Biography of John Thruston THORNTON, M.D., Ohio County, West Virginia

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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.