Davidson County TN Archives Biographies.....Thruston, Gates P. 1835 - 1912
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com November 13, 2005, 9:54 pm

Author: Will T. Hale

   GENERAL GATES P. THRUSTON. A distinguished figure in the history of Tennessee

and that of the nation was General Thruston, who left an indelible impress upon

the history of his time, as a soldier, lawyer, archaeologist, author and man of

affairs, and whose character was the positive expression of a strong and noble

nature. He was a man of high intellectual and professional attainments and his

angle of influence ever widened in beneficence until he was summoned to the life

eternal, at his home in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday morning, December 9,

1912. He honored the state of his adoption through his character and exalted

services and there is all of consistency in according in this volume a definite

tribute to the man and his memory. He was a gallant officer of the Union in the

Civil war and after the close of this great conflict he maintained his home in

Nashville until he passed to his reward, secure in the love and high esteem of

all who knew him or were familiar with his distinguished career.



   Though a scion of an old and patrician Southern family, Gen. Gates Phillips

Thruston claimed the Buckeye state as the place of his nativity. He was born at

Dayton, the metropolis and judicial center of Montgomery county, Ohio, on the

11th of June, 1835, and thus was seventy-seven years of age at the time of his

demise. His genealogy shows strains of English, Scotch, French and Dutch origin,

and a number of his ancestors attained to distinction in connection with the

history of American affairs. The original American progenitors of the Thruston

family came from England and established their home in Virginia in 1666, and the

family name became closely identified with the civic and industrial development

of that historic old commonwealth. One of his ancestors, Col. Charles Mynn

Thruston, was a gallant officer of Virginia patriot troops in the War of the

Revolution, and of a later generation was his son Judge Buckner Thruston, who

served as United States senator from Kentucky and later as a federal judge of

the District of Columbia, an incumbency which he retained for the long period of

thirty-six years. The parents of General Thruston were Robert Alexander Thruston

and Marianna (Phillips) Thruston. The former was a son of Judge Buckner

Thruston, and the latter a daughter of Horatio G. Phillips and Eliza (Houston)

Phillips. The maiden name of the paternal grandmother was Jeanette January.

Robert A. Thruston became a prominent member of the bar of the state of Ohio, a

member of the legislature and was a citizen of prominence and influence in that

commonwealth, where both he and his wife continued to reside until their death.



   General Thruston was afforded excellent educational advantages in his youth

and throughout his life he continued a deep and appreciative student and reader.

As valedictorian of his class he was graduated in Miami University, at Oxford,

Ohio, in 1855, and on this occasion he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Many years later his alma mater, in 1903, conferred upon him the honorary and

distinguished degree of Litterarum Humaniorum Doctor, in recognition of his

valuable archaeological research and high achievement in literature. In

preparation for his chosen profession he entered the Cincinnati Law School, at

Cincinnati, Ohio, and in this excellent institution he was graduated as a member

of the class of 1859 and with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He had scarcely

entered upon the practice of his profession when he was moved to subordinate all

personal interests to tender his service in defense of the Union. At the very

inception of the Civil war he enlisted in the First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in

which he was forthwith commissioned captain of his company, the command being

assigned to the Army of Cumberland. He was with his regiment in the battle of

Shiloh and many other of the most important and sanguinary battles marking the

progress of the long and weary conflict, and he specially distinguished himself

in action at Chickamauga, in the battle of Murfreesboro and the engagement at

Stone's River. The following incident is related in Ridley's "Battles and

Sketches of the Army of Tennessee:" "By way of parenthesis, let me give give you

a pointer of the prowess of our Southern cavalry, inadvertently praised by

General Rosecrans himself, in the shape of a beautiful tribute to one of his

officers who evidently saved the ammunition train of the Federal army from the

holocaust of Wednesday's fight. Capt. G. P. Thruston met Captain Thompson, of

General Rosecrans' staff, and told him to inform the General that the ammunition

train of the right wing, seventy-five wagons, had been brought by him across the

country in safety and was at the command of the army then and there. The staff

officer, excited by the unexpected news, hastened to tell the commander, for all

at headquarters had until then given up the ammunition as lost to the army in

the disaster to the right wing, Wednesday, believing it to have been gobbled up

by the hordes of Confederate riders in the rear. General Rosecrans, with staff,

dashed down to where the captain stood, with the query, '"Where is the man who

said that the ammunition train was saved?' Thruston said: 'I am the man.' 'Who

are you?' was the next question. 'G. P. Thruston, First Ohio Infantry.' 'Had you

charge of the train and guard?' 'I had sir.' 'What is you rank?' 'Captain.'

'Well, sir, consider yourself promoted for gallantry to the rank of major.' "



   Continuing, the article says: "General McCook, it seems, was so impressed at

Captain Thruston's rescue of his ordnance train twice from our calvary that he

had him made chief of staff of the Twentieth Army Corps, with the rank of

lieutenant colonel, and Thruston, it is said, was showered from the war

department with praise for his services and with two commissions in one day.

With this high honor crowning his military effort, the former captain grew to be

a brigadier general."



