Virginia (Jennie) A. Thompson was born in 1842 and grew up in Muscogee County, Georgia. She was the daughter of John W. Thompson (ca. 1812-1858) and Malvina Thompson (b. 1818). She had two older siblings, William (Bud) H. Thompson (b. 1837) and Martha (Mattie) Ellen Thompson (c. 1839-1868). John Thompson died around 1858 and Malvina remarried Robert G. Johnson (b. 1808) of Columbus, Georgia. Johnson was a farmer.
On December 29, 1859, at the age of 18, Jennie married William A. Dunklin (1829-1863) of Selma, Alabama. Dunklin was a lawyer and a partner with his cousin, Jonathon (Jon) Haralson, who was married to Mattie Thompson. The Dunklin couple resided in Selma. William A Dunklin had a son from a previous marriage named William. He was about eight when his father remarried. William and Jennie had two daughters, Mattie (b. 1860) and Margaret (Maggie) Lee (b. 1862).
In 1862, Dunklin joined the Confederate Army and served in Company G of the 44th Regiment of the Alabama Volunteer Infantry. The 44th was organized in Selma in May 1862 and assigned to General A.R. Wright's Brigade. The unit fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and at the campaigns at Sharpsburg, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Captain Dunklin died on July 2, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg during the assault on Little Round Top.
Jon and Mattie Haralson married in 1859. The couple had three daughters and one son (who died as an infant). During the Civil War, Jon Haralson (1830-1912) was an agent in Selma for the Niter and Mining Bureau of the Confederate States.
After the war, Haralson served on the city court of Selma from 1876-1892, when he was made associate justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He was continuously re-elected to that position until his retirement in 1908. Haralson was also active in the Alabama Baptist State Convention, leading it from 1874-1892. In 1888, he was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, which he served continuously for the next ten years.
Jennie Thompson Dunklin married again in 1868 to Henry Samuel Feagin, Jr. (1840-1904) of Houston County, Georgia. The couple had four sons: George (b. 1870), Robert, Edward, and Harry.
From the description of Thompson and Dunklin families letters, biography, and menus, 1857-1858. (Georgia Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 43896489
