San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN MILAN THORNTON
For more than a half century John
Milan Thornton has been a successful agriculturist in San Joaquin County, his
ranching activities being in the locality of Escalon. He has been an eyewitness of the growth and
development of this portion of the county and in no small measure has aided in
its advancement. He was born in Van
Buren County, Iowa, January 9, 1850, and is the youngest son of a family of
seven children, three sons and four daughters.
His father, Calvin S. Thornton, was a native of New York, who migrated
to Iowa with his wife in 1840 with wagons drawn by ox teams. In 1861, Calvin S. Thornton with his wife and
family started west; their mules and horses were commandeered by the rebel
forces and the party was delayed in Missouri for some weeks and then they were
ready to resume their journey, their wagons were drawn by oxen. Captain
Brown was in charge of the train of 100 wagons.
Six months were spent on the way, and they narrowly escaped the Mountain
Meadow massacre. Of the 100 wagons that
started from Missouri only about twelve completed the journey to California,
the others remaining in Oregon. The
Thornton family took up their residence on the John Pollock ranch near Bellota
and experienced the great flood of 1862, but remained there until 1864; then
they farmed near Waterloo until 1866, when they settled in the Lone Tree
district. The original purchase was 160
acres of government land, which was mostly farmed to wheat; the first
schoolhouse was built on a portion of this ranch and there the Thornton
children attended school. Since John
Milan Thornton was fifteen years old he has been interested in farming. He was associated with his father, and on his
father’s death, February 2, 1894; he continued to farm the home place for his
mother until she passed away ten years later.
In 1878, Mr. Thornton bought eighty acres in the Elliott District of San
Joaquin County and this he farmed in conjunction with his father’s place.
On January 4, 1886, in Modesto, Mr.
Thornton was married to Miss Laura Peatross, a native
of California, born near Bodega, July 26, 1863, a daughter of William W. and
Hester (Phelps) Peatross, the father a native of
Virginia and the mother of Illinois; and the father was a California
forty-niner. They are the parents of
four children: Frank Sumner, also
represented in this volume; Ethel H.; Elmer P.; Merle E. resides in Utah. Mr. Thornton has served as trustee on the
school board and also on the board of trustees of the Methodist Church at
Escalon. He owns a choice ranch of
ninety acres near Escalon and owns a fine residence in town where he makes his
home; he also owns other valuable real estate.
His labors have been effective in promoting the educational, social and
material advancement of his community, and he endorses every measure which
tends to advance the general welfare.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1004. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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