H. S. Thompson

[4] Thompson began his career in an era when the American public was beginning to seek out its own melodies, rather than those from European composers, while sheet music could receive national distribution thanks to improved transportation and communications networks.

The 1850 census records him in Georgetown, Massachusetts, but by 1851 he had moved to Newburyport where he was a teacher, performer, and impresario, first advertising his Singing School in January of 1851.

[5] By April of that year, he was offering a "Musical Entertainment," including a quartet singing his own composition, "Willie's on the dark blue sea.

"[6] He took a room in Boston in 1858, but would split from his family before the close of the American Civil War; his wife and two younger children relocated to Washington County, Minnesota, while Thompson went west.

[2] The tune of "Lily Dale" was paired with lyrics for "O Ye Mountains High" by Charles W. Penrose in hymnbooks of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as early as 1880.