IDA BENNETT THOMPSON

Mrs. George Hood Thompson, St. Paul (Ida B.) is a native of Hull, Yorkshire, England, a descendant of sea fearing people, her paternal grandfather, Peter Bennett, being harbor master of the town and her maternal grandfather, William Samuel Hallin, also a master mariner. She is the daughter of Charles Bennett and Innocence Hallin Bennett; married George Hood Thompson of Scarborough and lived for years in Middlesbro, where she was an active member of the temperance society there, which affiliated with the American W. C. T. U. in 1876. Mrs. Thompson came with her husband from Middlesbro. England to Sauk Rapids, Minnesota August 15, 1883, being transferred from the British Woman's Temperance Association to membership in the W. C. T. U. and became president of the fifth congressional district of Minnesota. She moved to Duluth in 1892 and was president of St. Louis County W. C. T. U., being also a state delegate from Minnesota to the World's Convention of the W. C. T. U. in London in 1895. Mrs. Thompson was active in many phases of civic and educational work in Duluth. Through her was established a system of savings accounts in public schools through which hundreds of boys and girls opened bank accounts. She was an active member of the Duluth Press Club and contributed to the Duluth Press when William Cody (Buffalo Bill) was owner of the paper. She was also a charter member of the Twentieth Century Club of that city. She has worked in the Presbyterian church in Duluth and St. Paul. She came to St. Paul in 1910 and has engaged in many progressive civic projects. She is a member of the Woman's Welfare League, Hamline W. C. T. U., Merriam Park Rebekah Lodge and other organizations.

Who's who among Minnesota women (1914) [p. 324]