Biography of J T Thompson, Greene Co, AR

***********************************************************
Submitted by: Michael Brown
        Date: 5 Sep 1998
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
***********************************************************

Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas

page 176

Rev. J. T. Thompson, a prominent merchant of Marmaduke, and one of the representative
men of the county, was born near Jackson, West Tenn., January 27, 1833, and is of
English parentage. His father, James Thompson, was a native of North Carolina, in
that State growing to manhood, and was there married to Miss Lydia Terrell. He
followed the occupation of a farmer, but also carried on the blacksmith trade for
many years. In 1825 he moved to Tennessee, and there lost his wife, when their son,
J. T., was seven months old. The latter attained his growth in Tennessee, attending
the common country schools, and at the age of nineteen years was united in marriage
to Miss Mary J. Worrell, who bore him eight children, seven of whom are now living:
James F., married and engaged in the marble business at Helena, Ark.; J. P., a
carpenter by trade, living in West Tennessee, is married and has one child; J. J., a
carpenter at Marmaduke, is married and has one child; Albert Sidney was a carpenter
by trade, who, while occupied at his work on a house in Rector, in 1887, fell and was
so injured that he died a few days later; Mary T. is at home; Sarah A. married Joseph
Conger, of Greene County, and is now living on a farm near Marmaduke; Susan E is at
home and so also is William H. Mr. Thompson enlisted in the Fifty-first Confederate
Tennessee Regiment, in November, 1861, at Jackson, Tenn., and was in service in that
State, Alabama and Mississippi. His regiment was captured at Fort Donelson, but he
succeeded in making his escape on a steamboat up the Tennessee River. His regiment
was reorganized at Corinth in the March following, and then in May he was sent home
on sick furlough. Having sufficiently recovered by August of the same year, he
enlisted in the Fourteenth Tennessee Cavalry, in Gen. Forrest's command, and took
part in his campaigns through Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama, in 1865. He was
detached from his command in December, and never returned to his regiment until after
the close of the war, and so was never discharged. After the war be returned to
Jackson, Tenn., remained there for some time, and then was in Denmark for about four
years. He moved to Arkansas in 1870, settling within two miles of Marmaduke, where he
followed farming until 1888, and then bought out the drug firm of Huckabay & Moore,
in Marmaduke. Since then he has added dry goods, notions, etc. For his second wife
Mr. Thompson chose Mrs. Martha A. Brand, and four children have been the result of
this union: Robert Lee, Rosa B., Benna C. (“Dot”) and an infant, Charles C. Mr.
Thompson is thoroughly identified with all public enterprises, and a liberal
contributor to the same. He was licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, in 1874, and has since ministered to the spiritual wants of his fellow men in
that church. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Blue Lodge, in which he has
filled all the chairs. Mrs. Thompson and most of the children are also members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.