John Martin Thompson (1829–1907) was a lumberman, Native American tribal and civic leader, born in the old
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation ( Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. ...
prior to removal in what is now
Bartow County, Georgia
Bartow County is located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 108,901, up from 100,157 in 2010. The county seat is Cartersville.
Traditionally considered part of northwest Georgia, ...
, USA.
[Starr's History of the Cherokee Indians, By Dr. Emmet Starr, Grant Family] He was the son of Benjamin Franklin Thompson, a South Carolinian of Scot-Irish descent, and Annie Martin, a mix blood
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
. She was the daughter of Judge John Martin,
the first Chief Justice of the
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation ( Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. ...
and Nellie McDaniel.
The Cherokees and the Mount Tabor Indian Community
Thompson's family had ties to the
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
Ridge Party, who supported the removal treaty known as the
Treaty of New Echota
The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia, by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, the Treaty Party.
The treaty established ter ...
.
[Cherokee Cavaliers: Forty Years of Cherokee History As Told in the Correspondence of the Ridge-Watie-Boudinot Family, 1939 By Edward Everett Dale and Gaston Litton, University of Oklahoma Press] In 1848, Thompson's family left the Cherokee Nation in
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
along with other Ridge Party and Old Settler supporters to settle in
Rusk County, Texas
Rusk County is a county located in Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 52,214. Its county seat is Henderson. The county is named for Thomas Jefferson Rusk, a secretary of war of the Republic of Texas.
Rusk County is part of th ...
. B.F. Thompson initially purchased in the spring of 1844 near present-day Laird Hill, Texas, on which the family made its home. The community later became known as the
Mount Tabor Indian Community
The Mount Tabor Indian Community (also Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands of the Mount Tabor Indian Community) is a cultural heritage group located in Rusk County, Texas. There was a historical Mount Tabor Indian Community dating from the 19th c ...
, the name given to the area by John Adair Bell as recorded in the book ''Cherokee Cavaliers'', (pg 80).
J.M. Thompson, although growing up in the Cherokee Nation, in both Georgia and Indian Territory, got his formal education, along with his brother William Wirt Thompson, at the Western Military College, then located at Georgetown, Kentucky. The brothers spent two years at the college before returning to east Texas and becoming deeply involved in the families plantation.
[John Martin Thompson biography 1905: Texas Transportation Archive http://www.ttarchive.com/Library/Biographies/Thompson-John-M_1906_American-Lumberman-Biographies-Vol-2.html]
American Civil War
During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
(1861-1865), most Mount Tabor Cherokees joined Brigadier General
Stand Watie
Brigadier-General Stand Watie ( chr, ᏕᎦᏔᎦ, translit=Degataga, lit=Stand firm; December 12, 1806September 9, 1871), also known as Standhope Uwatie, Tawkertawker, and Isaac S. Watie, was a Cherokee politician who served as the second princ ...
, the only Indian to reach the rank of General in the Confederate Army. Watie, his wife and other family members lived at Mount Tabor for short periods during the war. However, John Martin Thompson did not serve or organize units for Watie's Confederate Cherokees. Rather he organized units at Bellview, a town that came from the
Mount Tabor Indian Community
The Mount Tabor Indian Community (also Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands of the Mount Tabor Indian Community) is a cultural heritage group located in Rusk County, Texas. There was a historical Mount Tabor Indian Community dating from the 19th c ...
, to serve with Texas military units. These were made up of the few Cherokees that did not serve with Watie, as well as local
Yowani Choctaws
The Yowani were a historical group of Choctaw people who lived in Texas.
Yowani was also the name of a preremoval Choctaw village.
When this area became part of the United States under the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, many of the resident Indian ...
and inter-married whites. Thompson who was wounded on multiple occasions during the four year war, quickly rose to the rank of Major in the Confederate Army.
The largest loss of life during the war by Mount Tabor Indians that organized under Thompson, was the
Battle of Jenkins Ferry in Saline County, Arkansas. This war, both in surrounding states and
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
, took the lives of over 25% of the male population.
Reconstruction
Following the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, J.M. Thompson became one of the largest lumbermen in
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. During the reconstruction era and into the early twentieth centuries Thompson along with his sons built their vast holdings in timber through a series of sound business decisions. In 1881, they left the Rusk County area, moving operations into Trinity County in order to market their product via the
Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad
The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railway was a Class I railroad company in the United States, with its last headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Established in 1865 under the name Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch, it came to serve an extensive ra ...
. They facilitated their marketing campaigns by developing connections to retail lumberyards. Further, they organized a series of companies to expedite and manage their ever-growing timber empire. Thus were formed the Thompson and Tucker Lumber Company followed by the J. M. Thompson Lumber Company, the Thompson Brothers Lumber Company, and finally the Thompson and Ford Lumber Company. By 1907, the various companies owned over of land while operating mills in communities such as Willard, Doucette and Grayburg. In 1906, the company relocated all corporate interests to
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
.
Later life
Although as busy as he was, Thompson was first a family man and community leader. He led th
Mount Tabor Indian Community(and by extension the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands), following the death of
William Penn Adair
William Penn Adair (1830–1880) was a leader of the Cherokee Nation. Born in the traditional Cherokee territory in Georgia, he traveled as a child with his family on the Trail of Tears of Indian Removal from the Southeast to Indian Territory to w ...
in 1880, until his own death in 1907. He was succeeded as Executive Committee Chairman of the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands by Chief John Ellis Bean and shortly thereafter by Chairman Claude Muskrat.
