My Genealogy Hound

Joseph S. Thompson came originally from Hardeman County, Tenn., being a son of Thomas Thompson, a native of Orange County, N. C, who died in 1830. The latter was a soldier in the War of 1812, and took part in some of the most important engagements of the war, including the battle of New Orleans. He was a farmer and blacksmith by occupation. Joseph S., the principal of this sketch, was reared in his native county until after grown to manhood. He did not have the advantages for obtaining an education which his children now enjoy, as Hardeman County was at that time but thinly settled, and there was no school-house or church in his neighborhood. He began farming for himself at the age of twenty-one, and in 1858 came to Arkansas and purchased a farm near Marianna, not moving his family here until the following year. He was first married, in 1840, to Miss Nancy Allen, of North Carolina, who died in 1861, leaving three children, Ellen (the wife of John Lovejoy, a farmer of Lee County) being the only survivor; Thomas was killed by an accidental fall from a tree, and Sarah (now deceased) was the wife of Leander Johnson. Mr. Thompson was afterward married in Woodruff County, about 1863, to Mrs. Mary McLean (nee Crawford), widow of William J. McLean, and a daughter of William Crawford. She died in 1874, having borne two children: Minnie (wife of Edward Gillen Waters, a farmer of this county) and William J. His third and present wife, Mrs. Susan Green, a native of Mississippi, was the daughter of William and Betsey (Coley) Dougherty. They are the parents of one son, Joseph Ritter. Mr. Thompson now owns a farm of 160 acres, with 100 acres under cultivation. He and wife are members of the Christian Church, in which they take an active part.