Little Benonie THOMPSON

The following bio was taken from page 407 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

In 1867 Little Benonie Thompson, born in 1846 in Mississippi, came with his mother, Lucy Ellen Thompson Rawlings, from Catahoula Parish, Louisiana to Rusk County, Texas and settled on a farm northwest of Henderson. Two half-brothers of L. B. Thompson were Richard Rawlings who married Nancy Eddington in Rusk County, and Louis Rawlings. L. B. Thompson served in the Confederate Army as a private, in Company D & G, 3rd Regiment, Louisiana Cavalry. In 1869 L. B. Thompson married Martha Jane Pryor, whose parents were Margaret and William Pryor. Two sons were born to this union, William Richard and Louis Cemore. William Richard married Lucinda Cynthia Sutton in 1874 in Rusk County. Louis Cemore married Lillian Josie Odon in 1891 in Smith County, Texas. Following Martha Jane’s death in 1873, L. B. Thompson married Martha Jane Bryan, daughter of John Wesley and Jane McCarty Bryan of Leake County, Mississippi, in 1874. Their First child, Beall, was born in 1875. He married Sallie Nannie Maxwell. The second child, Wesley Benonie, was born in 1878. He married Maude Mathis. The first daughter, Lucy Ellen, born in 1880, married Peyton York. George Edward, born in 1881, married three times. His wives were Lillie Smith, Armanda Gill, and Ida Leora Freeman. James Franklin, born in 1884, married Mary Lindsey. Dora, born in 1885, married Carl Gramling. The last child, Burtha, died in infancy. In 1871 Martha Jane Bryan Thompson with her brother, John Wesley Bryan, came by covered wagon to Rusk County and settled at Laneville, Texas. She died in 1931 and L. B. Thompson died in 1911. They are buried in Pleasant Hill Cemetery, located on the Overton-Henderson Highway 323. Written by Lerline Stokely