Biography of John Thruston THORNTON, M.D., Ohio County, West Virginia This file was submitted by Cheryl McCollum, E-mail address: This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. 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. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm JOHN THRUSTON THORNTON, M.D., one of the representative physicians and surgeons engaged in practice in the City of Wheeling, bears the full patronymic of his grandfather Col. John Thruston Thornton, who was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, who became colonel of a gallant Virginia regiment in the Confederate service in the Civil war and who was killed while leading his command in the battle of Antietam. Colonel Thornton had been a distinguished member of the Virginia bar and was engaged in the practice of his profession at Farmville, Prince Edward County, at the time when he went forth in defense of the Confederate cause. His wife, whose maiden name was Eliza Carter Baskerville, was a resident of Prince Edward County at the time of her death, both the Thornton and Bakerville families having been founded in Virginia in the early colonial era, and the lineage of both tracing to stanch English origin. Dr. John T. Thornton was born in the City of Richmond, Virginia, October 21, 1875, and is a son of Dr. William Mynn Thornton and Eleanor Rosalie (Harrison) Thornton, whose marriage was solemnized in New York City, December 22, 1874. Professor William M. Thornton was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, October 28, 1851. In 1868 he received from Hampden-Sidney College the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in 1870 he was graduated in the historic old University of Virginia at Charlottesville. He received from Hampden-Sidney College the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. After his marriage he held the chair of Greek in Davidson College, North Carolina, until 1875, since which year he has been professor of applied mathematics in the University of Virginia, besides which he is now the dean of the department of engineering in that institution. He was United States, commissioner to the International Exposition held in Paris, France, in 1900, and in 1904 was a member of the jury of awards in civil engineering at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. He is a stalwart democrat, and is a zealous member of the Presbyterian Church. His wife, who was born in Virginia, in 1849, and whose death occurred in 1920, was a member of the Episcopal Church. Of the children, Doctor Thornton of this review is the eldest; Eliza Carter who now resides in the City of Boston, is the widow of Charles R. Thurman, who was an electrical engineer and a farmer and who died at University, Virginia; Eleanor Rosalie was graduated from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in the City of Baltimore, thereafter continued her musical studies in Berlin, Germany, and as a talented pianist she is engaged in teaching music in the City of Boston, Massachusetts; Janet, the next younger daughter is engaged in social-service work in New York City; William Mynn, Jr., now professor of chemistry in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, received from Hampden University of Virginia the degree of Master of Arts, and from Yale University the degree of Doctor of Philosophy; Charles Edward received from the University of Virginia the degree of Civil Engineer, has been successful in the work of his profession but has indulged the wanderlust without moderation, he having been in Honduras at the time of his last communication with other members of the family. Dr. John T. Thornton gained the major part of his earlier education in private schools at Charlottesville, Virginia, and thereafter was a student in the University of Virginia until he had nearly completed the work of his senior year in the literary department. He taught one year in the public schools of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and one year in the Louisiana Industrial Institute at Ruston, and he next continued his studies two years in the medical department of College of Virginia in his native City of Richmond, and in this institution he was graduated in 1902, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Thereafter he gained valuable clinical experience by serving as interne in the Old Dominion Hospital in that city until February 1903, and by similar service in the Polyclinic Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he remained two years. Meanwhile, in the summer of 1902, he was a student in Harvard University. After leaving Philadelphia Doctor Thornton gave eighteen months of effective service as superintendent of the Roanoke Hospital, at Roanoke, Virginia, and since 1906 he has been established in the successful general practice of his profession in the City of Wheeling, where he is giving special attention to pediatrics, his offices being at 409-10 in the Wheeling Bank & Trust Company Building. Doctor Thornton served three years as president of the Board of Health of Ohio County, is an active member of the Ohio County Medical Society, the West Virginia State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, the while he is affiliated with Carroll Council No. 504, Knights of Columbus, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon college fraternity, and the University Club of Wheeling. The doctor is a democrat in political allegiance, and he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church. In the World war period he was a vigorous supporter of patriotic service in his home city and county, was a member of the Board of Medical Examiners for Ohio County, and gave much of his time to the work of this board and to other war activities. In 1905, in the City of New York, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Thornton and Miss Helen Agnes Thomson, daughter of the late George Thomson, of Trenton, New Jersey. Doctor and Mrs. Thornton have three children: Eleanor Rosalie, born September 4, 1909; John Thruston, Jr., born in March, 1912; and Helen, born October 26, 1915.