Charles M. Thompson (1856-1909)
The son of Universalist minister Rev. Edwin Thompson, Charles Marsh Thompson was born in East Walpole and was educated in the Walpole public schools and at Dean Academy in Franklin. He devoted much of his life to newspaper work beginning as the editor of the Walpole Enterprise early in his career. Thompson then went west and for nine years was associated with newspapers in and around Denver.
Upon his return to Massachusetts, Thompson was a correspondent for the Boston Globe and the Associated Press for several years. He then began work as a reporter and editorial writer on the Norwood Advertiser and Review, eventually doing practically all the writing for that newspaper.
For five years before his death, Thompson was a reporter for the Norwood Messenger and was also the Norwood correspondent for the Dedham Transcript and the Dedham Standard using the pen name “Son Tom.” He had a wide range of interests, gave lectures on several topics to local groups and organizations, and became one of the best-known and popular men in the community. He never married and boarded at the home of Robert Walsh at 49 Maple Street.
Thompson had been working at the Messenger and, according to his colleagues, had left work in good spirits at 11 pm and headed home. He became ill a few hours later and although the Walsh family immediately called the physician, he lived only an hour. The cause of death was a heart attack; he died on September 30, 1909.
A witty and pleasant conversationalist, Charles Thompson was greatly mourned by the staff at the Messenger who assured its readers that he was “a good comrade, a loyal friend, and a talented writer.” Charles Thompson was interred at Old Parish Cemetery in the Thompson family plot.
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