Dr William E. Thompson

This dedicated doctor rode horseack for the first twelve years of his profession; then as backroads improved, rode in horse and buggy. Dr. Thompson's competence was attested by the fact that in the hundreds of childbirths he attended. many of them under the most disadvantageous conditions imaginable, he never lost a mother, nor, during the severe influenza outbreak of 1918, did he lose a single influenza case. His payment was in cash, if possible, and often in "farmers produce". To those who inquired about to what he owed his longevity, he was wont to reply with a twinkle in his eye, "I never died".

Dr. Thompson took office calls until almost the last month of his long life, and as late as 1930 when he was 94, he could declare that he attended to all calls made upon him, regardless of time of day or night, or the distance, or wether conditions. On his 100th birthday in 1935, Bethel held a big celebration in his honor. Presidejt Roosevelt sent his congratulations.