William was born on August 28, 1861 near Oasis,
Iowa, was the second son, the fourth child of
Dorcas and Charles Thompson. He was a man of
unusual character, industrious and far seeking, with
boundless faith in this new country of his adoption,
Alberta, Canada.

From his early days and later in Nebraska, he learned
that toil and planning were the foundation of any
success. At fourteen he owned one farm and a yoke
of oxen. His farming operations in Nebraska were carried
on amidst hardships of drought, hail and grasshoppers.
He graduated in law from the University of lowa although
he never practiced.

In 1886 when Northern Kansas was being opened up to
homesteaders, Will migrated there. Here at a little town
named Voltaire, he established a bank. Before starting to
bank he met and married Clara Cornelia Shultz at her
home in Columbus, Indiana on June 13, 1889. But there
again drought stepped in driving the settlers from their
farms and closing Will's bank. He moved to the nearby
town of Brewster, Kansas and started a general store.
But drought again plagued the country and Will returned
to St. Paul, Nebraska and a farm there.

Then in 1902 he sold out and followed his brother, Ezra E.,
to Alberta. Here close by he established himself and his
family in a square white house near Spring Coulee and
established contact with the Canadian Pacific Railway
and Hudson's Bay Company engaging to sell their land
on commission. He had cards printed with "Why rent a
farm all your life? Come to Alberta where land is cheap
and cattle live out all winter long?" printed on them.
These he sent to thousands of would be settlers through
the middle west. Prospective buyers came and were
convinced. From daylight until dark Will drove prospects
to see farms and sold land, taking them into his garden
to show the riotous vegetables grown in this rich virgin
soil.

He hired scores of men to break the prairies and planted
it to the famous Turkey Red winter wheat that he and
Ezra introduced into Alberta. Yields of thirty to fifty
bushels to the acre were his reward, paying for his
land as he bought with commissions on his land sales.

Throughout the years of their marriage, five children
were born to Clara C and Wm. L. Thompson. Ethel,
their first died in infancy; Ralph Shultz was born in 1891;
Harlan Howard was born December 25th 1894; Myra
died at the age of four years; Florence Gail Thompson
Fuller was born in 1903.

Will prospered and through work and good fortune
finally could count his lands as just one section short
of a township. With the winter of 1908 he and his
family finally went for a well earned trip to California.
Returning from his warm climate to the rigors of Alberta
he contracted pneumonia and died at the early age of
48 years. His widow Clara C. Thompson, with the help
of Charles H. Kelley (a nephew of Will's) as manager,
carried on until the two sons should grow up and take
over the management. Farming operations under her
care prospered and the town of Spring Coulee prospered.
She helped to inaugurate a school district, serving as
secretary for years. She also took first steps in
establishment of the United Church of Spring Coulee
(Presbyterian). She loved and was a power for good
during her active years there.

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