Thompson, David, 1796-1839

Land dealer and speculator.

David Thompson (his middle name was apparently variously spelled Akin and Aiken) was born near St. Georges, Del., on 4 Apr. 1796, and later settled at Nashville, Tenn. On 17 Mar. 1818, he married Lauretta Charlotte Deaderick at Jonesborough, Tenn. Migrating to Arkansas in 1830, he engaged in the mercantile business in Little Rock, in Washington (Hempstead County), and in Columbus (Crawford County) in partnership with his brother-in-law, John Drennen. In 1836, Thompson and Drennen purchased the land claims of Daniel and Thomas Phillips, acquiring the land on which the town of Van Buren was founded. A land appraiser for the Real Estate Bank of the State of Arkansas from 1836, Thompson was extensively engaged in land speculation in the Territory and State of Arkansas and elsewhere in the Southwest, especially in buying bounty lands given Revolutionary War veterans. At one time he is reported to have owned 150,000 acres distributed in sixteen counties. His several other concerns included an active interest in horse racing. At various times in partnership with Drennen and with John C. McLemore and William B. McClellan of Tennessee, he joined in 1837 with McLemore and with Sterling Neblett of Virginia in efforts to develop coal mines on lands he owned near Spadra Bluff, in Johnson County, Ark. He died on 12 Sept. 1839.

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