Biography of Owen A. Thompson
Owen A. Thompson, born on July 27, 1885, in Liberty, Kansas, comes from a pioneering family with Scottish roots. After a global journey and four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, he settled in Independence, Kansas, in 1909. There, he invented the Safety Pulling Machine, vital for the oil industry, and became secretary and treasurer of the Safety Pulling Machine Company. A socialist like his father, he married Eva Cox in 1912 and has two children, Ivan W. and Cleda.