   In the battle of Chickamauga, General Thruston was entrusted with the

carrying of valuable papers and communications, and during his service in the

war was regarded as specially capable and trustworthy, as shown by the

promotions which he received. At Stone River he was promoted for gallantry, and

soon afterward he was appointed major on the staff of the adjutant general. His

commission as lieutenant colonel was given on the 1st of November, 1863, and on

the 13th of March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier general, "for faithful and

meritorious services during the war, and particularly at the battles of Stone

River and Chickamauga." At this time also he was appointed judge advocate of the

Army of the Cumberland, on the staff of General Thomas, with whom he was on duty

in the battles around Atlanta, Georgia, and he continued to serve as judge

advocate until the close of the war, having been honorably mustered out on the

19th of December, 1865. From an appreciative article which appeared in the

Nashville Banner at the time of General Thruston's death are taken the following

extracts, which are well worthy of perpetuation in this more enduring form:



   "A Federal officer, locating in Nashville when there was more or less

bitterness manifest, General Thruston conducted himself in such a manner that he

endeared himself to the hearts of all with whom he came in contact. He built up

a splendid practice in his chosen profession, the law, and leaves a handsome

estate. He was a public-spirited citizen and one who devoted his energies toward

the betterment of the state and the city in which he lived. He was identified

with various historical and commercial associations and had collected many rare

specimens of archaeological interest. He was vice-president of the Tennessee

Historical Society, president of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, and

a member of the Cumberland River Commission. He was at one time a valued member

of the Nashville Board of Education, chairman of the board of trustees of

Watkins Institute, and took a great interest in the work of the Humane

Commission, of which he was a member for many years.



   "During the Tennessee Centennial. Exposition General Thruston rendered

valuable service to the state as chairman of the department of history and

antiquities. His collection of Indian antiquities and minerals, donated to

Vanderbilt University, is among the most prized possessions of that institution.

Since retiring from the active practice of his profession General Thruston had

been in the habit of spending his summers at Beersheba Springs, in Grundy

county, where he had & splendid summer home, while his winters were spent at his

residence at 318 Sixth avenue, North, in Nashville, where his death occurred, as

a direct result of an attack of pneumonia."



   Immediately after the close of his services in the Civil war General Thruston

had established his home in Nashville, where he wedded one of the city's fair

daughters only two days after receiving his honorable discharge from the army.

As a former Federal officer and an adopted citizen of Tennessee, the general

proved most influential in fighting and mitigating the evils of the so-called

"reconstruction" in this state, and his attitude at this period did much to gain

him the love and esteem of the citizens of this part of Tennessee. He soon built

up a large and lucrative practice in his profession, but in 1878, owing to an

accident that had impaired his health to an appreciable extent, he retired from

active practice and passed two years in travel, both in Europe and America, and

in this tour he was accompanied by his wife. On his return to Nashville he

accepted the presidency of the State Insurance Company, and later he became a

director in several other important educational and business concerns, so that

the later years of his life were devoted largely to the public service and to

the supervision of his capitalistic and real-estate interests.



   General Thruston was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement

of Science, and honorary member of the Missouri Historical Society, a

corresponding member of the New York and Philadelphia Archaeological Societies

and also Numismatic Societies; was for many years vice president of the

Tennessee Historical Society, of which he was president at the time of his

death, and was a trustee of the University of Nashville. He was likewise a

trustee of the Carnegie Library in his home city, and of the Ladies' Hermitage

Association, through which is maintained the old home of President Andrew

Jackson as a national .place of historic interest; he was vice president of the

United Charities of Nashville; served as president of the Society of the Army of

the Cumberland from 1906 until his death; and was actively affiliated with the

Grand Army of the Republic. The general was the author of a most valuable work

entitled "The Antiquities of Tennessee and the Adjoining States," the same

having been published in 1890, and he was a frequent contributor to scientific

magazines and other periodicals, especially on army and archaeological topics.

He was long and actively identified with the various departments of the work of

the First Presbyterian church of Nashville and was a trustee of the same till

the close of his long and useful life, which in all its relations, significantly

attested, the truth of the saying that "The bravest are the tenderest; the

loving are the daring." Of broad intellectual grasp, he had naught of bigotry or

intolerance, and he placed true valuations upon men, with the result that he was

always courteous, kindly and considerate. His home life was ideal, and only one

child survives to perpetuate the family name.



   On the 21st of December, 1865, General Thruston was united in marriage to

Miss Ida Hamilton, daughter of James Hamilton, a representative citizen of

Nashville at that time. The general had here formed the acquaintance of his wife

while serving as a Union officer, and she was his cherished and devoted

companion for nearly thirty years, the gracious ties having been severed when

she passed to the life eternal, in July, 1893. She was survived by one son,

Gates Phillips Thruston, Jr., and this fine young man preceded his father to

eternal rest by only three months, his death having occurred in September, 1912,

his loss being a source of poignant grief to the general. The son was one of the

representative members of the Nashville bar at the time of his death. In

September, 1894, was solemnized the marriage of General Thruston to Miss Fannie

Dorman, daughter of K. Dorman, of Nashville, and she passed away in 1911. She is

survived by one son, Charles Mynn Thurston, a lad of about thirteen years at the

time of this writing, in 1913. General Thruston is survived by an only sister,

Mrs. George W. Houk, who came from Dayton, Ohio, to reside with him after the

death of his second wife. The other surviving members of the immediate family

are a half-brother, Houston Lowe, of Dayton, Ohio; Mrs. Charles Newbold, of

Washington, D. C.; Mrs. E. Fowler Stoddard, of Dayton, Ohio; and Mrs. Thomas P.

Gaddis, of Dayton, Ohio.



Additional Comments:
From:



A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in

commerce, industry and modern activities

by Will T. Hale

Chicago:  Lewis Pub. Co.,  1913



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