Name/Title
Reverend Thomson collectionEntry/Object ID
2025.09.27Scope and Content
Photos and poems associated with minister and poet Alexander Thomson.Context
From 2023.10.407
Rev. Alexander Thomson - Minister and Poet - contributed by Chris Yoder, Apr. 2011
When he died in Saugatuck of liver and pancreatic cancer March 10, 1914, Alexander Thomson had led a full life. Born in 1844 in Aberdeen, Scotland, he and his family sailed to Canada in 1856. In 1864 he came to the U.S., serving briefly in the Civil War to obtain his citizenship. In his twenties he taught school, first near Allegan, Michigan, and later in Wheaton, Illinois, where he also attended Wheaton College. Feeling a call to the ministry, he was ordained in the Congregational church on Oct. 21, 1887. He began his service at Bartlett, Illinois, and was in active ministry for 21 years, both in Illinois and Wisconsin. He first married Laura Jane Holt, who died leaving three children, Mabel, Laura and Alexander Jr. His second wife also died young. While pastoring a northern Wisconsin church he met and married a young teacher, Jeanette Harris, by whom he had another daughter, Jeanette. Mabel was to marry Saugatuck boy J. A. Falconer, later a Congressman from Washington State.
His obituary remarks that he had first come to Saugatuck 28 years before (c1876) and spent a portion of his time here ever since, eventually making it his permanent home. As early as the 1889 assessment record, it shows that Alexander owned 28 acres of land downstream from Saugatuck on the east bank of the Kalamazoo River. This property was called "Slumber Bluff" and was left to his wife Jeanette. From 1923 to 1950, Jeanette and two friends from Chicago operated this property as "Oak Openings" camp. Jeanette died in 1956 and is buried at Riverside beside her husband. ...Collection
Family HistoryCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2025.09Source or Donor
Yoder, ChrisAcquisition Method
Donation, unconditionalCredit Line
Items scanned by Chris Yoder or Jack Sheridan for the SDHC family history group.Location
* Untyped Location
Digital data in CatalogItRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Pine Trail Camp/Camp Oak Openings/Slumber Bluff, Thomson, Alexander 1844-1914, Thomson, Jeanette Elvira (Harris) 1862-1956, Falconer, Mabel (Thomson) 1869-1957Create Date
July 20, 2025Update Date
July 20, 2025
