One of the rising young men of African Methodism who was born and bred in the city is Rev. Chauncey Noble Thompson, now (1922) stationed at St. Paul A. M. E. Church, Charleston, W. Va.
He is a native of Baltimore, Md., where he was born July 19, 1892. His father, Andrew Thompson, was the son of Joseph Thompson, of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The mother of our subject was, before her marriage, Laura Virginia Jones.
Young Thompson pursued his elementary studies in the Baltimore public schools. From a very early age he felt divinely led toward the ministry, but he did not want to be a preacher. What he wanted was a career in the business and industrial world. So he went to Hampshire Institute and spent three years at that well known institution. He learned the trade of cabinet maker. He was converted in 1911, and, of course, with his conversion came a clearer call, and finally a realization that for him it was a futile thing to be making furniture when God wanted him to be making and moulding lives. So like the disciples of old, leaving their nets to follow the Master, he laid down his tools to take up the Bible, and went to Morgan College, Baltimore, for two years more of literary work. He was licensed in 1915 and that same year joined the Conference at Wilkesbarre, Penn., under Bishop C. T. Shaffer. After completing his work at Morgan College he studied theology at Wilberforce, finishing in 1917.
Some measure of his standing may be had from the fact that he was given as a first appointment the Bethel Station at Parkersburg, which he served for two years, remodeled the church and the parsonage. He went from there to Bluefield where he labored for two years and three months, when he was temporarily transferred to the Ohio Conference and stationed, for the balance of the conference year, at Chillicothe, Ohio. In the fall of 1921, he was sent to his present work at St. Paul, Charleston, which is making progress under his leadership.
On May 1, 1921, Mr. Thompson was married to Miss Amanda Tanner of Brookport, Ill., daughter of O. J. and Sarah Tanner. Mrs. Thompson was educated at Wilberforce University, Xenia, Ohio, and was, before her marriage, an accomplished teacher. Mr. Thompson himself taught while in Parkersburg.
While in school he was more or less active in Athletics, especially football. Next after the Bible his favorite reading consists of history and biography. His observation leads him to the conclusion that the primary need of the race education of the right sort.