“I don’t know whether I dare to go back to Bovina or not” – The Brief Career of Assemblyman David Low Thompson

The September 5, 1887 New York Times published an article entitled “They Obeyed Boss Platt, Delaware County’s Faithless Legislators.” The ‘they’ in the title were State Senator Matthew W. Marvin and Assemblyman (and Bovina resident) David Low Thompson. Thompson had just been elected to the Assembly the year before and was doomed to serve only one term because of his action. The issue concerned the support of a senator named Warner Miller. The New York Times reported that “probably nine-tenths of the residents of this extensive dairy district believed Senator Miller was their friend and ought to be returned to the Senate.” Assemblyman Thompson was petitioned by his constituents to support sending Miller back to the U.S. Senate but he “ignored all appeals of the rank and file and followed the bidding of a little knot of stalwart manipulators in the southern end of the county.”

This was back in the day when United States Senators were elected by the state legislature, not by the electorate. Miller had been elected in a special election in 1881 to succeed Thomas C. Platt, the Republican boss who had resigned. In January 1887, when it was time to vote for a senate candidate, the Republicans held a caucus of state senators and assemblymen. The caucus lasted several days and in the end, Boss Platt was successful in blocking Miller from re-election.

It is not clear why Thompson went the route he did on this issue, but he realized quickly that he had doomed his political career. The Times reported that “When Assemblyman Thomson alighted from the train at Sidney Flats, upon his return from the legislative session, he gravely remarked to a friend: ‘I don’t know whether I dare to go back to Bovina or not.’” He did but then apparently hunkered down at home. “He settled down to his old business of dealing in pots, kettles, and tin cans. If he entertained any lingering hopes of honors to come these have been dissipated during the past month. The sternness of his neighbors has not relaxed, and he has declined to argue the point with them to the extent of entering the race for the Assembly this Fall.”

Thompson was born in Bovina in August 1831, the son of David and Jeanette (Low) Thompson, who both came from Scotland. David grew up in Bovina and after finishing at the local schools, spent some time at the Andes Academy. He started teaching in the local one-room schools at the age of 16. He was town supervisor for two terms and for 13 years was the postmaster. He also was an elder for many years in the Bovina United Presbyterian Church.

His main livelihood was in running a hardware store and working as a tinsmith. He had a good reputation as a business man, but during his political troubles, Andrew Biggar, a farmer from Andes was reported to have written a letter to Thompson indignant over his vote in the Senate race, addressing him as “a tin pan tinker.”

Thompson probably was happy to have his political career behind him. He continued his hardware business, which he ran for many years from the building that is now the Bovina Museum. He built this building around 1854. At about the same time, he built his house across the street from the hardware store. This is now the home of Jason and Lisa Stanton.

Thompson was married twice, first to Eliza Murray in 1854, who died in 1893, and later to Jeanette Russell. He had a son and two daughters by his first wife.

In 1901, Thompson sold his house and hardware building to J.W. Coulter and moved to the Stamford area, where he and his wife at one point ran a summer hotel. In 1907, he moved to Oneonta and it was there in August 1915 that he passed away at the age of 84. His obituary in the Delaware (Delhi) Gazette was subtitled “A Native of Bovina, Who Held Political Offices and Was Conspicuous in Church.” His time in the Assembly was mentioned, noting that he served in 1887, “the year when the Warner Miller fight was on.” His obituary concluded with “He was an honorable and upright citizen, a consistent Christian, and held in general esteem.” Thompson was buried in the Bovina Cemetery.