Francis Giddens did more than any other early settler to make the area around Thompson's Station a community and a stopping place for travelers. A Virginian, Revolutionary War veteran, and gunsmith, he arrived in Williamson County around 1800 with his wife, six children, and about two dozen enslaved laborers, a large number for early Tennessee settlers. After taking about 300 acres on Murphree's Fork, a tributary of the West Harpeth River, he built wealth through the labor of enslaved people harvesting grain, cotton, and tobacco. In 1819, within a generation of his arrival, he had a three-story brick residence built as a display of wealth and status. The house was not only a home but also a licensed ordinary for travelers and a local post office, and Giddens Place became well known to people traveling between the Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico. Mail service continued there until 1837, when it shifted to nearby Littlebury and White House. Thompson's Station was named for Dr. Elijah Thompson, son of early settler John Thompson, who arrived in 1812 and bought 2,000 acres along the headwaters of the West Harpeth River. Dr. Thompson later inherited part of that land, developed his own cotton plantation, practiced medicine, helped route the Tennessee & Alabama Railroad through the area, and was honored in 1856 when the town took his name.