David Preston Thompson (November 8, 1834 – December 14, 1901) was an American businessman and politician in the Pacific Northwest. He was governor of the Idaho Territory from 1875 to 1876. A native of Ohio, he immigrated to the Oregon Territory in 1853. In Oregon, Thompson would become a wealthy business man, and served in the Oregon Legislative Assembly, as both a Republican and a Democrat, both before and after his time in Idaho, with election to both chambers of the legislature. During the American Civil War he joined the United States Army, but remained in Oregon and did not see any action. In his later years, the father of three served as mayor of Portland, Oregon, and as United States minister to the Ottoman Empire. A Republican for most of his political career, he was a presidential elector for the party, and in 1890 was its candidate for Governor of Oregon. Thompson Elk Fountain, a statue and fountain in the middle of Main Street in downtown Portland, was donated by him to the city, and a city park in Northeast Portland is named in his honor. Early life David Thompson was born on November 8, 1834, in Cadiz, Ohio. His parents, Joseph Thompson and Betsey Thompson, were of Irish and Scottish descent. Early in his life he was an apprentice blacksmith and later a surveyor for railroad lines. In 1853 at the age of 19, Thompson moved to the Oregon Territory while herding sheep across the Oregon Trail for Colonel R. R. Thompson. Oregon In Oregon, he helped build the a railroad around Willamette Falls near Oregon City, which was the first railroad in Oregon. He was then appointed as a deputy surveyor for the United States to survey public lands in both the Oregon and Washington territories, serving until 1863. With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 Thompson enlisted in the United States Army where he rose to the rank of captain in the First Oregon Cavalry. Due to the distance between engagements in the east and Oregon, the unit never saw action in the war. Later Thompson engaged in various business interests including mining, railroads (including the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company), banking, and manufacturing. Politics In 1868, Thompson served in the Oregon State Senate representing district 3 and Clackamas County as a Republican. At the next session in 1870 he served as a