Thompson, Ida Willard

Ida (Willard) Thompson (1857-1920)

Keene, NH

In 1910, Ida H. (Willard) Thompson rented a home at 252 Gilsum Street in Keene, NH, where she was raising her grandchildren Hattie, Lottie, and Walter Brooks.  She lived next door to the Sadoques, an Abenaki family that had moved from Quebec to Keene a decade prior. Ida and her family were described in the 1910 census as Black and as former residents of VT.  

As a 52-year old woman of color, Ida worked as a laundress out of her home while the children attended school. By 1910, Hattie Brooks was a 15-year old recent high school graduate who worked as a cleaner.  Her younger siblings Lottie P. Brooks (13) and Walter C. Brooks (9) attended a local grammar school, most likely Fuller School on Elm Street.

The Thompson/Brooks family did not reside long in Keene. By 1920, the granddaughters had grown and moved away. Ida moved to New Bedford, MA, with her grandson Walter where she lived with her daughter Bella (Thompson) Cousins.  

1910 Census documenting Ida Thompson residing in Keene, NH with her grandchildren.

Ida Harriet Willard was born in Cavendish, VT, in 1857 to Linus B. Willard (1827-1901) and Harriet J. Willard (d.1904).  Her father had been born in Charlestown, NH, but had moved to VT by the time Ida was born.  

On Jan 29, 1875, at the age of 20, she married Civil War veteran John Thompson in Putney, VT.  John was a 25-year old Black farmer from Bennington, VT.  Similar to Ida’s family, John’s family had moved back and forth over the NH-VT border over the generations.  His grandparents, John Thomson and Electa Freeman, had been married in Fitzwilliam, NH, in 1819 before resettling to Vermont.  

After their marriage, John and Ida Thompson moved to Westminster, VT, where John worked as a teamster and they raised a family.  Ida and John Thompson’s first child, Ada May Thompson, was born in 1877.  Throughout her lifetime, Ida gave birth to seven children, only three lived to adulthood: Ada, Willie B. (b.1881), and Bella A. (b.1883).  At some point during the mid-1880s, Ida and John went their separate ways.  Ida worked and raised the children as a single mother.

At the age of 17 or 18, eldest daughter Ada became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Hattie Brooks, on February 19, 1895, in Westminster, VT.  Soon after, she married the father of her child.  Ada Thompson and Herbert W. Brooks were married on July 20, 1895 in Westminster.  The marriage record documents both as persons of color.  In February of 1897, a they couple had their second daughter, Lottie P. Brooks.  Herbert Brooks died in December 1897 at the age of 31 years, leaving Ada to care for their 2 year old and ten month old daughters alone. 

By 1900, Ada (Thompson) Brooks was a 22-year old widow with two daughters.  She worked as a housekeeper to the Putnam family in Rockingham, VT, while living with her mother.  Ida, at the age of 45 years, also worked as a housekeeper and lived with her employer Walter Moody in Westminster, VT, along with her children and grandchildren. Her daughter Bella A. Thompson, at age 17, worked as a housekeeper and her son Willie B. Thompson, at age 19, worked as a farm laborer.  Ida’s granddaughters (Ada’s daughters) also lived with them: Hattie A. Brooks (5) and Lottie P. Brooks (3).

In 1901, Ida Thompson’s daughter Ada gave birth to a son, Walter C. Brooks in Westminster, VT.  The father of the child was not listed in the birth record nor was Ada married at the time.  Ida most likely continued to assist Ada with the care of the children, having raised her own children alone.  Ida’s husband John W. Thompson died on April 23, 1904 and is buried in Vermont Veterans Home Cemetery in Bennington, VT.

During the 1900s, Ida Thompson moved to Keene, NH, with her three grandchildren where she worked as a laundress and the children attended school.  As the granddaughters Hattie and Lottie grew up and moved away, Ida and grandson Walter relocated to New Bedford, MA, to live with her daughter Bella (Thompson) Cousins.  Ida (Willard) Thompson died on March 31, 1920 of heart disease and is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery in New Bedford, MA.

GENEALOGY

IDA HARRIET WILLARD was born in 1857 in Cavendish, VT, to LINUS B. WILLARD (1827-1901) and HARRIET (d.1904). She married JOHN W. THOMPSON (1849-1904) in 1875 in Putney, VT. John and Ida Thompson had: Ada (1877-1903), Willie B. (b.1881), and Isabelle (Bella A., b.1883).

• ISABELLE THOMPSON (1884-) married DAVID COUSINS.

• ADA MAY THOMPSON (1877-1903) married HERBERT W. BROOKS (1866-1897) in 1895 in Westminster, VT. They had: Hattie A. Brooks (b.1895), Lottie P. Brooks (b.1897). Ada also gave birth to Lillian Class (1899-1899) and Walter Carroll Brooks (b.1901). Ada May (Thompson) Brooks died on March 30, 1920 in New Bedford, MA.

SOURCE MATERIALS

Find-a-Grave

Keene, NH, City Directory, 1913, page 116— Historical Society of Cheshire County

New Hampshire Vital Records, Marriages, 1819— ancestry.com

U.S. Federal Census, 1830, 1850, 1860, 1900, 1910, 1920 — ancestry.com

Vermont Vital Records, Births, 1895, 1899, 1901— ancestry.com

Vermont Vital Records, Deaths, 1887, 1897, 1899— ancestry.com

Vermont Vital Records, Marriages, 1875, 1895— ancestry.com

Witman, MA, City Directory, 1920— ancestry.com

World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942— ancestry.com