William J. Thornby Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1357-1359 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	WILLIAM J. THORNBY, one of the influential pioneers of the state 
and an honored citizen of Deadwood, was born in Greenwich, Washington 
county, New York, on the 27th of April, 1856, and is a son of James H. 
and Catherine (Conron) Thornby, the former of whom was born in County 
Armagh, Ireland, and the latter in the city of Troy, New York. The 
paternal grandfather of the subject likewise bore the name of James 
Hanna Thornby, and, like his son and namesake, was born in County 
Armagh, of the fair Emerald Isle. He was a member of the Inniskillen 
Dragoons and served under Wellington in the battle of Waterloo, while 
the medal for bravery which was accorded him at that time by the crown 
is still retained in the possession of his descendants. James Hanna 
Thornby, the father of the subject of this review, was reared and 
educated in his native land, where he remained until 1846, when he made 
a trip to America. At the time of the Irish rebellion of 1848 his 
loyalty to his oppressed fatherland led him to return and tender his 
services in defense of the righteous cause of his compatriots, and he 
was accompanied by Hon. A. L. Morrison, now collector of internal 
revenue in New Mexico. both being imprisoned after the overthrow of the 
rebellion in which they took part. They were incarcerated in Carlow 
jail, near the city of Dublin, where they were held for six months, at 
the expiration of which they received pardons. Mr. Thornby then came 
again to America, and located in the city of Troy, New York, where he 
engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes, and where he passed the 
remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1870, while his wife 
passed away in 1874. Of their five children the subject is the eldest, 
and all are yet living, there being four sons and one daughter. 

	Colonel Thornby, as the subject is familiarly known, received his 
early educational training in the public schools of Troy, and in 1870, 
when about fifteen years of age, entered the foundry of Fuller & Warren, 
in that city, where he learned the trade of patternmaking, which he 
there continued to follow until 1876, when he set forth for the Black 
Hills, inspired by a love of adventure and a desire to learn what 
fortune had in store for him. He left Troy in November of that year and 
came through to Cheyenne, Wyoming, arriving on the 1st of December and 
there waiting to join the first freighting train enroute to his final 
destination. This train left for the Hills in March, 1877, and was known 
as Wade's Fast Freight. There were about three hundred men in the party 
and all were well armed, the majority having come from Montana, 
California, Missouri and Colorado, and all being attracted by the 
discovery of gold in the Black Hills, while it is a noteworthy fact that 
our subject was the only eastern man in the company. They made the trip 
in nineteen days and, owing no doubt to the numerical strength, were not 
molested by the Indians. They arrived in Deadwood in April, and here 
Colonel Thornby entered the employ of A. W. Merrick, proprietor and 
publisher of the Deadwood Pioneer, with whom he remained two years, 
having been the pioneer up-gulch reporter for the paper and having full 
charge of its circulation in this district. The Colonel was the only man 
who succeeded in making the journey between Deadwood and Lead during the 
memorable and terrific snow blizzard of March 12-15, 1878, in which so 
many sacrificed their lives. The snow was five feet deep on the level 
and he broke the trail and carried through his papers. In May, 1879, he 
left the employ of the Pioneer and joined Professor Walter P. Jenney on 
his trip to the southern Black Hills district, where he assisted in the 
completion of some important geological and topographical work which the 
Professor had initiated in 1875, at the behest of the government. On the 
15th of June, 1879, while out on an incidental expedition with Prof. W. 
P. Jenney, the subject and his companion located the now famous Hot 
Springs, which have become a popular health and pleasure resort. In that 
year the Colonel located in Custer, and was elected the first assessor 
of Custer county, serving two terms, while in 1886 he was further 
honored by being elected county judge, presiding on the bench for two 
years, with ability and marked discrimination. In 1892 he was elected to 
the state senate, representing the district comprised of Custer and Fall 
River counties, and he served in this dignified position during the 
third general assembly of the state legislature in 1893. In the 
meanwhile he had become interested in the development of the mica-mining 
industry in this section, and realizing the value of scientific 
knowledge in regard to the mining and handing of the various precious 
and industrial metals, he entered the State School of Mines, at Rapid 
City, where he completed the prescribed course and was graduated in 
1896. He also took a two-years course in metallurgy, and thus is 
specially well equipped for all kinds of work. In 1886 he was elected a 
member of the board of trustees of the School of Mines, serving five 
years in this capacity and being president of the board during the last 
year. In 1897 the Colonel established upon his own responsibility an 
assay office at Ragged Top, Lawrence county, conducting the same one 
year, at the expiration of which, in 1898, when the government opened an 
assay office in Deadwood, he returned to this city to assume the duties 
of the office of melter in the office, having been appointed to the 
position at the start and having ever since continued to serve in the 
capacity, while he has gained a high reputation for his careful and 
accurate work. In 1893 he was one of the judges in the mining department 
at the World's Columbian Exposition, in Chicago, being the only such 
representative from any of the gold-mining states of the Northwest, 
while in 1882 he was appointed commissioner to the mining exposition in 
Denver, taking his specimens by bull train to Cheyenne, a distance of 
three hundred and fifty miles, and thence forward by rail to Denver. In 
1890 and 1891 he had charge of the Black Hills mineral exhibits in the 
corn palaces in Sioux City, Iowa. The Colonel was one of the three 
promoters and organizers of the Black Hills Mining Men's Association in 
1901 and in 1897-8 he was president of the Custer County Agricultural, 
Mining and Stock Raising Fair Association, which, during his regime, 
held two fairs in Hermosa, that county, the same having been the most 
successful ever held in the Black Hills district. 

	In politics the subject is a staunch advocate of the principles of 
the Republican party, and takes an active part in the promotion of its 
cause, while fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order, in 
which he has attained the commandery degrees, and also those of the 
Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; and also with 
the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World. He is well 
known throughout the Black Hills and his circle of friends is 
circumscribed only by that of his acquaintances. 

	On the 26th of July, 1894, Colonel Thornby was united in marriage 
to Miss Bertha Youmans, who was born and reared in Winona, Minnesota, 
and who comes of a staunch old Revolutionary stock. She is a niece of 
Prof. Edward Livingston Youmans, the founder of the Popular Science 
Monthly and Youman's Chemistry. She is a woman of gracious presence and 
fine intellectual attainments, and was a teacher in the State Normal 
School at Spearfish, South Dakota, for some time prior to her marriage. 
Of this union have been born two children, Mary Youmans and Catherine 
Moore.