As we continue to move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I’m still focusing on elements of the Revolutionary War effort of attaining independence and the related contributions and connections of families of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers.

Andrew, James, John, Nathan, Robert, and Samuel Thompson. Were they brothers? Were some of them fathers and sons? Or were they related in some other way? I don’t know, but they knew one another, for sure, because each of them, except for James, rode with James White as part of the mounted infantry of White’s Knox County Regiment. Although James was led by Tedford, all of them served in the Hamilton District militia at some point between 1792 and 1795. They were “ranging” for the protection of the frontiers in the Territory South of the River Ohio, which became the State of Tennessee in 1796.

They were “called into service by His Excellency William Blount” and at different times were individually under leaders named Bogle, Beaird, Tedford, Evans, Singleton, McGaughey, and McClellan. They obviously served in establishing the foundation of our nation, but did any of them serve in the Revolutionary War before it ended in 1783?

Multiple pension files exist for the Thompson names I’ve listed, and it has taken a lot of digging to find whether any of them related to our Thompsons. Pension files exist for 22 John Thompsons alone! Only when I got to the end of the alphabetical line with Samuel did I find a connection.

Samuel Thompson was living in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1774, when he was drafted as a private under Captain Samuel McDowell. They marched to Point Pleasant against the Shawnee, defeated them, then marched across the Ohio River to where peace was made with them and he was honorably discharged by Governor Dunmore. He then volunteered in 1776 under Captain John Lyle against the Cherokee. They marched to the Big Island on the Holston (at what is now Kingsport), called at different stations along the way, and were eventually discharged again when no peace was made. In 1778, he was drafted into Colonel William Boyer’s Regiment and was soon appointed Sergeant Major. They built Fort Laurens, then were discharged at Staunton, Virginia. After moving to Sullivan County (now Tennessee), he was drafted to reconnoiter after the Cherokee and was discharged after a month. In 1781, he served in the cavalry under Colonel Isaac Shelby and joined General Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion at the Santee Swamp, then to the garrison at Colleton’s Fairlawn Plantation. There, 80 prisoners were surrendered to them. He hurt his arm when they took the prisoners back to Santee Swamp, so he was discharged. He never regained full use of his arm.

He moved to the south side of the French Broad in 1785, but had to stay at Wallace’s Fort and defend against the Cherokee for about a year. He first married Martha Hoosong during this time, but he married Joanna Wallace after Martha’s death. He afterwards moved to Blount County, where he again defended against the Cherokee for about two years. This was when the other Thompsons also served in the militia with him. He later served in the War of 1812. The Rev. Isaac Anderson, who initially preached at Lebanon-in-the-Fork Presbyterian then founded Maryville College, vouched for Samuel Thompson’s character when he applied for his pension in 1832.

Baker’s Creek Cemetery, established in 1796

At least some of the mentioned Thompsons, in whatever manner they might have been related, lived at Baker’s Creek in Blount County, where a memorial shows that Samuel was born in 1752 and died in 1839. I know that various families who eventually lived in the Fork came from Baker’s Creek, and in the early 1800s, Lloyd B. Thompson held 200 acres in the heart of the Fork along Swan Pond Creek, adjoining William Fisher’s land. How Lloyd might have been related to our Thompson militiamen has been forgotten in the Fork.

Jan Loveday Dickens is an educator, historian, and author of Forgotten in the Fork, a book about the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers, obtainable by emailing ForgottenInTheFork@gmail.com.

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