Lt. Colonel William Clyde Thompson

GEDCOM Note

Served in the Confederate Army receiving wounds at the battle of Shiloh April 6, 1862, at Fort Gibson, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory on May 1, 1863 and at the Battle of Franklin where he was captured by Union Troops on December 17, 1864. Generally referred to as Captain William C. Thompson, he was in fact promoted to Lt. Colonel of the 6th and 20th Mississippi Regiment by the end of the war.

William lived in Dallas, Cherokee, Parker and Trinity Counties in Texas after the war. He was also elected as a Judge in Trinity County, Texas in 1876 before relocating to the Ardmore, Chickasaw Nation in 1889. He opened one of the first businesses in the community of Marlow in the Chickasaw Nation in 1891. Prior to statehood, he was elected Mayor of Marlow in 1901.

A great deal of information exists on him through the National Archives relating to his court cases in pursuit of enrollment as a Citizen by Blood in the Choctaw Nation. Although a descendant of Neshoba, who may have been Choctaw, his main line that he claimed through was Margaret McCoy who as records in this file indicate was Chickasaw and Choctaw. He did finally win however, his Choctaw enrollment number was 15995 and is listed as 1/4 Choctaw. In reality he was 1/16 Chickasaw and 3/16 Choctaw.

Sources: William C. Thompson, et al. vs. Choctaw Nation, MCR File 341, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Muskogee, Oklahoma; D.C. Gideon, Indian Territory...1901, pg. 534; William C. Thompson and the Choctaw-Chickasaw Paper Chase by Dr. Douglas Hale, Oklahoma State University; 1896 Choctaw Census; Department of the Interior, Office of Indian Affairs correspondence between A.C. Tonner, Acting Commissioner for the Dawes Commission, and the Secretary of the Interior, April 29, 1904; ref. Land 25846-1904-Oklahoma Historical Society; Choctaw Re-instatement list, correspondence from the Department of the Interior to the Commissioner of the Five Civilized Tribes, February 20, 1909