Jacob Thompson's Home Place
The mansion ca. 1853 located on this site was burned by
Union troops in 1864. Two original outbuildings are included
in the present house, built in 1869. Jacob Thompson (1810-
1885), a native of North Carolina, moved to Pontotoc, Miss-
issippi, in 1835. A lawyer and a democrat, he was active in
politics and helped organize circuit courts in a number of
northern Mississippi counties. He married Catherine Ann Jones
in 1838. In addition to his law practice in Pontotoc, Panola
and Oxford, Thompson was a cotton grower, U.S. Congressman
(1839-57), University of Mississippi Trustee (1844-57)
and U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1857-61). He resigned
his post the day before Mississippi seceded and served in the
C. S. army and in the state legislature. Thompson headed the
controversial Confederate Commission to Canada 1864-65.
As such, he was falsely charged with a number of crimes,
including a role in Lincoln's assassination. Living in exile
abroad until 1869, he was granted amnesty and briefly
returned to Oxford before moving to Memphis, where he was a
businessman. He and his wife are buried at Elmwood Cemetery.
Submitted by @alwaysreadtheplaque