History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 354

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this article; Margaret Elizabeth, who was
married to J. W. Anderson and now resides
in Calhoun county, Alabama; Sarah S., who
was married to J. A. Landers and died leaving
one child: Thomas Benton, who died in
Chambers county, Alabama, in 1893, where
his descendants now live; Robert W., who
died in recent years at Birmingham, Alabama,
leaving no issue; John Hnnter, who
died in Virginia, in the Confederate service
during the late war; and Barton, who died in
infancy. The father was twice married
afterward but had no children by
either of his last marriages. He died
in 1866; was a planter throughout life; accumulated
considerable means in lands and
slaves before the war, all of which, however,
was swept away during that destructive contest.
He was for many years a member of
the Methodist Church, in which he was in
later life a local minister.
Elijah Teague Thompson, the subject
proper of this notice, was born in Abbeville
district, South Carolina, September 27, 1828,
and was reared in Calhoun county, Alabama,
where his parents settled when he was seven
years old. He grew up on the farm and has
followed agricultural pursuits all his life.
His educational advantages were limited.
Marrying at about the age of twenty-one, he
settled on a farm to himself and until the
opening of the Civil war was actively engaged
in agricultural pursuits.
He entered the Confederate service in the
latter part of 1861, enlisting in Company
D, which he raised and of which lie was
elected and commissioned Captain, Thirtyfirst
Alabama Infantry. With this command
he joined the Army of Tennessee in February,
1862, and participated in the rpid into
Kentucky under General E. Kirbf Smith,
joined Bragg and was with him in his subse

quent operations as far as Murfreesborough,
Tennessee, whence Stephenson's division, to
which the Thirty-first Alabama belonged,
was ordered to the vicinity of Knoxville.
Captain Thomllpson's command, however,
took part in the engagements at Fort Gibson,
Baker's Creek, Big Black and the siege of
Vicksburg. At the fall of Vicksburg he
was paroled, with the remainder of his comrades,
and soon afterward rendezvoused at
Demopolis, Alabama, was later exchanged
and again entered the service in time to take
part in the battle of Chickamauga. He was
in all the engagements in the vicinity of
Chattanooga, and, entering the Georgia campaign
in the spring of 1864, he was in the
series of fights down to Atlanta, being captured
at Kenesaw mountain on June 15,
1864. He was taken from this point to
Johnson's island, New York, where he was
held till June 15, 1865.
Returning home he turned his attention
at once to the problems of peace, finding as
the only means left him with which to again
begin the battle of life two little imules and
his farm. He put in a crop, but before it
was "laid by" some one stole one of his
mules and the crop was worked out with the
other mule and by hand. Struggling along
as well as le could with the limited means at
his command, Captain Thompson continued
to reside in Alabama until 1869, when,
wearying with the unequal contest, he came
West to seek a better foothold. He reached
Milam county Decenber 7, 1869, and made
his first stop at old Port Sullivan. He rented
land there one year and then in 1870 bought
140 acres of the place on which he now resides.
He has bought other land since, his
holding now amounting to 700 acres, between
450 and 500 acres of which is in cultivation.
The average yield of his farm is from 150 to

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