Background
Thomson, Mortimer Neal was born on September 2, 1831 in Riga, Monroe County, New York, United States. Son of Edwin and Sophia (Thomson) Thomson.
Thomson, Mortimer Neal was born on September 2, 1831 in Riga, Monroe County, New York, United States. Son of Edwin and Sophia (Thomson) Thomson.
Attended University of Michigan, 1849-1850 (expelled).
Wrote series of humorous letters appearing in Detroit Daily Advertiser, New York Tribune, Spirit of the Times (New York), 1854-1855, published under name “Doesticks: What He Says,” 1855. Joined staff New York Tribune, 1855, wrote police-court sketches The History and Records of the Elephant Club, 1856. Wrote poem Nothing to Say (parody of William Allen Butler’s Nothing to Wear, 1857.
Wrote Pluri-bus-tap, a Song That’s-by-no-Author (mock heroic and parody of Longfellow’s Hiawatha), 1856. Edited New York Picayune, humorous weekly of day, 1858. Dramatic critic for New York Tribune, circa 1860, staff reporter.
Associate editor Minneapolis Tribune, circa 1870. New York editor Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, 1873-1875.
Married Anna H. Van Cleve, October 24, 1857. Married second, Grace Eldridge, July 1861.