The Passing of the Venerable Mrs. Ann Thompson, of New Haven, Ky.

When the Sun was about two hours high on the morning of September the 9th, and just as he was beginning to shed his full lustre over the beautiful and fertile Knob Creek Val1ey, bedecked by craggy precipice and long stretched hills of stately trees dressed in abundant green, fast turning brown under the piercing rays of a September sun; there passed away, at eight o'clock, the soul of a well known, venerable and pious woman, Mrs. Ann Thompson, who, had she lived to see the 23rd day of this month, would have been 91 years old.

She was the widow of the late Stephen Thompson, who had the honor of being a school mate of Abraham Lincoln and who was present when the long, lank, youngster was dragged out of a hole of water into which he had fallen, while cooning a log, by Benjamin Austin Gallaher.

Mrs. Thompson was a daughter of Capt. Thomas Bowling, who came from Maryland, and who, prior to his coming won distinction in the Revolutionary War. She was a pupil of Loretto Academy, back in the thirties, when that institution was located near where Gethsemani Abbey now stands, and during all these long years has been a loyal friend to her Alma Mater. In fact she looked upon Loretto and its goodly number of nuns as part hers, since she has one daughter, Sister M. Theophila, now at Springfield, Mo.; One grand-daughter, Sister M. Ivita, now at St. Michael's School, St. Louis, Mo.; besides, in her time, she had over thirty nieces, members of the Order. She was a half sister of Rev, John B Hutchins, who for many years served as Chaplain at Loretto Academy, and on one occasion made a trip through the West with him upon a visit to the various branch houses of the Order. In this way and by her long stay at New Haven, Ky., where the Order has an endowed school, she met and was known as “Aunt Ann" by more members of the Order than probably any other lay woman in the State of Kentucky.

She was indeed, in many respects, a very remarkable woman, and but a few people of the present time of the to what extent she was a pioneer; she was one who had seen the venerable Baden, Chambige, and Nerinckx and had trod Kentucky soil before any of the present generation ever saw the light of day. She had lived continuously without change or in the same house in which she died just over sixty-five years, and was the mother of ten children, all of whom lived the age of maturity.

The writer has often heard her make the remark, "that she had raised twenty children", being the owner of a slave woman, who was the mother of ten children and together, she and the colored woman took the wool as it came from the sheeps back, and the flax as it came from the fields, and passing It through the spindles; looms and warps, bringing it out into whole cloth a yard wide, and after cutting and marking, was placed on the backs of the youngster both white and black. Then there was the cooking, washing, and ironing besides hundreds of other household duties, primitive hardships entailed.

Idle bread was not to he liking, she never partook of it in her young days, and when age bent her frame, wrinkles encompassed her brow, silver threads taking the place of brown, and they in turn by snowy white, found her still up and doing, and when only four days before her death, her son and grand-daughter left to attend the Bardstown Fair, she remained at home to do the cooking for two other sons, not from necessity, but because she preferred work to idleness, and hundreds of neighbors will testify that even in her advanced age she could get up a good meal in as short time as many of the young housewives in the Community. Only a short time ago, just five weeks, she and her daughter-in-law got in buggy and drove twenty miles through the country to Bardstown to be at the dying bedside of her daughter, Mrs. F. Boone Rapier.

Wonderful indeed was this great woman, this ancient land-mark, never missing an opportunity to be present at a Holy Mass, to relieve the poor, to comfort the weak, to counsel the young, to visit the sick, a model of self-sacrifice, leaving in her death, an example practiced only by the saints; when told by the Doctors that they could do nothing to save her, she could live only a few hours, she quickly replied, “don’t give me anything to stupify or lessen the sting of death, I want to suffer and know when I die,” and so she did for forty-eight hours suffer agonizing pains, remaining all the time conscious, joining in the prayers said by sorrowful and loving friends, calling on Jesus, Mary and Joseph, crossing herself with the sign of the cross, repeatedly placing to her lips a cross blessed for a happy death, and in this way up to within a half hour of her death, when peace spread his wings over the couch of death; quiet tranquility overshadowed her, a smile momentarily played about her placid countenance, and true to her life long Maxim, ‘idleness hath no part in her’ her soul winged it’s flight to Him in Whom she had in youth, in maidenhood, in young womanhood, in middle age and in old age placed her trust, and given her life-service.
She was laid to rest in New Haven Cemetery, on Thursday, Sep. 10th, after a High Requiem Mass for the repose of her soul by Rev Wm. P. Hogarty, who twice during the last illness had visited, and strengthened her with the last Holy rites, so comforting to the dying, and known only to the members of the Catholic Church.

Some twenty years ago on of her sons became widowed, having three small children, the youngest only two weeks old. At her then advanced age she took these children, giving them a mothers care, living to see them all grown, which act seemed to be providential, as these children proved to be a great help and satisfaction in rounding out her old and declining years. She leaves two of these children, John and Fanny Thompson, four sons, Charles, Robert, Frank and Stephen, one daughter, Sister M. Theophila, a number of grand-children and one great grand-child to mourn her loss.

That her worth and example in life will be missed was fully testified by the great number of people who attended her funeral. May she rest in peace!

F.B.R.


Moved to Knob Creek ca. 1843, where she lived all her life and died in the same house.

May be named Anne Sarah Bowling.

She and her son Stephen John raised grandchildren John J. and Fannie Thompson after their mother, who was a BOONE?, died. They belonged to her son, John Franklin. Fannie moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and married later in life.

According to Helen Howard Peake, Ann Thompson made her sons get out of the distillery business and sell out to Atherton because they were heavy drinkers.

Slave owner and baptism sponsor:
May 4 1844, Henry, ill. son of Caroline, slave of Stephen Thompson, born Feb 1 1844. Baptism sponsor: Ann Thompson
Feb 17 1850 Thos. Richard son of Caroline slave of Stephen Thompson, born Aug 15 1849. Baptisms sponsor: Harriet of John Boon.
Aug 24 1851 David son of Caroline of Stephen Thompson born May -- 1851. Baptism sponsor: Sara.
May 13 1855 Mary dau of Caroline of Stephen Thompson born Mar 11 1855. Baaptism sponsor: Harriet.

Robert’s Thompson’s marriage bond states she was born on the Rolling Fork river above New Haven.