His successor and son Hoxie Harry Thompson
His business successor was his son Hoxie Harry Thompson. It was H.H. Thompson who sold to the
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
for $12.50 an acre. These lands eventually formed the largest part of the
Davy Crockett National Forest
Davy Crockett National Forest is off U.S. Highway 69 lying west of Lufkin, Texas and east of Crockett. It is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service local headquarters in Lufkin. There are local ranger distric ...
. By 1960, Hoxie Thompson had sold neally all of the Thompson lands, but maintained most of the mineral rights.
Handbook of Texas Online: John Martin Thompson
/ref>
See also
* Mount Tabor Indian Community
The Mount Tabor Indian Community (also Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands of the Mount Tabor Indian Community) is a cultural heritage group located in Rusk County, Texas. There was a historical Mount Tabor Indian Community dating from the 19th c ...
Mount Tabor Indian Community
* William Clyde Thompson
William Clyde Thompson (1839–1912) was a Texas Choctaw-Chickasaw leader of the Mount Tabor Indian Community in Texas and an officer of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. After moving north to the Chickasaw Nation in 1889, he ...
* Martin Luther Thompson Martin Luther Thompson was a Texas Choctaw leader and rancher who along with his relatives, William Clyde Thompson (1839–1912), Robert E. Lee Thompson (1872–1959) and John Thurston Thompson (1864–1907), led several families of Choctaws from t ...
* Charles Collins Thompson
Charles Collins Thompson (July 3, 1898 – August 5, 1983) was a Texas judge, attorney, banker and rancher. He was a native of Erath County, Texas.Some East Texas Native Families: Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands Genealogy Project: Rootsweb ...
* Stand Watie
Brigadier-General Stand Watie ( chr, ᏕᎦᏔᎦ, translit=Degataga, lit=Stand firm; December 12, 1806September 9, 1871), also known as Standhope Uwatie, Tawkertawker, and Isaac S. Watie, was a Cherokee politician who served as the second princ ...
* William Penn Adair
William Penn Adair (1830–1880) was a leader of the Cherokee Nation. Born in the traditional Cherokee territory in Georgia, he traveled as a child with his family on the Trail of Tears of Indian Removal from the Southeast to Indian Territory to w ...
* Yowani Choctaws
The Yowani were a historical group of Choctaw people who lived in Texas.
Yowani was also the name of a preremoval Choctaw village.
When this area became part of the United States under the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, many of the resident Indian ...
Notes
References
Sources
* Edward Everett Dale and Gaston Litton, ''Cherokee Cavaliers: Forty Years of Cherokee History As Told in the Correspondence of the Ridge-Watie-Boudinot Family'', 1939, University of Oklahoma Press; , 13: 978-0806127217
* Thomas D. Isern and Raymond Wilson, "Lone Star: The Thompson Timber Interests of Texas", ''Red River Valley Historical Review'', #7, 1981
* Thompson Collection, Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches, Texas
* Thomas D. Isern
Handbook of Texas Online: John Martin Thompson
* ''Republic of Texas Treaties; Treaty of Bowles Village February 23, 1836'', Texas State Historical Society, Austin, Texas
* ''Treaty of Birds Fort September 29, 1843'', Texas State Historical Society, Austin, Texas
* Dr. Emmet Starr, ''Starr's History of the Cherokee Indians''
* George Morrison Bell Sr., ''The Old Mount Tabor Community, Genealogy of Old and New Cherokee Families''
*
Some East Texas Native Families: Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands Genealogy Project: Rootsweb Global Search: Familyties
* Mary Whatley Clarke, ''Chief Bowles and Texas Cherokees'' (Chapter XI, Cherokee Claims to Land), University of Oklahoma Press, ,
* ''Texas-Cherokees vs United States Docket 26,'' 26 Ind Cl Comm. 78 (1971)
External links
* ttp://www.paulridenour.com/mttabor.htm Mount Tabor Indian Cemetery, Rusk County, Texasbr>Asbury Indian Cemetery, Smith County, Texas, Information related to Choctaw and Cherokee descendants buried there, by Paul Ridenour, 2005
The Handbook of Texas Online: Indians by George Klos
by Paul Ridenour
by Paul Ridenour
* ttp://www.paulridenour.com/mrmain.htm Ridenour's Major Ridge Home Page, by Paul Ridenour 2008br>Gregg County Historical Markers
Lou Della (Thompson) Crim Home
* ttp://www.dibollfreepress.com/news/2008/0326/history/039.html, "The House of Thompson" Texas Forestry Museumbr>Handbook of Texas Online: John Martin Thompson, by Thomas D. Isern
Handbook of Texas Online: THOMPSON TIMBER INTERESTS, by Thomas D. Isern
Handbook of Texas Online: Mount Tabor Indian Community by J.C. Thompson and Patrick Pynes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, John Martin
Cherokee Confederates
Native American leaders
1829 births
1907 deaths
Cherokee Nation people (1794–1907)
20th-century Native Americans