John Martin Thompson

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.

[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.

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.

[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.