Zenas Thompson, Jr., was born on August 16, 1836, in Yarmouth, Maine, to Zenas and Leonora Thompson. His father was a clergyman. He grew up and attended school in Augusta, Maine. He moved to Portland, Maine, in the 1850s, and by 1860, he was working as a carriage maker at J.M. Kimball & Co. According to one local writer, their carriages had a “world-wide reputation,” and they were “scattered from Maine to California on this continent” as well as “various parts of Europe, South America and China.”

 

His brother, Captain George W. Thompson, died in 1864, and he travelled to Virginia to recover the body. On the return journey, he was reportedly attacked by “a couple of guerrillas” near Winchester, Virginia, and they “robbed him of $130 in money, together with his travelling shawl, dressing case and overcoat.” The “coffin which he had purchased in which to place the remains of his brother, was thrown away by the guerrillas.”

 

Despite his brother’s dead, Thompson remained deeply devoted to the Union. In November 1864, he wrote that, “If the great cause for which he fought and died shall prosper unto the end and the restoration of the union be accomplished we shall feel that he died not lay down his life for a vain hope. All the precious blood will not have been spilled in vain.” He voted for the Union Party in the election of 1864.

 

He married Charlotte Frances Hay on June 2, 1862, and they had at least four children: Caroline, born around 1863; George, born around 1868; Mary, born around 1874; and Julia, born around 1879. By 1870, Thompson owned $4,000 of real estate and $3,700 of personal property. Kimball retired in 1872, and he took over the business. He became a prominent member of Portland society, and by the early 1900s, he owned “one of the best known carriage manufactories in New England.” He retired around 1908. His wife died in 1909, and he died of myocarditis in Portland on May 23, 1915.

SOURCES