David Thompson was born on November 8, 1834 in Cadiz, Ohio. His parents, Joseph Thompson and Betsey Thompson, were of Irish and Scottish descent. Early in his life he was an apprentice blacksmith and later a surveyor for railroad lines. In 1853 at the age of 19, Thompson moved to the Oregon Territory while herding sheep across the Oregon Trail for Colonel R. R. Thompson.
Oregon
In Oregon, he helped build the a railroad around Willamette Falls near Oregon City, which was the first railroad in Oregon. He was then appointed as a deputy surveyor for the United States to survey public lands in both the Oregon and Washington territories, serving until 1863. With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 Thompson enlisted in the United States Army where he rose to the rank of captain in the First Oregon Cavalry. Due to the distance between engagements in the east and Oregon, the unit never saw action in the war. Later Thompson engaged in various business interests including mining, railroads, banking, and manufacturing.
Politics
In 1868, Thompson served in the Oregon State Senate representing district 3 and Clackamas County as a Republican. At the next session in 1870 he served as a Democrat representing district 16 and Multnomah County. In 1874, he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as the governor of Idaho Territory, beginning service in 1875. While governor Thompson oversaw several mail contracts, he maintained his residence in Oregon and made only brief trips to Idaho Territory. He resigned the post, at Grant's request, in the summer of 1876. In 1878, he returned to the Oregon Legislature as a Republican representing Multnomah County. He was elected Mayor of Portland on June 16, 1879, and reelected June 20, 1881, serving until 1882. In 1884, Thompson was a presidential elector for the Republican Party and Rutherford B. Hayes. After an absence from that body he was elected again and served there in 1889. In 1890 he was the Republican nominee for Oregon Governor, but lost the election. Then in 1892 President Benjamin Harrison appointed Thompson as United States minister to the Ottoman Empire where he served until resigning in 1893.
Family and later life
In 1861, Thompson married Mary R. Meldrum with whom he would father three children: Bessie, Genevieve, and Ralph. Thompson served as a regent to the University of Oregon and as president of the Oregon Humane Society. In 1891, the Portland Public Library was founded, with Thompson serving as its first president. He donated a fountain to the city of Portland that is downtown, and after his death his family donated a statue by the sculptor Herman A. MacNeil named Coming of the White Man that stands in Washington Park. The fountain, called Elk, is located in the middle of Main Street in the Plaza Blocks downtown, designed by sculptor Roland Hinton Perry. On July 2nd, 2020, Elk was removed from its location after the granite base was set on fire amid ongoing George Floyd Protests. The Bronze statue itself was undamaged. Additionally Thompson Park in Northeast Portland is named in his honor. David P. Thompson died December 14, 1901, in Portland, and his cremated remains were interred at River View Cemetery.
