John Thornton, P. O., Arrow Rock, Was born in Jefferson county, Tennessee, July 21, 1813. His father Daniel Thornton, a native of South Carolina, moved with his father to Tennessee, and was married there to Mary Nave, sister of Henry and Isaac Nave. They had twelve children, four boys and eight girls. In 1816 he came to Saline County with his family, traveling by water, on a keel-boat. At that time John was about three years old, yet remembers the start from Tennessee. They first landed at Pier Flesh Creek, just above the present town of Arrow Rock. Just previous to his arrival the inhabitants had been greatly alarmed on account of the killing of a man named Gray, by the Indians. Gray lived in the bottom below Saline City. On arriving, Mr. Thornton went with his family to Cooper’s fort, and remained there a couple of weeks, and then settled in Saline county, two and a half miles from Arrow Rock. He stayed there until the land sales of 1819, and when the speculators bought the land on which he had settled, he moved two and one half miles further out, into the prairie, and entered the land now owned by H. Price. He died August 31, 1855, and was buried at Concord church. His widow died March 3, 1874, and was buried at the same place. John Thornton never had the advantages of much education—working on the farm until twenty-one years of age, when he went into his father’s blacksmith shop, and learned the trade. His father made the plows that broke the first prairie soil of Saline. From his father’s shop, John moved to Arrow Rock, and carried on the trade there for sixteen years. In 1836 he was married to Sarah Oldham, and they had eleven children, seven of whom are now living: Daniel, Rasweight, John, Aurelia, Laura and Lucy. His first wife died December 14, 1875, and was buried at Concord Church. September 19, 1880, he was married to Mrs. Hubbard, relict of William Hubbard, her maiden name, Miss Arretta Groom. Mr. Thornton now resides on a farm three miles north of Arrow Rock.
