Cyrus Thompson was the only member this family who was not married at the time of his
death. The 1880 Galveston County, Texas census lists him as divorced.
Born in Cadiz on June 20, 1819, in 1836 and 1837 Cyrus lived in St. Louis, where he
probably received his merchant's education. He lived in New Orleans from 1839 until the
outbreak of the Civil War. He spent three and one-half years in the Confederate army, after which
he returned to New Orleans; his New Orleans commission house was called Thompson and
Redwood.
In August, 1865, Cyrus and his nephew Alexander Baker Thompson began an ill-fated
commission business in Galveston. The principal reason for its failure was Alexander's death,
which occurred in 1867 during a yellow fever epidemic. The business continued for a few more
years under the name Atkinson and Thompson, after which Cyrus went to work for Wallis, Landes
and Company, a wholesale grocery firm in Galveston. The company began buying and selling
cotton when Cyrus started his employment there. Wallis, Landes and Company was extremely
successful: its net worth in 1905 exceeded one million dollars. One of the firm's partners, Henry
A. Landes, was Cyrus' nephew and a two-term Galveston mayor.
Wallis, Landes and Company was probably Cyrus' last full-time employer. He remained
active in retirement, however, despite his advanced age. In one of his letters to the Kentucky
Telephone, he mentioned that he had recently returned to his residence in Creedmoor, Texas, after
having assisted his ailing nephew James Edward Thompson, Jr. with his merchant business in
Kenney, Texas.
Cyrus lived in a number of large southern cities and was well-traveled. In a letter to the
Kentucky Telephone, he alluded to a pre-Civil War trip to London, England, which he called "the
greatest city of the world." In another letter, he talked about a position he had applied for in
Liverpool. His activities in St. Louis, New Orleans, and Galveston have already been mentioned.
Cadiz newspapers frequently commented on his visits to Kentucky, the last of which occurred in
July, 1903, when he was eighty-four years old. On that occasion the Cadiz Record described him
as "one of the most active men for his age we ever saw-- although he protests very much against
being called an old man-- and doesn't think anything of walking eight and ten miles in an
afternoon."
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Cyrus' historical and genealogical letters, many of which are excerpted in this publication,
were the product of a man with a remarkable memory and above-average powers of description.
Soon after becoming an octogenarian, he wrote the following, personal observations regarding his
past, his current activities, and his outlook on the future:
.
I draw upon memory for much of my pleasure. I look backward along the vista of
time and see and think of so many things that contributed to my pleasure, and of how
blessed I have been by the Lord granting me health and prolonging my life until now I am
an octogenarian. I have had troubles, trials, and disappointments, but there are very few
men who have had more pleasures, and I am not looking gloomily into the future, for I
believe there are yet pleasures in store for me; at least, the world is so attractive and life so
desirable that I am not able to appropriate and make applicable to myself that beautiful
stanza which runs thus:
.
I would not live always, I ask not to stay
Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way;
The few lurid mornings that dawn on us here
Are enough for life's woes, full enough for its cheer.
.
Cyrus Thompson's obituary was published in the Cadiz Record:
.
Mr. Cyrus Thompson, a native of this county who moved to Texas many years ago,
died last Wednesday at his home in Lockhart, Texas of the infirmities of age. Mr.
Thompson was an uncle of Messrs. M. S. and R. B. Thompson, of this place, and was in
his eighty-sixth year.
He was the first white child born in Cadiz, which he always referred to with pride.
Besides many relatives he had a host of old friends and acquaintances in this county who
will learn of his death with much sadness.
Mr. Thompson will also be remembered by many of our readers as having frequently
contributed some interesting letters to our columns.