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Below is a family biography included in The History of Hickman County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1886.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Dr. Elisha G. Thompson, general merchant, of Centreville, was born six miles north of the town March 13, 1836, son of Asa and Mary (Carothers) Thompson and of English-Scotch descent. His father was born in North Carolina in 1797, and his mother in Hickman County, Tenn., in 1807. The Thompson family came to Tennessee about 1802, and settled in Robertson County, where they lived until 1805, then they came to what is now Hickman County. Here the grandparents of our subject died. Here, also, the father of Mr. Thompson died in 1875. He was a farmer by occupation. Of ten children born to him our subject is the fifth. He was educated in the country schools, and remained on the farm until nineteen years of age, when he began clerking in a store in Centreville. He began studying medicine in 1857, in the office of A. D. Childress, of Hardin County, Tenn. Two years later he began selling drugs in Wayne County, continuing the same until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted in Company F, Wayne County Rangers, Second Battalion of Cavalry. He was afterward in the First Tennessee Cavalry, and served as second lieutenant. He was commissioned captain in September, 1861, and held this position until 1862, when he was compelled to resign on account of ill health. He went to Roupe’s Valley Iron Works, in Alabama, where he secured the position of post surgeon. In 1865 he returned to Centreville, and here has since resided. In 1868 he began the practice of his profession in this place and continued for twelve years, when he began merchandising. He is a Democrat, and from 1866 until 1874 he was deputy circuit clerk. In 1874 he was elected circuit court clerk and was re-elected in 1878, thus showing his popularity as a citizen and office holder. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and was married in December, 1866, to Catherine Carothers, of Mississippi, who died May 20, 1878, leaving one son, H. Clagett. In 1879 Dr. Thompson married Fannie Phillips, of Holly Springs, Miss. They have one child, Lucy.

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This family biography is one of 20 biographies included in The History of Hickman County, Tennessee published in 1886.  The History of Hickman County was included within The History of Lawrence, Wayne, Perry, Hickman & Lewis Counties of Tennessee. View the complete description here: History of Lawrence, Wayne, Perry, Hickman and Lewis Counties of Tennessee

View additional Hickman County, Tennessee family biographies here: Hickman County, Tennessee

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