Albion Thorne Biography This biography appears on pages 1570-1571 in "History of South Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ALBION THORNE, who maintains his home in the pleasant little city of Hartford, Minnehaha county, is a native of the old Pine Tree state, having been born in Canton, Oxford county, Maine, on the 19th of October, 1836, and being a son of John Owen Thorne, a farmer by vocation, who was born at Lisbon, Maine, in 1804, and who died in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, in 1874. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Hall Billings, was born at Temple, New Hampshire, on the 24th of September, 1810, and died in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on the 16th of April, 1901, both of these sterling pioneers having been numbered among the earliest permanent settlers in Minnehaha county. Both families were established in New England in the colonial era, and Thomas Thorne, grandfather of our subject, was an active participant in the war of 1812, and a pioneer settler in the state of Maine. Albion Thorne, to whom this sketch is dedicated, completed the curriculum of the common schools in his native county, and thereafter continued his educational discipline in Westbrook Seminary and the Maine State Seminary, now known as Bates College, while in September, 1858, he was matriculated in Tufts College, at Somerville, Massachusetts, where he pursued a classical and scientific course of study. On the 9th of September, 1862, he enlisted as a member of Company C, Twenty-third Maine Volunteer Infantry, in which he was made first lieutenant, remaining in the service for ten months and then receiving his honorable discharge. Thereafter he was engaged in the mercantile business for one year at Canton, Maine, in the meanwhile taking up the study of law and making such progress that he secured admission to the bar of Oxford county in 1866, and began the practice of his profession after closing out his mercantile interests. In 1864-5 he served as superintendent of schools in his native county, and was also justice of the peace for a time. In 1868 he removed to Waterloo, Iowa, where he held the superintendency of the East Side school from 1869 to 1871, in which latter year he came to the territory of Dakota and located in Dell Rapids, and he was superintendent of schools for Minnehaha county from 1872 to 1874, inclusive, while from 1872 to 1878 he also served as district attorney for the county. From 1881 to 1891 he was secretary of the board of education of Dell Rapids and thereafter was clerk of the county courts, with residence in Sioux Falls, until 1895. In 1881 he represented his county in the territorial legislature, and he has been otherwise prominent in public and civic affairs, while he has attained precedence as an able lawyer. 11 e has maintained his home in Hartford. In politics Mr. Thorne gave his allegiance to the Democratic party up to the time when the Confederacy fired upon the walls of old Fort Sumter, and thereafter he supported the Republican party until he became convinced that it was bowing down to false gods, and he has since opposed its policies in the upholding of trusts, expansion of territory, etc., while he holds himself aloof from any political affiliation at the present time. On the 7th of September, 1862, Mr. Thorne was initiated in Oriental Star Lodge, No. 21, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Livermore, Maine, and was master of the same in 1868. He became a member of Dell Rapids Lodge No. 8. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in 1876, and has held all the principal offices, including that of chief patriarch of Occidental Encampment, Patriarchs Militant. He attended the Universalist church and one of its colleges in Maine, and is favorably inclined to the same, but is tolerant in his attitude. On the 18th of July, 1868, at Canton, Maine, Mr. Thorne was united in marriage to Miss Clara Maria Bolster, of Dixfield, that state, and of their children we here enter the names and respective dates of birth; Bina May, February 19, 1870: Alice Cynthia, July 15, 1873; Mabel Marth, July 7, 1875; Otis Albion, May 1, 1879; Arthur Albion, May 7, 1883; Grace Clara, August 29, 1886; and William Bolster, January 27, 1886