My Genealogy Hound

James A. Thornton, planter. This respected citizen of Bradley County has been a resident of the State since January, 1861, during which time he has devoted his time to agriculture, and not without substantial results, as the following sketch of his life will show. His birth occurred in Cherokee County, Ala., in 1843, and he is the eldest of nine children born to John A. and Margaret A. (King) Thornton, who came to Arkansas and settled near Grand Ridge in 1861, and from here, in 1863, enlisted in the Confederate army, serving in the Trans-Mississippi Department, but was taken ill and died in the hospital during the latter part of 1864. His wife died in 1862. The paternal grandfather, George W. King, was a soldier in the War of 1812. James A. Thornton received but few educational advantages prior to the war, and in October, 1861, joined the Confederate army, becoming a member of Gaines’ Battery of Arkansas, and with his command was soon ordered east of the Mississippi River, and was in both battles of Corinth and Iuka, and was in all the engagements of the Georgia campaign, and the close of the war found him in Alabama. His company was disbanded at Gainesville, May 10, 1865, and he at once started for home, which he reached on the twenty-second day of the same month. He set energetically to work to till the soil on a farm of 105 acres, which he soon purchased, and soon had eighty acres cleared and good buildings erected thereon. This place continued to be his home until 1880, when he sold out and bought his present property, consisting of 200 acres, but at that time the buildings, fences, and everything about it were in a very dilapidated condition, and everything in the way of convenient farming had to be prepared. He at once erected a neat and comfortable dwelling, built and repaired fences, and soon had sixty-five acres under cultivation. This is very good upland, and will readily produce one-half bale of cotton to the acre, and about twenty bushels of corn, as well as other farm products in abundance. Mr. Thornton takes considerable interest in political matters, and although a Democrat is not an office seeker. He held the position of postmaster of Grand Ridge from April, 1875, to 1883, and has been school director of his district ever since its organization. In 1866 he was married to Mrs. E. J. Brantley, a native of North Carolina, and a daughter of James Pirtle [see sketch of Rev. T. I. Pirtle], and by her became the father of five children: Mollie E. (wife of O. F. Neal, a merchant of Moro Bay), John J., Maggie, Harvey (who died at the age of four years), and Norah. The family are all members of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Thornton is a clerk and deacon in the same.