Hohenlohe Kithcart Kock Kruttschnitt Libby Maguire McCullen Mercier Miscellaneous Murray Ough Pickering Simmers St. Martin Thompson Wigmore Williams Wilson Woodhouse Wright

Popular

  • Rancho Joaquina Needed a Facelift Before It Could be Shown to the Public
  • Hatevil Nutter Was A Cruel Religious Hypocrite
  • Judah P. Benjamin’s Homes Largely Forgotten In New Orleans
  • Old Letter Is Probably Fake, But Still Makes Good Reading
  • Bernard Kock Colonized Cow Island With Freed Slaves

Get in Touch

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Copyright © 2023 · Thompson Family History · Boyce Thompson Media, LLC