Remembering James Arthur Thompson

The following was shared with my by Paul and Cora Thompson in August 2018. 
Paul is the son of Albert Thompson, brother to Jim and Charley.

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Sometimes called Jim Thompson Jr., so he wouldn’t be confused with his father also called Jim.

He was the 6th child of John James and Maggie (Margaret Paralee James) Thompson.
He was born at home at the Indian Gardens homestead of his father in Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Arizona Territory, on April 22, 1895.


Jim grew up at the ranch. He attended school in the canyon, Indian Gardens, Red Rock and completed the 8th grade in Sedona. He worked on the ranch his entire life (with exception of his military service) with his mother and younger brothers. His father would die in April 1917.

April 1917, the United States entered “The Great War”, WWI with Germany.


Jim and his older brother Charley would receive draft notices for induction into the Army. They would receive basic training at “Camp William F. Cody”, Deming, New Mexico. Charley would go on to Fort Sill, Oklahoma and be assigned to the kitchens and mess halls as a cook. He would be there for the duration of the war.


Jim would go to New York City and join members of the N.Y. National Guard. His steel helmet would have the Statue of Liberty painted on the front. (I still have that helmet).


Jim would now be assigned to the American Expeditionary Force, CO H 300 11th Infantry. They would board troop ships for Halifax, Nova Scotia and on to France. While in the war zone he contacted the flu, the Spanish Influenza. This world wide pandemic would take more lives than the entire war. He survived the flu in a field hospital and was reassigned to the front. He said they had to march some distance and that he was still so weak that he could not keep up and had to fall out.


He was now assigned to grave registration burial duty. He told me there were hundreds of casualties from the flu and combat. Said his team would use scissors to cut the heavy string that held two “dog tags” identity tags that all soldiers had to wear around their neck. One tag was tied to the big toe of the dead man's foot before being placed in the burial coffin. The other tag was collected in bushel baskets for casualty and burial records. This terrible duty may have saved his life from the front line trenches.


I know the events of the war had a strong emotional impact on him.

November 11, 1918 would end this four year costly war. Jim would return home to the Indian Gardens Ranch. His younger brother Albert, with help from his younger brothers Green and Guy, had been operating the ranch with their mother.


With Jim’s return, my father Albert would enter the US Navy with basic training in San Francisco. He would be assigned to the ship, USS Tacoma.


Jim was pursuing a young lady with romantic interest when he was drafted into the Army. When he returned home, she had married someone else. He was never involved again and remained a bachelor the rest of his life.


After my dad got out of the Navy, he homesteaded his own ranch, never to live at the home place again.  Jim, his younger brother Guy and their mother operated the ranch until her death in June of 1935. The two brothers would inherit the ranch property and own it in partnership until Jim’s death in June 1956.  Guy would marry and raise a family, Jim would live with the family. Guy worked for the Arizona Highway Department as a truck driver and equipment operator in the maintenance dept on Hwy 89A in Oak Creek Canyon. Jim continued farming, raising fruit from the orchards and garden produce. He had horses and a small herd of cattle. He would drive his cattle up the Thompson Ladder trail to summer grazing near Munds Park.  In 1950 Guy would move to Red Rock and later buy a ranch in the Cottonwood area.


In the spring of `1956, Jim and Guy would sell the ranch to a land developer from the Phoenix area. The land deal was near closing. Jim had bought a new pickup and travel trailer. He would never use them. For recreation he would walk across the creek to the Indian Gardens store and skating rink. Here he would drink a couple bottles of beer and spend the evening playing pool with the regulars. This included his brother, Charley, and others. I was there with my cousin. Closing time, 10:00 pm with lights out. It was a very dark night with overcast and light rain.


That late winter, a large flood had washed the bridge out leaving only the concrete piers. Jim had a plank bridge about two feet wide between piers with only a piece of telephone wire as a hand rail.

I was concerned about him trying to cross in the dark. I got a flashlight out of my car and tried to give it to him. We walked with him to the bridge. He would not take the flashlight. Said he didn’t need it. Said he had walked it many times in the dark. We told him good night. This was to be the last time I would ever see him.


Fishermen would find him the next morning at dawn. He was laying face down in a few inches of water with major trauma to his head where he had fallen on the rocks below I felt bad that I had failed and saddened by the loss of my favorite uncle and old friend.


Jim’s final resting place was the little Pioneer Cemetery at Red Rock.

Paul R Thompson
July 22,2018
Duncan, AZ