An Account of Oakland County / edited by Lillian Drake Avery.

PERSONAL SKETCHES

415

lished his present grocery and meat market business, the substantial
success of which has been due alike to his personal popularity and
the effectiveness of the service of his establishment. May 17, 1918,
Mr. Thompson wedded Miss Claudia Newman, who was born in Oakland county, October 29, 1891, and who is a daughter of William and
Lavangy (Ellenwood) Newman, honored and well known citizens of
Pontiac. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have a host of friends in their home
community.
G. Ross Thompson.-One of the popular and efficient members of
the Oakland county official coterie at the court house in the city of
Pontiac is he whose name initiates this paragraph and who is giving
a vigorous administration as road commissioner of the county, an
office in which he has been able to render valuable service in furthering the civic and material interests of his constituent county. Mr.
Thompson was born in Hartland township, Livingston county, Michigan, September 6, 1871, his father having at the time been one of
the representative farmers of that county. Mr. Thompson attended
the public schools of Highland, Oakland county, and supplemented
this discipline by a course in the Fenton Normal and Business College,
at Fenton, Genessee county. He eventually established his residence
at Vassar, Tuscola county, where he engaged in the feed business
and where he served four years as a member of the village council.
He gave three years of time to traveling as a collector for the Champion Harvesting Machine Company, and thereafter he was for five
years engaged in the retail hardware and implement business at Alma,
Gratiot county. Upon disposing of his business at Alma he returned
to Highland, Oakland county, where he engaged in farming. There
he was elected supervisor of Highland township, an office in which
he was retained thirteen consecutive years, he having been for two
terms chairman of the county board of supervisors, and his loyal and
efficient work in behalf of the interests of the county marked him
as specially eligible for the office of county road commissioner, of
which he became the incumbent in 1920 and in which he has since
continued his able and valuable service, he being now the chairman
of the county board of road commissioners. It was in the year 1892
that Mr. Thompson established his residence at Highland, and during
the long intervening years he has been known and valued as one of
the loyal and public spirited citizens of Oakland county, where his
circle of friends is virtually coincident with that of his acquaintances.
He is a staunch advocate of the principles of the Republican party
and has been influential in its local councils and campaigns. Mr.
Thompson is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The marriage of Mr. Thompson to
Miss Rena Wilson, of Pontiac, was solemnized in the year 1891,
Mrs. Thompson being a daughter of Henry H. Wilson, long a representative business man of this city. Marian, the only child of Mr.
and Mrs. Thompson, was born in the year 1911 and at the time of
this writing, in 1925, is attending the public schools of Highland.
Mrs. Eva Iola Thornhill proved her courage and resourcefulness