James Thompson, whose ancestors lived in Virginia in the 17th century, served in Capt. Bynum's Company of North Carolina Militia in 1781 and helped win victory in the American Revolution. He later moved with his family in pioneer fashion to Alabama, then Mississippi, and then to the Republic of Texas, where he became a revered patriarch. His son-in-law John Peacock (1786-1848), who fought in the 2D Regiment, North Carolina Militia, in the War of 1812, went to Ittawamba County, Miss., after the war with broken health and received land in lieu of army pay. About 1840, he emigrated with his wife Zilpha Thompson, four sons, two daughters, and James Thompson to Paschal Morris County, where he donated sites for a church, school, and cemetery. Thompson's grandson Williams Peacock (1811-64) came to Texas in the 1830s, then returned to Mississippi and brought back his grandfather, parents, and other relatives. In 1841, President M. B. Lamar appointed him sheriff of Paschal Morris County, and later, as a member of the Texas Rangers, he was killed in an Indian fight. Thompson and many of his descendants rest in Daingerfield Cemetery.