Dr. Joseph Thompson was an early settler

Settler

A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...

 of Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

, hotelier, and real-estate investor.

Born to a Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

-bred family in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, he practiced medicine as a youth. He moved to the new town of Decatur

Decatur, Georgia

Decatur is a city in, and county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. With a population of 19,335 in the 2010 census, the city is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple zip codes in unincorporated DeKalb County bear the Decatur name...

, where he married Mary Ann Tomlinson Young in 1827.
He ran a stage coach between the state capital, Milledgeville

Milledgeville, Georgia

Milledgeville is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is northeast of Macon, located just before Eatonton on the way to Athens along U.S. Highway 441, and it is located on the Oconee River. The relatively rapid current of the Oconee here made this an...

, and Tuscumbia, Alabama

Tuscumbia, Alabama

Tuscumbia is a city in and the county seat of Colbert County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,423 and is included in The Shoals MSA....

, by way of Decatur, where he kept an inn.
He was an important man in town, friend of Judge William Ezzard

William Ezzard

William E. Ezzard was a Southern United States politician who served as the 11th, 13th and 19th Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, in the 19th century....

 and John Glen

John Glen (mayor)

John Glen was born in Laurens, South Carolina and moved to Decatur, Georgia in 1826 where he worked as a clerk in the Superior Court of DeKalb County.He moved to Atlanta in 1850 to work for the Georgia Railroad which he did for 41 years....

 (both future mayors of Atlanta), and was entrusted by the citizenry to make sure that the terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad not be their little town.
As Terminus (and later Marthasville

Marthasville, Georgia

Marthasville was the previous name of Atlanta, Georgia. Marthasville was named after Governor Wilson Lumpkin's daughter, Martha; it was officially incorporated on December 23, 1843...

 and still later Atlanta) grew, the Georgia Railroad built a brick hotel building for railroad workers and asked Dr. Thompson to run it.

He and his family arrived in recently-founded Atlanta in 1845. He ran the Atlanta Hotel

Atlanta Hotel

The Atlanta Hotel also known as Thompson's Hotel, was one of the original hotels in antebellum Atlanta, Georgia. It stood at the northwest side of State Square, prewar Atlanta's central square, on the northwest side of Pryor Street between Decatur Street and what is now Wall Street . The hotel was...

 until its destruction after the Battle of Atlanta

Battle of Atlanta

The Battle of Atlanta was a battle of the Atlanta Campaign fought during the American Civil War on July 22, 1864, just southeast of Atlanta, Georgia. Continuing their summer campaign to seize the important rail and supply center of Atlanta, Union forces commanded by William T. Sherman overwhelmed...

. The Atlanta Hotel was the largest and best hotel in town at the time and he was known as a genial host. His witticisms there were often quoted in the Editor's Drawer feature of Harper's Magazine

Harper's Magazine

Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...

.
He had many residents there including Atlanta's first mayor Moses Formwalt

Moses Formwalt

Moses W. Formwalt was the first mayor of the city of Atlanta then in DeKalb County, Georgia. Atlanta was chartered in December 1847 and the first election of officers took place on January 29, 1848...

 (whose estate Thompson later administered) and Alexander Stephens

Alexander Stephens

Alexander Hamilton Stephens was an American politician from Georgia. He was Vice President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He also served as a U.S...

 (who was stabbed at the hotel in 1848 by Judge Francis Cone).

The Thompsons' eldest child, Mary Jane, married Richard Peters

Richard Peters (Atlanta)

Richard Peters was an American railroad man and a founder of Atlanta.Grandson of Judge Richard Peters, Jr...

 in 1848.
Mrs. Thompson died at their Atlanta home in 1849 and he remarried in 1851. His second wife died three years later. He married a third time in 1858 and remained with her until her death in 1878.

He owned many important parcels of land in the young city including the future location of the SunTrust Bank building at Five Points

Five Points (Atlanta)

Five Points is a district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, the primary reference for the downtown area. The name refers to the convergence of Marietta Street, Edgewood Avenue, Decatur Street, and two legs of Peachtree Street Five Points is a district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, the...

.
In 1850 he was on the committee that brought the town its first agricultural fair, the Fifth Annual Fair of the Southern Central Agricultural Association, which was held at newly-purchased land at the end of Fair Street (now Memorial Drive).

After the Civil War, he sold $70,000 worth of real estate including the site of his hotel where the Kimball House

Kimball House

The Kimball House was the name of two historical hotels in Atlanta, Georgia. Both were constructed on an entire city block at the south-southeast corner of Five Points, bounded by Whitehall Street , Decatur Street, Pryor Street, and Wall Street.-First Kimball House:-Design and construction:In 1870...

 was later built.
In 1867, when General Pope

John Pope (military officer)

John Pope was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. He had a brief but successful career in the Western Theater, but he is best known for his defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the East.Pope was a graduate of the United States Military Academy in...

 of the Third Military District

Third Military District

The Third Military District existed in the American South during the Reconstruction era that followed the American Civil War. It comprises Georgia, Florida and Alabama and was headquartered in Atlanta....

 ordered election committees to oversee changes in voter status, Pope named Dr. Thompson to head the committee for Atlanta.

At the time of his death in 1885, he was president of the Medical College

Academy of Medicine (Atlanta, Georgia)

The Academy of Medicine in midtown Atlanta, Georgia was built in 1941 and housed the Medical Association of Atlanta until the 1970s.-Construction:...

in Atlanta and still resided on Pryor Street.