‘It’s devastating mark’ - Former Centertown postmaster Arthur Thompson became casualty of Spanish influenza

Arthur Thompson was raised on a farm near Jefferson City and earned an education at a commercial college. He moved to Centertown in 1910 and was appointed as postmaster. In 1913, he married and became father to one daughter, which was followed by he and his wife establishing a grocery and restaurant business. Thompson was 33 years old when he died from the Spanish influenza in early 1919. Courtesy of Jeremy P. Ämick

The Spanish influenza of 1918 and 1919 became a worldwide pandemic that consumed the lives of many a young person beginning to find their footing in the world. Arthur E. Thompson, a native of Cole County, was operating his grocery business and restaurant in Centertown when he was cut down in his prime by this indiscriminate disease, leaving behind a wife and young daughter.

Thompson was born on January 9, 1885, the eldest son of Eugene Thompson and Nettie Rawson. He and his two brothers and three sisters grew up on their parents’ stock farm near Jefferson City. Arthur attended the public schools in Jefferson City and after graduating in the early 1900s, embarked upon a tandem path of working and furthering his education.

The Jefferson City Tribune printed on January 7, 1908, “Arthur E. Thompson … who resides about ten miles southwest of here, has been clerking at the Elston house and attending the Capital City Commercial College, (and) has given up his clerkship and is now keeping books for the Missouri River Lime Company of Jefferson City.”

The article further noted that Thompson had been in his position for about a year and was committed to attending night classes to complete his course of study in bookkeeping, shorthand, typewriting and stenography.

His future began to show great promise when he moved to the Centertown area in 1910. Not long after his arrival, he passed the civil service examination and was appointed as postmaster for the community. While living and working in Centertown, he became acquainted with Gladys Belle Hazlett and the two were engaged.

“Centertown Postmaster Married,” read the headline from the Moniteau County Herald on July 31, 1913. “A.E. Thompson … and Miss Gladys Hazlett were married at Jefferson City, Tuesday, June 23, 1913 by Rev. F.M. Burton, pastor of the Methodist church. The bride is a very pretty winsome young lady….”

Gladys began working as an assistant in the Centertown Post Office with her husband. The couple became parents to a daughter, Ruth, on September 26, 1914, and chose to bring her up in the Christian faith at Centertown Baptist church, where his wife’s family were members.

Embracing the previous experience that he acquired working for companies in the Jefferson City area, Thompson chose to leave his position as postmaster of Centertown in 1914 and opened a restaurant and grocery business in the community.

Additionally, he became involved in local Republican political circles and made unsuccessful runs for the justice of the peace for the Marion Township and the Cole County Assessor.

“Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to Kansas City on Memorial Day was the occasion of a demonstration which proves the people of the Missouri Valley to be in hearty sympathy with issues of Americanism and preparedness enunciated by the former president…,” reported the Kansas City Times on June 2, 1916.

Both Thompson and his wife used the occasion as a reason to travel to Kansas City and listen to Roosevelt’s remarks during his bid for the Republican nomination for president. Following his Kansas City visit, Roosevelt’s former vice president, Charles Hughes, instead received the Republican nomination and was later defeated by incumbent Woodrow Wilson.

The next year, in April 1917, the United States entered the war in Europe. Thompson, who was 32 years old at the time of the first draft registration on June 5, 1918, was above the cutoff age for registering. He was, however, required to participate in the third registration on September 12, 1918, for men ages 18 to 45.

The war ended a few weeks later and Thompson was never called into military service. But during the war, a scourge that impacted many citizens soon brought the Centertown businessman’s life to an unexpected end.

“Influenza—more specifically the Spanish flu—left its devastating mark in both world and American history (in 1918),” explained an article on the website of the Pan American Health Organization. “The microscopic killer circled the entire globe in four months, claiming the lives of more than 21 million people.”

On January 2, 1919, a week before his birthday, the 33-year-old Thompson died at his home because of pneumonia brought on by the Spanish flu, making him one of more than 675,000 U.S. citizens who died in the pandemic. He was laid to rest in the Centertown Cemetery.

In the months following his death, his business property was sold. His wife raised their daughter in his absence and, on February 5, 1928, married Coy Sartain Sr. She and her second husband went on to raise a son and two daughters.

Thompson’s daughter, Ruth, was twice married, the second time to Lloyd Bolden on March 4, 1946. She and Lloyd operated a service station and restaurant in Centertown for 23 years. Ruth Bolden was only 58 years old when she died from a heart attack in 1973 and was buried in Centertown Cemetery near her father.

“However, as bad as things were, the worst was yet to come, for germs would kill more people than bullets,” explained the book “The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic: The History and Legacy of the World's Deadliest Influenza Outbreak." It added, “By the time that last fever broke and the last quarantine sign came down, the world had lost 3-5% of its population.”

A nation embroiled in a world war while its citizenry battled against a non-discriminating pandemic created tumultuous circumstances for many. Arthur Thompson became just one among millions succumbing to its insidious attack while his headstone sits among many in local cemeteries, serving as a reminder of the lives cut down in their youth.
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Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the historical compilation “Beyond the Moreau.” 

Gladys Hazlett, remarried in 1928, nine years after the death of her first husband, Arthur Thompson. Courtesy of Jeremy P. Ämick