A family from Bond Head, Ontario, Canada moved to Bloomington sometime between 1863 and 1866. Alexander and Mary Thompson had two daughters, Jane (or Jennie as she would be called) and Isabella when they moved to Bloomington. Bond Head was a town on Lake Ontario, about 600 miles from Bloomington, IL, as the crow flies.
Alexander Thompson was an organ maker, and the family lived within a few houses of the owners of the organ factory in Bloomington, Fred and Edwin Andrus. The Andrus family was from New York, but had a large organ factory in Toronto. One of the Andrus daughters was born in Canada and there may have been a professional tie that brought the Thompson and Andrus families to live in such close proximity in Bloomington. Within a few years the Thompson family had grown to include 5 more children. The neighborhood, as reflected in the census was made up of mostly English speaking families, most of whom were probably comfortably situated. Charles Trimter and Christian Riebsame, the bakers were probably the only non English speaking neighbors. Walter Hatch was a neighbor, as was Cyrus Spalding, the junk dealer. Peter Elkins, a grocer lived nearby as did Simon Miner, the owner of a bookstore. From 1870's to 1900's the Thompsons lived in various houses on East Douglas Street.
In March 1878, Joseph Thompson was born and three months later his mother, Mary, became very ill and died. Jennie was 17 years old and the oldest of six children. Mary's deathbead was described in the Pantagraph on June 7, 1878:
Her death was singularly happy. She was conscious almost to the last, and perfectly resigned. Having called her children to her bedside, she asked them to sing for her, which they did, their songs giving her renewed life. On awakening from a sinking spell, her face beamed as if with a light from heaven, and she told, in beautiful language, of the home that was waiting for her, of which she had a glance.
At this point, Jennie became mother to the smallest children of the family: Sarah, 12, Kate, 10; William, 8; Fannie, 3 and Joseph, the baby.
Another change occurred in the ten years between the censuses. Fred Andrus no longer listed as an organ manufacturer in the Pantagraph, but was a music dealer of organs built in the family factory in Toronto. Alexander Thompson was now an organ repairer, possibly a less steady form of employment.