Thomas F. Thompson was born May, 1848, at Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, the second son of Johnson Thompson, merchant of that place. Thomas attended district school until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he went south with the refugees. After the war he went with his parents to Grand River, Delaware district, where he attended one session at Pea Ridge School, Arkansas; leaving there he went to Vinita, where he was employed in his father’s store for about three years, after which he improved a farm on Big Cabin Creek, and there resided three years. Moving back to Vinita in 1878, he opened a grocery business in connection with James Skinner, who after one year sold his interest to E. N. Radcliffe. In 1878, Mr. Thompson disposed of his half of the business, and established a feed and produce exchange in the same town, which business he is now conducting, carrying a stock of about $2,000. Mr. Thompson handles produce of all kinds, and solicits orders by carload from all parts of the country; goods carefully handled, and to the best advantage. Mr. Thompson married Miss Susan Parks, daughter of Judge Parks, formerly of East Tennessee, who, at his death, was supreme judge of the Cherokee Nation; Mrs. Thompson’s mother was a Miss L. Spriggs, of Scottish and English descent, and of a leading family in East Tennessee. Mr. Thompson is a man of gentlemanly bearing and courteous manners, has a good practical education, and is highly esteemed in his town. Mrs. Thompson is a lady of refinement and education, and is a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. Thompson announces his intention of establishing a general mercantile business early in the summer of 1892, and will stock a house in Wilson Street with the latest assortment of goods in all departments. Mr. Thompson owns a large tract of land, seventy acres of which is in good cultivation, also a fine residence worth $1,500, and $700 of town lots.
