Russell R. Thompson was born in Burns, Allegany County, New York to Russell Thompson, Sr. and Elizabeth "Eliza" Russell on 8 Dec 1817.

He was a blacksmith in Beaver Dam, Wis. in 1850 and widowed on the 1860 census with 5 children living. His name was Russell R. Thompson on his daughter Harriet's death record.

Russell and Mary Howard married 21 July 1842 in New York. Mary Howard was born about 1822 in Vermont according to the 1850 census. Mary died 14 Feb 1859 in Beaver Dam, Dodge, Wis. after the birth of a child.

After Mary's death, Russell married a second time 28 July 1863 to Mercy Julia Green. She was born 10 Dec 1831 in Wirt, Allegany County, New York, with both parents being born in Rhode Island. Her parents were Rowland Thurston Greene and Joanna Sheffield Clarke Greene. Russell and Mercy married in Dakota, Waushara County, Wis. and her name was listed as Julia M. Green on the marriage in Vol. 1 page 77. She also went by Merta, Mercy, or Julia.

The family came from NY to Wis. by at least 1844 before Wis. was a state, settling in Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wis. In 1870 they were in Berlin County and by 1880 they were in Dodge Centre, Minnesota. Due to health reasons for Mercy, they moved to Mississippi by 1890.

Mercy was active in the Seventh Day Baptist Church and there was a large group in Mississippi as well as in Dodge Centre, Minnesota and other places they lived.

Russell died in Beauregard, Copiah County, Mississippi 7 Nov 1897 at age 79, just a month and day shy of his 80th birthday. He was buried in the Beauregard Cemetery, Beauregard, Mississippi. In a letter written by his son, he said he "selected a very nice corner lot on a side hill in the Beauregard Smetry" to bury his father. In contacting the cemetery there, they have no record or stone of Russell.

The Sabbath Recorder , Vol. 53, No 47, p 751, Nov. 22, 1897 Russell Thompson was born in Allegany County, New York, 8 Dec 1817, and died near Beauregard, Miss 7 Nov 1897.

His funeral sermon was preached by Elder D. W. Leath and he was buried in the Beauregard cemetery. In his younger days he was a temperance worker. He had lived at Beaver Dam, Berlin and Cartwright, Wis., and at Dodge Centre, Minn. He moved with his family to Mississippi in 1890. Though he had lived long – almost four score years – he was scrupulously honest, very strict in his morals, and closely conformed to Christian living. He never made an open profession of Christianity. He left many friends here and in the North. His wife and son are members of the Hewitt Springs Seventh-day Baptist church. He always kept the Sabbath with his family. D. W. L.

Russell and Mary, his first wife, had 6 or 7 children: Millard F, Maranda, Calvin, Harriet, Malona & Livona (twins), and Jasper A. Thompson who died just a month after Mary in 1859.

Russell and Mercy had one son: George Ellis Thompson.