Pioneers Of Early Coronado

Gus 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 death in 1947. The Gustavus Thompson Lodge of Spring Valley, named after Gus, still operates today. Gus Thompson passed away on Sept 5, 1947.

Emma Thompson ran a Lunch Room in the earliest days of Tent City (1902), as well as a travelers restaurant in Pine Valley, California. In 1922, she traveled to Europe for an extensive trip with Coronado socialite Mary Lacey, likely working as her personal maid. She was a brave advocate for racial equality in San Diego and across the state of California. As a board member of the State of California Federation of Colored Women, she lobbied politicians to sign the anti-lynching legislation. She was also involved in the establishment and support of the Clay St branch of the YWCA, a branch that was established after the San Diego YWCA refused to integrate and allow African American female members.

The Thompsons resided for over 40 years on C Avenue in a home they built in 1895, which was also the location of their livery stable. They continued to own the C Avenue property until 1955 when they sold it to Lloyd Dong, a Chinese-Amer-

ican gardener who had been renting the house since 1939. Gus had given Lloyd the promise of an option to buy it one day, and Emma kept Gus’s word and sold it to the Dong family, who still own the property today.

Gus and Emma were active in civic, political, and religious affairs. Gus, a registered Republican voter his entire life, was an elected delegate of the Republican Party representing Coronado in 1898. When California became the first of six states to affirm the right of women to vote late in 1911, Emma was one of three African American women in Coronado in 1912 to register to vote. Over six decades, Emma Thompson became one of the most widely respected African American pioneers in San Diego County. Gus passed away on September 5, 1947 and Emma passed on March 10, 1958.

Both Gus & Emma Thompson’s legacy will be explored more in the Coronado Historical Association’s exhibit An Island Looks Back: Uncovering Coronado’s African American History, which opens to the public on February 9th.