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Thompson and Dunklin family papers
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Virginia (Jennie) A. Thompson was born in 1842 and grew up in Muscogee County, Georgia. She was the daughter of John W. Thompson (ca. 1812-1858) and Malvina Thompson (b. 1818). She had two older siblings, William (Bud) H. Thompson (b. 1837) and Martha (Mattie) Ellen Thompson (c. 1839-1868). John Thompson died around 1858 and Malvina remarried Robert G. Johnson (b. 1808) of Columbus, Georgia. Johnson was a farmer.
On December 29, 1859, at the age of 18, Jennie married William A. Dunklin (1829-1863) of Selma, Alabama. Dunklin was a lawyer and a partner with his cousin, Jonathon (Jon) Haralson, who was married to Mattie Thompson. The Dunklin couple resided in Selma. William A Dunklin had a son from a previous marriage named William. He was about eight when his father remarried. William and Jennie had two daughters, Mattie (b. 1860) and Margaret (Maggie) Lee (b. 1862).
In 1862, Dunklin joined the Confederate Army and served in Company G of the 44th Regiment of the Alabama Volunteer Infantry. The 44th was organized in Selma in May 1862 and assigned to General A.R. Wright's Brigade. The unit fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and at the campaigns at Sharpsburg, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Captain Dunklin died on July 2, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg during the assault on Little Round Top.
Jon and Mattie Haralson married in 1859. The couple had three daughters and one son (who died as an infant). During the Civil War, Jon Haralson (1830-1912) was an agent in Selma for the Niter and Mining Bureau of the Confederate States.
After the war, Haralson served on the city court of Selma from 1876-1892, when he was made associate justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He was continuously re-elected to that position until his retirement in 1908. Haralson was also active in the Alabama Baptist State Convention, leading it from 1874-1892. In 1888, he was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, which he served continuously for the next ten years.
Jennie Thompson Dunklin married again in 1868 to Henry Samuel Feagin, Jr. (1840-1904) of Houston County, Georgia. The couple had four sons: George (b. 1870), Robert, Edward, and Harry.
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This collection consists of the correspondence of William A. Dunklin, Jennie Thompson Dunklin Feagin, Jon Haralson, Mattie E. Haralson, and other family members. Dunklin writes to his wife while they are courting in 1859, and while he is away at war. His war letters speak of the diseases ravaging his unit, the 44th in Alabama. He himself succumbs to typhoid fever and pneumonia during 1862. There is one file with some biographical material on William A. Dunklin. Also included in the collection are two menus from the St. Nicholas Hotel dated April 29, 1866. The location of the hotel is unknown.
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Copyright has not been assigned to the Georgia Historical Society. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Division of Library and Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Georgia Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.
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GHS 1535, Thompson and Dunklin family papers, 1857-1868. Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Georgia.
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