John Edward West Thompson
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Graduate of Yale School of Medicine, 1883
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1860, John Edward West Thomspon moved to Providence, Rhode Island with his family around the age of ten. His parents had emigrated from Haiti. He later attended Weston Military Institute and Lawrence Academy in Groton, MA. In 1883, he graduated from the Yale School of Medicine. That same year, Thompson married Elizabeth Augusta McLinn, a daughter of the head carpenter at Yale, Charles McLinn. Thompson continued studying medicine in France, England, and Ireland.
In 1884, Thompson began practicing medicine in New York, becoming one of the first Black physicians in the city. From 1885 to 1889, he was made U.S. Minister Resident/Consul General to Haiti and Chargé d'Affaires to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, appointed by President Grover Cleveland. In 1890, Thompson resumed practicing medicine in New York and served for a few years as a medical inspector for the health department. He also practiced medicine in Mount Hope, New York, Atlanta, and Bridgeport, Connecticut. He died in 1918 in Bridgeport, after he was stabbed by a patient in mental distress.