John Martin Thompson (c. 1829–1907)[1] was a lumberman, Native American tribal and civic leader, born in the old Cherokee Nation prior to removal in what is now Bartow County, Georgia, USA.[2] He was the son of Benjamin Franklin Thompson, a South Carolinian of Scot-Irish descent, and Annie Martin, a mix blood Cherokee. She was the daughter of Judge John Martin,[2] the first Chief Justice of the Cherokee Nation and Nellie McDaniel.
Thompson's family had ties to the Cherokee Ridge Party, who supported the removal treaty known as the Treaty of New Echota.[3] In 1848, Thompson's family left the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory along with other Ridge Party and Old Settler supporters to settle in Rusk County, Texas. B.F. Thompson initially purchased 10,000 acres (40 km2) 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 name given to the area by John Adair Bell as recorded in the book Cherokee Cavaliers, (pg 80).[3] 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.[4]
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), most Mount Tabor Cherokees joined Brigadier General Stand Watie, 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, 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 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.[4] 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, took the lives of over 25% of the male population.
Following the American Civil War, J.M. Thompson became one of the largest lumbermen in Texas.[5] 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. 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 149,000 acres (600 km2) of land while operating mills in communities such as Willard, Doucette and Grayburg. In 1906, the company relocated all corporate interests to Houston.[6]
Although as busy as he was, Thompson was first a family man and community leader. He led the Mount Tabor Indian Community (and by extension the Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands), following the death of William Penn Adair in 1880,[7] 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.[8]
His business successor was his son Hoxie Harry Thompson.[9] It was H.H. Thompson who sold 94,126 acres (380.91 km2) to the United States Forest Service for $12.50 an acre. These lands eventually formed the largest part of the Davy Crockett National Forest.[10] By 1960, Hoxie Thompson had sold neally all of the Thompson lands, but maintained most of the mineral rights.[11]
