Webster-Carroll-Putnam County GaArchives Biographies.....Thornton, George Emory 1849 - living in 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 30, 2004, 10:50 pm Author: William Harden p. 1010-1011 GEORGE EMORY THORNTON. The thirty years' service of Mr. Thornton as clerk of Webster county is a record rarely equalled in the annals of county officials of Georgia, and his long continuance in one of the most important local positions is due to his faithful and intelligent service in behalf of the people and the relations of his office to the public welfare. Mr. Thornton is by profession a lawyer and practiced for ten years in Webster county before he became clerk. He represents one of the old families of this section of the state. George Emory Thornton was born in Carroll county, Georgia, January 4, 1849. His parents were John J. and Emeline (Darnell) Thornton. The father was born either in Putnam or Monroe county, Georgia, in 1818. The founder of the family in this section of the state was the grandfather, William Thornton, who was born in Virginia. The father of William Thornton, and the great-grandfather of the Webster county clerk, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and a lifelong resident of Virginia. Grandfather William Thornton emigrated from Virginia into Georgia, as one of the pioneers of the central portion of this state. He was a very energetic business man, and when all the country was new he secured large tracts of government lands in different counties. One of his plantations bordered upon the Ocmulgee river in Monroe county. He was survived for many years by his widow, whose maiden name was Tempy Briggs, and who married a second time and died when one hundred and seven years old. She was the mother of six children whose names were Rakdum, Harrison, Robert F., Isham, Lucy and Millie. Isham J. Thornton, the father, received his education in the country schools. He had a natural skill as a mechanic, and following the inclinations of this ability he became a machinist and a very skilled workman. In 1852 he removed to Roanoke, in Alabama, where he followed his trade and remained a resident until his death in 1896. His wife, Emeline Darnell Thornton, was born in Putnam county, Georgia, daughter of J. A. and Polly (Autry) Darnell, both of whom had been born in North Carolina, and had come to Georgia as early settlers of Putnam county, subsequently moving into Alabama and settling at Roanoke, where Mr. Darnell died. His widow subsequently moved to Lafayette in the same state, where she died at the remarkable age of one hundred and four years. Mrs. Thornton, the mother, died in 1907. The eight children in her family were Robert F., Louisa, Annie, Emma, George Emory, Laura, Eugene and Lucile May. George Emory Thornton spent his early life at Roanoke, Alabama, where he obtained his education. When he was sixteen years old, he left school and home, and has ever since been self-supporting and is a self-made man in the best sense of the term. He became a clerk at Montgomery, and also at Union Springs, but at the end of three years returned to Roanoke and soon turned his attention to the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1872 at the age of twenty-three years, and soon afterwards located at Preston, where he opened an office and had a large share of the practice during that decade in the local courts. Then in 1883 he was elected to the office of clerk of Webster county, and has been retained in office by successive elections almost too numerous to mention. At Americus, Georgia, in 1871, Mr. Thornton married Ludie E. Birdsong, who was born in Talbot county, Georgia, a daughter of Charles and M. E. (Daniel) Birdsong. The children of Mr. Thornton and wife are named as follows: Mackie E., Jennie, Nannie, Sallie, Minnie, Claude and David B. Mackie E. married D. H. Smith, and they have six children of their own. Jennie is the wife of D. E. Hutchins, and she died leaving one son, George E., who lives with his grandparents. Nannie married S. T. Wilson, who died leaving three children, the youngest named Mamie, being but an infant at the time of her mother's death, and now being reared in the home of her grandparents Thornton. Minnie is the wife of R. L. Nickerson. David B. is now a resident of New York City, where he is office manager for the Giess Manufacturing .Company. Mr. and Mrs. Thornton are members of the Methodist church and he is affiliated with Preston Lodge No. 188, A. F. & A. M., and with the Tri-County Chapter of the Royal Arch Masonry at Richland. Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/webster/bios/gbs488thornton.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 5.1 Kb