Stories of the Cherokee hills. By: Maurice Thompson

James Maurice Thompson (September 9, 1844 - February 15, 1901) was an American novelist, poet, essayist and naturalist.James Maurice Thompson was born in 1844 in Fairfield, Indiana, to a Baptist minister and his wife. Near the end of the decade, the family moved to northern Georgia. He was educated by tutors in the classical languages, literature, French and mathematics; he used his mathematical training to advantage by becoming a civil engineer. During the Civil War, Maurice Thompson and his brother Will Henry Thompson (born 1846) served in the Confederate Army. After the war, Thompson took up residence in Calhoun, Georgia, where he studied surveying, engineering, and the law. He lived in Calhoun for two years, and began publishing the first of his articles while living there. In 1867 Thompson began a botanical and ornithological survey of Lake Okeechobee in Florida. After finishing this work, Thompson and his brother moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana. Maurice began working as an engineer on a railroad being built in the area, and the Thompson brothers married sisters.