San Francisco County
Biographies
MORGAN KROESEN THORNBURGH
Morgan Kroesen Thornburgh of the firm of Gernreich
& Thornburgh, grocers, and Councilman from the First Ward of Oakland, was
born near Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, December 22, 1829, a son of Thomas and Mary
(Williamson) Thornburgh, both natives of that State. The father, by occupation
chiefly a farmer, died about 1834, aged about fifty-eight; the mother died
still younger. Left an orphan at five years of age, M. K. Thornburgh was raised
to the age of sixteen by his grandfather, J. W. Williamson, a planter of
Jefferson county, Virginia, who lived to the age of
seventy-two, and grandmother Williamson reach sixth-eight.
Thrown
on his own resources with, however, a moderate inheritance, he entered as clerk
in a general store at Martinsburg, Virginia, remaining four years, when he went
to Louisville, Kentucky, and entered a dry-goods store conducted by a relative
where he worked two years. In 1851 he invested his accumulated resources in a
barge and cargo of miscellaneous products destined for New Orleans. Losing all
by the sinking of the barge through leakage, and barely escaping with his life,
he returned to Louisville for a few months and from there went to St. Louis,
Missouri, where he was employed one winter in a gents’ furnishing store.
In
1853, with three companions, he crossed the plains, arriving September 15, at
Sacramento, whence he went to Marysville, Yuba county,
where an older brother was in business as a member of the firm of Cheeseman, Jewett & Thornburgh. Employed by them for a
time, his next position was that of a deputy of his brother, who was elected
Sheriff of Yuba county. This brother was afterward of
the firm of Paxton & Thornburgh, bankers at Virginia City, Nevada, and
later a resident of Oakland, where he died, aged over sixty. M. K. Thornburgh’s
next job was on a stock ranch on Bear river, in 1857, and some two years later
he engaged in hotelkeeping at Johnson’s ranch, on the
Sacramento and Nevada stage road, which he relinquished after about one year’s
trial. His next employment was as clerk in a general store at Lincoln, in
Placer county, where he remained several years,
receiving at first a very moderate salary which, however, was afterward raised
to $200 a month. Removing with his employer to San Francisco and becoming a
partner with him under the style of J. Lingenbein
& Co., produce commission merchants of that city, he remained so engaged
over two years. In 1874 he took up his residence in this city, and in 1876 he
formed a partnership with Mr. Gernreich as Gernreich & Thornburgh, grocers, in this city. In the
spring of 1891, Mr. Thornburgh was nominated by the Democrats as Councilman
from the First Ward, and, being supported by the citizens generally, he
received a plurality of 175 votes over his Republican competitor, the president
of the existing council. Mr. Thornburgh
did not seek the office nor has he at any time been an office-seeker, and owes
his election chiefly to the spontaneous support of his fellow citizens, in view
of his established character for integrity and with little reference to party
affiliations. At the first meeting of the new Council, March 30, 1891, Mr. Thornburgh was
appointed Chairman of the Committee on Removal of Obstructions, and a member of
the Committee on Public Health and Ordinance and Judiciary.
Mr.
Thornburgh is a charter member of Occidental Lodge, No. 6, A. O. U. W. and
years ago was an Odd Fellow, joining that order in young manhood at
Martinsburg, Virginia. Mr. Thornburgh was married at Johnson’s Ranch in 1857,
to Miss Frances E. Raines, born in 1838, in Henry county,
Kentucky, a neice [sic] of General Raines of that
State. She crossed the plains in 1852 with her parents, who died in this State,
the father being over sixty, the mother somewhat younger, but past middle life.
Transcribed
by Elaine Sturdevant.
Source: "The Bay of San
Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages 569-570, Lewis Publishing
Co, 1892.
© 2006 Elaine Sturdevant.