67
J
OSEPH
M
C
L
EAN
T
HOMSON
, (a.k.a. James McLean
Thomson, Jr., a.k.a. Mac) born in St. Louis, Missouri in
1873 was the third child of Jessie and Mac Thomson.
Somewhere along the line every family has a
weak link, a black sheep, a member who does not rise
to the standards of the family. Joseph, who also called
himself Mac, was that person in the Mac and Jessie
Thomson family. In a family of seven girls and only two
boys, it appears Mac was cosseted particularly by his
oldest sister, Ed (Jane Edwardina).
A school drop-out, the St. Louis Street
Directories document the several occupations he held
as a young man. He was an elevator operator, a shoes
salesman and worked as a retail clerk. He finally
landed a job as a sales representative for a
pharmaceutical company—a traveling medicine man.
His territory was most of rural Missouri. One of his
stops was in Neelyville, Butler County, Missouri where
he met the young Lillie Glass.
When Mac and Lillie arrived in St. Louis they
moved in with Mac’s family. The home literally
crackled with the disapproval of Mac’s family. In