Open 1-4PM, 1st & 3rd Saturday of Every Month
Dr William E. Thompson
Dr. Thompson's collection is located in the Prominent Citizens Room on the 1st Floor
Dr. Thompson (1835-1940) Near the time of his death in 1940 at 104 years old, was the oldest practicing physician in the United States of America..
He was a noted underground railroad conductor. He lived in this home at 137 Main Street in Bethel during the time he was active in the underground railroad network. their homw was a stop on the Underground Railroad prior to the Covil War. Young William carried foor to the runaway slaves hiding in surrounding woods and as an expert rifleman, he picked off the bloodhounds seeking the runaways.
Dr. Thompson authored an account of Bethel's early history in 1876.
When asked about his longevity he replied, :I never died".
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.
More about Dt. Thompon can be found in the Bicentennial Book,available in the museum's gift case.
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