Maurice Thompson: A Talented Hoosier(PE-04)
Maurice Thompson was a successful soldier, civil engineer, naturalist, geologist, lawyer, legislator, poet, novelist, editor, and literary critic.

Born in Fairfield in 1844, he was the son of a prosperous Baptist minister. In 1853 the family migrated to northern Georgia, where they became plantation owners. Thompson was a scout in the Conferate army in the Civil War.

Returning to Crawfordsville in 1868, he became a civil engineer for the railorads. He later opened a law office and still later became a poet and a novelist.

He was appointed State Geologist of Indiana in 1885 and served until he resigned in December 1888.

"Alice of Old Vincennes," written about a year before he died in 1901, was his most successful literary effort.

Our Hoosier State Beneath Us: People