(August 29, 1785 - June 1, 1863) A leader in colonizing Texas, Alexander Thomson, Jr., was born in St. Matthew's Parish, South Carolina, the only son of Alexander and Lucy (Fontaine) Thomson. He later lived in Georgia before moving to Tennessee. There, in 1830, he became partner with empresario Sterling C. Robertson in the development of the Robertson Colony. Conducting a number of families who had signed agreements to settle in the Robertson Colony, Thomson crossed into Texas and came to Nacogdoches three days after Mexican officials there received notice of an 1830 law requiring passports of immigrants. After Thomson tried unsuccessfully to have the rule waived for hardship reasons, the party bypassed Nacogdoches and made a new trail that came to be called the Tennesseans' Road. Thomson lived for a time in Austin's Colony, representing District of Hidalgo (now Washington County) at Texas Convention of 1832. By 1835, when he was Consultation delegate from Viesca (later Milam Municipality), he lived in and served as official surveyor of Robertson's Colony. Still a leader, he was executor of Robertson's estate in 1842. Married twice and the father of 13 children, Thomas was the ancestor of many noted Texans, including Thaddeus A. Thomson, United States envoy to Colombia and signer of the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty in 1914. He was also a leader in the early Methodist church in Texas. He is buried in the Thomson Family Cemetery (approx. 2 mi. NE) near Chriesman, also known as Yellow Prairie. He is remembered today as a pioneer and a patriot. (1972, 2004)