Father Tompkins believed in the emancipating power of education and sought to improve economic conditions through study groups and co-operative action.

He started the first regional library in Nova Scotia along with the first credit union and a cooperative housing association in Reserve Mines that was dubbed "Tompkinsville".

Jimmy Tompkins was born in Margaree Forks, Nova Scotia, a small farming community on Cape Breton Island.

He attended the Urban College of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Papal Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith) in Rome from 1897 to 1902.

As parish priest Tompkins observed firsthand the plight of the poor fishing community there and helped organize and lead what would become the Antigonish Movement of cooperative fisheries, stores, housing projects, and adult study groups.