Daniel P (Daniel Pierce) Thompson

Daniel Pierce Thompson, an American author and lawyer who served as Vermont Secretary of State, was New England's most well-known novelist before Nathaniel Hawthorne. Daniel P. Thompson was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts on October 1, 1795, and relocated to Vermont with his family around 1800. He grew up in Berlin, Vermont, and graduated from Middlebury College in 1820. He subsequently relocated to Virginia, where he taught school, studied law, and was admitted to the bar before returning...See more

Daniel Pierce Thompson, an American author and lawyer who served as Vermont Secretary of State, was New England's most well-known novelist before Nathaniel Hawthorne. Daniel P. Thompson was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts on October 1, 1795, and relocated to Vermont with his family around 1800. He grew up in Berlin, Vermont, and graduated from Middlebury College in 1820. He subsequently relocated to Virginia, where he taught school, studied law, and was admitted to the bar before returning to Vermont to work as an attorney in Montpelier. Thompson served as the Washington County Register of Probate from 1825 to 1830, as well as the Vermont House of Representatives' Engrossing Clerk from 1830 to 1833 and 1834 to 1836. Thompson was prominent in the Democratic Party before switching to the Liberty Party and became interested in the abolitionist cause. From 1849 to 1856, he was the editor of the anti-slavery newspaper Green Mountain Freeman. He served as Washington County Probate Judge from 1837 to 1840, then again from 1841 to 1842, and authored Vermont's Laws of 1835. In 1838, he founded the Vermont Historical Society. He was Washington County Clerk from 1844 until 1846. From 1853 to 1855, he was Vermont's Secretary of State. See less