Hon. John R. Thornton, Ouachita County, AR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889. Contributed by Carol Smith. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ouachita County, Arkansas - from Goodspeed's History of Arkansas Hon. John R. Thornton. In the Encyclopedia of the New West, we find the following reference to the subject of this sketch: "Hon. John R. Thornton, attorney at law, and State Senator for Calhoun and Ouachita Counties, was born in Chambers County, Alabama, February 14, 1840. His father having brought the family to Arkansas in 1845, he may be considered an Arkansas almost by birth. His grandfather, Henry Thornton, a Virginian and planter, settled in Georgia, where his father of John R. (William S. Thornton) was born in 1809, and married. He afterward moved to Alabama in 1830, and lived a planter and merchant. He died in 1866 in Arkansas. He was the first member of the Arkansas Legislature from Calhoun County. He was internal improvement commissioner of Ouachita County, to which he had removed in 1854, and remained there six years, when he returned to Calhoun County. He was a planter, a Democrat, a Methodist, and a Mason. He was distinguished for his moral character, never indulging in any of the frivolities of life. The mother of John R. Thornton was Nancy S. Fielder, born in Georgia in 1811. John R. grew up with the reputation of being a pretty fast, wild boy, but he never drank whisky nor gambled. He was full of fun, frolic and mischief, which was a special annoyance to his father. Having a passion for the newspaper business, he became an amateur type-setter, and contributor of 'personal' and items which got him into frequent scrapes. Finally he accepted his father's advice and began the study of law. During the war he edited a traveling newspaper, called the Advance Guard, carrying it with him in his military campaigns from Missouri to Kentucky. In 1863 he edited the army paper, called the Revelle, by authority of General Bragg, at Shelbyville, Tennessee. He yet has a fondness for the newspaper business, the passion for which clings to him. His literary education was acquired in the Arkansas schools of that day, and is , of course, limited. His reading had been miscellaneous and general without a view to any specialty, except medicine (which he studied four or five months in 1855) and law, which became his profession. He began the study of law in the latter part of 8155, and was admitted to the bar at Camden, Arkansas, in 1858, when only a month or two over eighteen years old, the Legislature, by a special act, making him twenty-one years old that he might be licensed as an attorney. The gentleman under whom he read, and the judge of the district, recommended the Legislature to remove this disability. It is not necessarily years that make men wise and learned. Years my only make men old. Is it study, labor, tact and will that make men succeed. Mr. Thornton settled in Hampton, Calhoun County, after the war, and engaged in planting and the practice of his profession and has remained there ever since. Some philosopher has said, 'Beware of the man of one book.' Universal experience teaches that success comes mostly to men of one idea, that is one profession or one business, industriously and economically pursued at one place. Mr. Thornton began at the end of the war poor, but has accumulated some property, having large landed interests in South Arkansas. He entered the army as a private in 1861, was made sergeant-major, afterward lieutenant, then adjutant, and lastly assistant adjutant-general of Reed's brigade. He served under General Hardee from 1861 to 1863. He was surrendered at Port Hudson July 9, 1863, taken to New Orleans, thence to New York, and thence to Johnson's Island, and kept there twenty-two months, until the close of the war. He went out with the Sixth Arkansas Regiment, and was with it until 1863, when he was transferred to the Twelfth Arkansas after the battle of Franklin, Tennessee and participated in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Woodsonville, and the siege of Port Hudson. At Perryville he was wounded in the thigh by a minnie ball, the scar of which is permanent. He is a member of no secret society, except that of the R. A. and K. of H. He was always a Democrat. In 1868 he was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, General Ord set aside the election. He was again elected, but again counted out by the registrars. In 1868 he was appointed county attorney of Calhoun County, served two years and resigned. In 1871 he served one term as county judge. In 1878 he was elected State Senator for four years from the counties of Calhoun and Ouachita, the position he now holds. He is a member of the judiciary committee, and chairman of the finance committee, and was, during the last session, chairman of the committees on public printing and memorials. Mr. Thornton married in Calhoun County, Arkansas, July 12, 1866, Miss Sue E. Strong, who was born and educated in the same county, the daughter of Judge E. F. Strong, a leading citizen, merchant and large planter. Mr. and Mrs. Thornton are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which he is a steward, Sunday-school superintendent, and for several years lay delegate to its annual conference. 'He wears his own head,' as Dr. Moody would say. For example, in 1878 he canvassed his district against repudiation, or the Fishback amendment, and carried the district with him, although the three representatives thereof had voted for it, and his friends warned him that it would be an unpopular side of the question. Like his father, he is opposed to whisky and cars, and is friendly to legislative action against the sale of whisky in the State. He is a popular stump speaker, and is considered one of the best criminal lawyers in South Arkansas. Having lived in both of the counties that he now represents, many that knew his father know him. He won his popularity by his social, genial qualities, and he owes hi elevation to senatorial dignity to his moral qualities and the intellectual ability he displays in whatever he undertakes. He was nominated and elected by the unanimous vote of both counties- and unusual honor,. Senator Thornton is attorney for the Little Rock, Mississippi River, and Texas Railway Company. He secured the passage of the law changing the mode of obtaining continuances in courts, thus preventing unnecessary delay in bringing criminals to trial. He introduced in the Senate and secured the passage of a law repealing a statute by which a large quantity of the lands of South Arkansas were to be donated to Mississippi, Ouachita & Red River Railway. He is also author of the celebrated Arkansas pistol law that has done so much to suppress crime in that State, besides several other important laws." Since the publication of the above in 1880, Senator Thornton has been re-elected to the State Senate, making eight continuous years in that body, a compliment rarely accorded any one in this State. In 1885 he was appointed receiver of public and disbursing agent of the United States Government, by President Cleveland, at Camden, Arkansas, and removed by President Harrison to make room for one of his own political household. He is at present one of the firm of Thornton & Smead, attorneys at law, at Camden. Mr. Thornton's honorable and successful position in life has not been attained by what is sometimes called chance. Step by step, with patient, persevering effort, he has put forth those energies of body and mind, savoring of intense earnestness, which can not but have one result. Respected and esteemed by a host of friends, he is likewise held in sincere admiration by those less intimately acquainted with him. His career is truly one which casts no shadow of reproach on his name.