ISLAND ICONS: GUS THOMPSON & EMMA GARDNER
Pioneers Of Early Coronado
G
us Thompson was born into slavery in Cadiz, Kentucky between 1859-61. In 1875, amid the turbulent post-Civil War Reconstruction period, Gus moved to Henderson, Kentucky to live with his older sister Mary and her husband George Ellis. Gus found work at the Soaper Farm, one of the richest families in Henderson, Kentucky who had amassed their fortunes in the antebellum period using slave labor. As a result of his hard work, Gus soon became the coachman for the Soaper Family matriarch, Susan Soaper. Gus was likely present in 1886 when Coronado visionary E.S. Babcock and coachman Solomon Johnson paid the Soaper family a visit looking for funds to build the Hotel Del Coronado. Babcock failed to attract the needed funds from the Soapers, but the visit likely left an impression on Gus, who soon traveled to Coronado where he found work in a local livery stable. While working in the livery stable he caught the attention of E.S. Babcock, who employed him as the family Coachman in 1887. In January 1888, Gus escorted the first guests of the Hotel Del Coronado aboard the Babcock carriage. Emma Gardner was born in 1869 in Texas and arrived in San Diego in 1885 as a domestic servant of the Forker family. She married Gus Thompson in Coronado in 1893 and began work with the Giles Kellogg Family of Coronado. She and Gus had three children, Walter (b. 1894), Edythe (b. 1896), and Edward (b. 1900). For the next 30 years, Gus worked for E.S. Babcock, while also running his private business interests, which included contracts with the City of Coronado. His initial work was in the transport business, starting first with a wagon and horses and, in later years, cars and trucks. With his own team of horses and a wagon, Gus took on all types of transport and general labor work. He became a trusted go-to man for many residents and businesses in Coronado and also with city government. He won the bulk-mail transport contract for the city for twenty years (from the early 1890s up to 1913), traveling between San Diego and Coronado twice daily on the Ferry with his wagon. In 1903 he was instrumental in co-founding Fidelity Lodge, San Diego’s first African American Prince Hall Freemason Lodge, which he remained deeply involved with until his
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