To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, Isom L. Thompson, a citizen of the United States, residing at Dayton, in the county of LaSalle and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wagon-Jacks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This is how Isom Thompson began his application for a patent on his invention, an improved wagon-jack. His application was witnessed by his brother, Foster V. Thompson and by Freeman Wheeler. The improvement came from his experience with farming, but Isom had not always been a farmer.

He was born in November, 1840, in Adams, Jefferson County, New York, one of five children of Isom Thompson and Elzina Foster. He left the farm sometime between 1875 and 1880, and took up the trade of carriage maker.

About 1894 his older brother, Foster, decided to move his family to Illinois. Isom made the journey with them and settled on a farm in Rutland township. After Foster died in 1897, Isom, who never married, continued to make his home with his sister-in-law and her 2 sons, his nephews, Oscar and Lamotte Thompson. Isom died there on Saturday, December 2, 1905, of apoplexy.