My Genealogy Hound

Col. John A. Thompson is worthy of mention as an influential citizen of Arkansas County. His father, Alexander Thompson, was born in Virginia in 1800, and was reared and educated in that State, but in 1826 removed to Missouri, settling in Monroe County. He was married in 1822 to Miss Margaret W. McKee, whose birth occurred in Mercer County, Tenn., in 1803-04. They were the parents of three children, John A. (the youngest) making his appearance in Monroe County, Mo., on January 23, 1831. His paternal grandfather came from Ireland to America in 1778, with two brothers, having been exiled and their property confiscated by the Crown for participation in the Irish Rebellion of that year. In 1849 Mr. Thompson went to California to look for gold and three years later returned with his pockets well filled. Going to Harrodsburg, Ky., he engaged in the mercantile business and remained until 1855, when he exchanged his business and trade for real estate in Monroe County, Mo. He was married shortly before leaving Kentucky to Miss Jennie R. Lawrence, daughter of Samuel and Eliza Lawrence. She died in July, 1856, leaving one child, which survived but two months. Mr. Thompson was married three years later to Henrietta Harrison Greenwade, also a Kentuckian, In 1856 he moved to Audrain County, Mo., where he resumed farming until 1861, when the war broke out and he joined the Confederate service, enlisting in the Missouri State Militia. He soon received a commission as lieutenant-colonel, and was assigned to the northern part of the State on recruiting duty, serving throughout the war and taking part in a number of battles and skirmishes. In 1863 he was sent to Kentucky on recruiting duty, where he enlisted several hundred men. After the war he returned to his farm, which he found in a very bad state, all of his improvements, consisting of a good dwelling house, several tenement houses, and other buildings, having been destroyed, and his two negroes set free and gone. In 1875 he sold out and went to Colorado and embarked in sheep raising until 1883, when he returned to Missouri and carried on the same business. Two years later he came to Arkansas and located in this county, opening up a hardware store at Stuttgart; this he successfully conducted until quite recently, when he retired from active business life. Col. Thompson is a liberal donator to all enterprises for the advancement of the county or State, and is one of Stuttgart’s best-known citizens.