This two-storey white brick house on the main street of St. Marys was built in 1881 for James Thompson and his family.
James Thompson was born in North Easthope Township, Perth County in August 1852. He was the son of Alexander and Mary Thompson, who had come to Canada from northern Ireland with five children in the late 1 840s, perhaps driven from their homeland by the Irish potato famine. Three more children, including James, were born in the new country. The Thompsons were farmers and later moved to Logan Township.
In 1877 James married Christina Jameson of Blanshard Township, Perth County.
Christina was the daughter of Alexander Jameson and Jane (Jennie) Glenn. The Jamesons had come to Canada from Ireland about 1842, settled first in the Peterborough area and came to Blanshard about 1855.
At the time of his marriage James was still a farmer in Logan but within a few years he had taken advantage of the burgeoning area grain trade and become a grain merchant. According to the 1879 Historical Atlas of Perth County, "St. Marys has always been considered the best grain market in Western Ontario." At its height the town boasted more than a dozen grain brokers who acted as middlemen, purchasing grain from local farmers and shipping it by rail to Toronto and Montreal for export.
The Thompson family moved into St. Marys and first lived on Ontario Street North. In June 1881 Thompson purchased a nearby lot at the top of the Queen Street hill from Dr. Adam E. Ford. His reputation ruined by scandal (involving the poisoning of a patient), Dr. Ford severed the westerly 38 feet at the corner of Ontario Street from his own property and used the proceeds to begin a new life in Denver, Colorado.
It is likely Thompson hired an architect for the house constructed later that year; one possibility is William Williams (1836-1918) who was active in St. Marys from about 1880 to 1890 and is credited with introducing the Italianate style to the Perth County region.
James and Christina, then in their late 20s, and their three year-old son Samuel James Thompson, moved into their new home that fall. From The Argus (May 3, 1883): "Mr. James Thompson, who purchased the west portion of Dr. Ford's lot, Queen St., West Ward and built a fine house on it, is beautifying his premises by terracing the high bank in front of the house, which will add greatly to the appearance of the place."
The collapse of the export market for grain in the 1880s hit brokers like James Thompson hard and by 1888 he and his family had sold the Queen Street property and left St. Marys. The new owner was Joseph Berchill who moved in with his wife Ellen.
In 1 891 the Thompson family was living in Toronto in St. Alban's Ward (Parkdale), where James's occupation is that of horse dealer. Ten years later, in 1901 , James and Christina are in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where James is employed as an office clerk. Living with them are a son, James Orotelle (also spelled Orvalle) Thompson, and his family. This son, who was married in Toronto in 1899, was born in Logan Township in 1878 — and was therefore the same age as their son Samuel James. As no birth record for Samuel can be found or any record of him after 1 891 , it is likely the two sons were the same person.
It is also likely that their son's family moved to the United States sometime before the 1911 Canada census and it seems that James and Christina too left Canada for a time. They are back living in Toronto in September 1917 when James dies at age 65. Christina, still in Toronto, returned to St. Marys for her sister Martha's funeral in March 1924 and tragically collapsed and died herself just before the service. She is buried with James in Prospect Cemetery, Toronto. An obituary states that she had one son, Orval, of Plainfied, New Jersey.
A key source for this history is Larry Pfaff's book Historic St. Marys, 1995.