Person:Thornton Conley (1)

_DCAUSE: "Senility" and cardio-renal insufficiency

_PHOTO:

Thornton was 54 years old when he married Mary, aged 52. She was living at Thornton's home at the time of the 1900 Census. She was listed as a "servant." Also Thornton had a lodger living there, Elizabeth Hunt, aged 82. It is believed that both Thornton and Marcellus obtained their wives as mail-order brides. He lived in the same 2-story wooden home as his brother, Marcellus, near Campground. This home had 8 rooms, 4 for each family, with a fireplace in each room. Thornton and Mary lived on the right side of the home, nearer the creek. (Helen Castle) This was built below the log home of his father, John Carroll Conley, Jr.

The foundations of both homes still exist. Lloyd and Evelyn Metheny later lived in the newer home. This home was later burned, possibly related to arson. (Carnie Williams). Local history states that a man, Charles "Peefer" Riley, burned this old abandoned Conley house. He also burned several other buildings in the area. In reading Tom Williams, "A History of Bonafield School," a newspaper article by the Mt. Etna correspondant said Mr. Riley spoke to the youth at the local church and talked of his WWI activities. It seems he was "gassed" in Europe during that war. Thornton is listed as attending the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1855. Thornton served in the Civil War as a private in Captain Joshua H. Cale's "D" Company of the local militia. (Name spelled "Conly") (West Virginia Union Militia In the Civil War) Thornton was paid $1 in 8/1868 by the PC Board of Supervisors for one red fox scalp. (Preston County Journal) His will, dated 9/3/1921 (Book 8, page 208), leaves all of his estate "to his beloved wife, Mary Elizabeth."