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JOSIAH M. THOMPSON, dry good merchant, Mechanicsburg, is one of a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters, of John Thompson and Elizabeth Ferguson, who married and settled in Bourbon county, Kentucky, where he was born October 11, 1824, and was brought by his parents to Sangamon county, Illinois, at the age of eleven years. His father being a farmer, he was brought up to, and followed that avocation until 1857, then sold his farm, moved to Mechanicsburg, and in partnership with his elder brother, Harvey Thompson, engaged in the mercantile business, which they have pursued to the present time, under the firm title of H. & J.M. Thompson.

Harvey & A.T. Thompson commenced selling goods in the burg, in the fall of 1849, and the firm continued till about 1857, when A.T. sold his part to J.M., and the firm of H. & J.M. Thompson has continued since that time. In the year 1837, William and Upton Radcliff had built the old house in which the Thompson firm opened, and continued till 1875, when the present firm built their present large brick house - forty-four by seventy-two, in which they deal in a general line of merchandise, suited to supply all needs of the community in these lines, of which their annual sales have been from $18,000 to $20,000. Politically, the brothers are staunch Republicans.