Florence Thompson was born on May 14, 1859, the first child of Stewart Thompson and Margaret Jones.  The new family was living in Madison Township in Pike County, Indiana in 1860, so it was likely Florence was born there.  She had five younger sisters and two brothers: Alice, Eleanor, Thomas, Nancy, Maggie, William, and Emma.  Alice, Nancy and Maggie died as children.

By 1870, Stewart had relocated the family to Johnson Township in Knox County where they continued to farm.  On September 2, 1879, Florence married John Leveron and they set up their household near Decker.  Over the next twenty years, they would build a family of eight children, seven of which lived to adulthood: sons Shirley, Levi , and Stewart and daughters Margaret, Annie, Ruth, Grace and Hilda.  Grace died shortly after her first birthday in 1898.

In March 1904, Florence’s father died at the age of seventy-one from tuberculosis.  Seven years later, at the age of sixty-nine, her mother died apoplexy.  Florence and John continued to raise their family in the Decker area, only for John to succumb to kidney failure in December 1917.  Shirley, Levi, and Stewart continued to help work the farm; Levi going so far as to be separated from his wife and seven children in Vincennes to assist.

On September 26, 1933, Florence passed away at home from a cerebral hemorrhage after several weeks of poor health.  She is buried at the Warth Cemetery in Decker Chapel next to her husband.

 

Florence Thompson was my 1st cousin 4x removed on my mom’s side.

REFERENCES

• United States Census – 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1930
• Indiana Death Certificates
• Indiana Marriage Collection
• Find A Grave website
• Princeton Daily Clarion, September 27, 1933 via Newspapers.com
• Vincennes Sun Commercial, September 27, 1933