Democrat representing district 16 and Multnomah County. In 1874, he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as the governor of Idaho Territory, beginning service in 1875. While governor Thompson oversaw several mail contracts, he maintained his residence in Oregon and made only brief trips to Idaho Territory. He resigned the post, at Grant's request, in the summer of 1876. In 1878, he returned to the Oregon Legislature as a Republican representing Multnomah County. He was elected Mayor of Portland on June 16, 1879, and reelected June 20, 1881, serving until 1882. In 1884, Thompson was a presidential elector for the Republican Party and Rutherford B. Hayes. After an absence from that body he was elected again and served there in 1889. In 1890 he was the Republican nominee for Oregon Governor, but lost the election. Then in 1892 President Benjamin Harrison appointed Thompson as United States minister to the Ottoman Empire where he served until resigning in 1893. Family and later life In 1861, Thompson married Mary R. Meldrum with whom he would father three children: Bessie, Genevieve, and Ralph. Thompson served as a regent to the University of Oregon and as president of the Oregon Humane Society. In 1891, the Portland Public Library was founded, with Thompson serving as its first president. He donated a fountain to the city of Portland that is downtown, and after his death his family donated a statue by the sculptor Herman A. MacNeil named Coming of the White Man that stands in Washington Park. The fountain, called Thompson Elk Fountain, is located in the middle of Main Street in the Plaza Blocks downtown, designed by sculptor Roland Hinton Perry. On July 2, 2020, the elk statue was separated from the fountain and removed for safekeeping after the granite fountain was set on fire amid ongoing George Floyd Protests. The bronze statue itself was largely undamaged. The granite components of the fountain were deconstructed and removed to safekeeping later in July, although components were destroyed by the City in the process. In addition, Thompson Park in Northeast Portland is named in Thompson's honor. David P. Thompson died December 14, 1901, in Portland, and his cremated remains were interred at River View Cemetery. References External links Painting of Thompson (public domain?) 1834 births 1901 deaths People from Cadiz, Ohio Mayors of Portland, Oregon Oregon state senators Members of the Oregon House of Representatives 1884