Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

third, and subsequently second assistant
physician, until December, 1891, when, in
pursuance of a plan to enter upon the
general practice of medicine he resigned
this position to return to the Brattleboro
Retreat. The death of Dr. Joseph Draper,
superintendent of the Retreat, led to
changes in the staff and Dr. Thompson's
promotion to the assistant superintendency
in July, 1892. He resigned this
position in October, 1904, to accept one
of a similar nature at the Hartford Re-
treat, an institution for the insane estab-
lished by the Connecticut State Medical
Society in 1824, and in April of the following
year, on the retirement of Dr. Henry
P. Stearns, was appointed to the super-
intendency, and has since held that position.
Dr. Thompson lectures on Nervous
and Mental Diseases at the Hartford Seminary
Foundation, and has written and
published articles pertaining to psychia-
try. He is a member of the City, County,
and State Medical societies, of the American
Medical Association, the American
Medico-Psychological Association, and of
the New England Society for the Study
of Psychiatry. In 1913 Dr. Thompson
was elected to the Board of Fellows of
Bates College. He is a member of the
Brattleboro Lodge, Free and Accepted
Masons. In politics he is a Republican,
but takes no part in public affairs. He
is a member of the Twentieth Century
Club and of other Hartford clubs.
Dr. Thompson married, September 14,
1893, Dr. Ida M. Shimer, a daughter of
Dr. Jacob S. Shimer, a well known and
successful physician of Philadelphia and
a native of Shimerville, Pennsylvania,
where his grandfather had received an
original grant of land. They are the parents
of three children, as follows : Marga-
ret Shimer, Irene Shimer and Whitefield
Shimer, deceased. Dr. Thompson and
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
47
his family are all members of the Central
Congregational Church of Hartford.
Sarah Lancaster (Whitney) Thompson,
the wife of William Nelson Thompson,
and grandmother of Nelson Whitefield
Thompson, was a descendant of Francis
Whitmore, who was born in England
in 1625, and died at Cambridge, Massachusetts,
October 12, 1685. He was
the owner of large properties and
lands at Cambridge and several of the
nearby towns ; served in King Philip's
War, and was selectman and constable in
1668 and 1682. His will contained a pro-
vision for the education of his children.
He married, about 1648, Isabel Parke,
daughter of Richard and Margery (Crane)
Parke, who died March 31, 1665.
Their son, John Whitmore, born at
Cambridge, Massachusetts. October T,
1654, died at Medford, Massachusetts,
February 22, 1739. Like his father, he
served in the Indian War of the time and
took part in the campaign at Saco, Maine,
under Major Swayne, who was a deacon
of the First Parish Church of Medford
and the town treasurer. John Whitmore
married, in 1677, Rachel (Eliot) Poulter,
widow of John Poulter and daughter of
Francis and Mary (Saunders) Eliot, born
October 25, 1643, in Braintree, Massachu-
setts, died ?vfarch 20, 1723. She was a
niece of John Eliot, the Indian Apostle.
John Whitmore, son of John and Rachel
Whitmore, was born August 27, 1683, in
Medford, and died at Billerica, March 26,
1753. In early life he was a housewright,
but later engaged in business with his
brother Francis, was a large slave owner,
also possessed much property in land,
and was active and liberal in church and
town affairs. The church record of that
time mentions him with much gratitude
on account of his benefactions. He was
one of those who gave to the separation