A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

Chapter 31Great Families, Great HomesThe story of Laura Gamble Thomson begins with the renowned Clark family of Kentucky. John andAnn Rogers Clark had eight children, Jonathan being the eldest and Elizabeth (1768-1795) the youngest.Elizabeth married Colonel Richard Clough Anderson (1750-1826) in 1783. Their eldest daughter, Ann(1790-1863) married Mr. John Logan (1785-1826) and had the following: John, Richard A., Robert W.,Elizabeth Clark, Larry, Charles, Isaac, Catherine Mary and Sarah Jane (1822-1905) who married JamesMcFarlane Gamble (1811-1868) of Louisville. Of their large family, it was Laura who married PeterGibson Thomson of Cincinnati. One of Laura’s sisters, Catherine Mary (1851-1931) married JosephRogers of Chicago. One of their children, James Gamble Rogers, became a noted architect. CatherineMary was the granddaughter of Gen. Benjamin Logan, who was a close friend and companion of DanielBoone.The first of this Thomson family, Peter, came from the area around Paisley, Scotland to New York in1825. A letter which Peter wrote Jan. 1, 1826 recounted his voyage and first year in America: “...I willgive an account of my passage to New York. We sailed from Greenock the 12th of November. We wasdrove into Rose Bay and lay there three days. There was a brig bound to Dumerara that parted both hercables and ran afoul of our ship in a snow storm on the Sunday morning after I left you. When daylightcame in, we got the brig parted from the ship and in clear. On our chain cables one of the sailors got hisleg taken off at the ankle. It was hanging to a piece of skin and he says, `Damn you, has none of you got ajack knife to cut this piece of skin?’ His leg was taken from him and he was sent back to Greenock.We sailed on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday afternoon we was drove on to Lanach Bay and laythere seven days. It stormed awful while we lay there. Sailed again on the 22nd of November and wecleared the coast of Scotland the next day. We had very stormy weather. All the month of December wehad very cold weather and 12th December we had one of the awfullest storms I ever saw in my life. In theafternoon about 4 o’clock when the sailors was reefing the foretop sail, two of the sailors was swept fromthe yard and one of them we never saw more.On the 22nd of December our ship took a buck and went down stern foremost. This was about 4o’clock in the morning. I was on deck at the time with nothing but my shirt on, helping the sailors, and itwas blowing and snowing. I was almost froze to death. The ship righted and we got into New York on the29th of December. That was a passage of seven weeks.I have a very happy New Year in New York. I went to a ball and fell in with an old lass of mine whowas glad to see me and we made a match of it in a few days. I was married on the 6th of January. Therewas no time for trifling...Her name is Rhoda Johnson. She had a fine son the 1st of November and hisname is Alexander...We had on Christmas a whole ox roasted, and the New Year the same for the noveltyof it...” The family came to Cincinnati via flatboat from Pittsburgh about ten years after entering thecountry.Alexander married Mary Ann Edwards whose family migrated to America from Wales when shewas three. They came to Pittsburgh by sled through the snow covered mountains and then to Cincinnatiby stage coach.Due to an accident which killed his infant brother Alexander, Peter G. was the only surviving son.His father and grandfather died within a year of each other, forcing 14 year old Peter to go to work andsupport his mother and two sisters. In 1868 he purchased a $50 membership in the Bryant, Stratford &Co. Business College. The school offered bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic, commercial law andpractical penmanship. He wasn’t robust and joined a gym conducted by Samuel Barrett, a professionalboxer. This later became the Cincinnati Athletic Club. At the time of his death, he was the oldest memberof this club. He credited his health and energy to the gym, and he neither smoked nor drank.His first recorded job was in 1871 as a shipping clerk for Robert Clark Company, a bookstore indowntown Cincinnati. Within six years he borrowed money and opened his own store and publishingbusiness on Vine Street. He worked from the store’s opening at 7 A.M. to its closing at 10 P.M. He keptthis schedule for 5 years, without taking any time off.204