Polk Co. IAGenWeb

BIRD, REV. THOMPSON - Rev. Thompson Bird, or "Father Bird," as he was familiarly and reverently called by all who knew him, was born in Caswell county, North Carolina, January 7, 1804. He lived with his parents until he was twelve years of age, when he entered a store as a clerk. Possessed of an ardent thirst for knowledge, he remained, but five years in a store. He prepared for college at a private academy, and entered the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from which he graduated in 1827. He then returned to his native town, where he became a tutor in the academy, filling three terms; thence he served three terms as tutor in his alma mater; while there he resolved to enter the Christian ministry. With him to resolve was to do. He went to Andover and entered the Theological Seminary, where he remained three years, a classmate of Prof. Caleb Mills, of Wabash College, and other eminent scholars. His broad catholic mind could not but contrast the condition of the two sections of country-the South, dwarfed and degenerated by her peculiar institution; the North, with her free schools, intelligent, progressive masses, and energy of character, at once awakened his attention and fixed his purpose. He returned to North Carolina and entered the missionary field on Dan River, along the borders of North Carolina and Virginia. December 18, 1838, he married Miss Anna Parkhurst Knowlton, a native of Hartford, Vermont, a woman of rare culture, and possessing all the attributes of true womanhood. She went to Fayettville, North Carolina, in 1836, where she taught school about one year; thence she removed to Raleigh, where she was engaged in teaching, when she formed the acquaintance of Mr. Bird; they were married in Sussex county, Virginia. In 1840 Mr. Bird removed to Thornton, Indiana, where he remained until 1847, when he came to Iowa, stopping a few months at Red Rock; thence to Des Moines, which was then but a small hamlet. In October, of that year, he began his labors as a missionary of Des Moines Presbytery for Polk and, adjoining counties, which embraced a wide extent of territory, Polk county alone covering nearly all of the State north and west of Des Moines. His first work was to form a nucleus around which to labor. He organized the Central Presbyterian Church in June, 1848, and remained its pastor until October, 1865, when he resigned. A few primitive cabins, a group of soldiers' barracks, and hazel brush, were all of where now stands a city of magnificent proportions. Mr. Bird was then a poor man, with a wife and several little children dependent on him for support, but with an abiding faith in his God he surveyed with cheerfulness the field of his labor, and girded himself for the work before him and the privations of pioneer life. He entered. at once upon an active, busy life. On foot or on horseback he traversed his territory, going from neighborhood to neighborhood, swimming rivers, plunging through sloughs, to preach in some cabin or shaded grove. To walk from Red Rock to Cedar Rapids to attend a meeting of the Synod or Presbytery, was not an unusual occurrence. He went where duty called, at all times and in all seasons. His presence was always greeted with gladness. He was the able defender of the faith, and a wise counselor. Sunday schools were special objects of interest with him, and Bible and tract distribution his favorite work. In 1852 he began the erection of a church edifice, on Fourth street, on the lot adjoining Mills & Co.'s block, an account of which will be found on page 679. Mr. Bird, early in the settlement of the town made small but judicious investments in real estate, which, owing, to the rapid growth and prosperity of the town and city, placed him in easy financial circumstances. Jan. 1, 1864, he was stricken with paralysis, from which he did not recover, and on Monday, January 4, 1869, on a beautiful day, just as the sun went down in the west, sweetly as a babe falls asleep this noble father in Israel closed his eyes in death. He was of that class of men who leave their impress where they live, and to him, and the noble, self-sacrificing labors of his wife, now living, is the city of Des Moines largely indebted for its present good name and prosperity. They laid the foundation stone of her social structure on the church and school, upon which has been built a monument grand and glorious.