San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRANK SUMNER THORNTON
One of the esteemed and helpful
citizens of San Joaquin County is Frank Sumner Thornton, who occupies the
position of assessor and collector in the South San Joaquin Irrigation District,
having been elected to this office in February, 1919. To his effective work as promoter may be
attributed the rapid growth of the business and he has proved his exceptional
qualifications for the duties imposed.
He was born on his grandfather’s ranch near Sebastopol, California,
October 18, 1883, a son of John Milan and Laura (Peatross)
Thornton, natives of Iowa and California, respectively, whose sketch will be
found elsewhere in this history.
Frank Sumner Thornton was reared on
a farm and began his education in the district school known as the Lone Tree
district, San Joaquin County. In 1905 he
was graduated from the San Francisco Business College. He then found work as a stenographer and
bookkeeper in the Bay City for a short time, when he went to Folsom, where he
found employment with the Folsom Development Company, which occupied him for
eighteen months; he then removed to Los Angeles to take charge of the Southern
California branch of the California Moline Plow Company, and in 1907 was transferred
to Stockton in the employ of the same company.
On account of impaired health he gave up his position within three
months after arriving in Stockton and went to ranching on his father’s place
near Escalon. The following year he
returned to the business college in San Francisco, where he took review work,
then went to Siskiyou County, and there worked for six months for the Northern
California Lumber Company; then he received an offer from the Natomas Consolidated Company at Folsom as billing and shipping
clerk, and while in their employ billed out the rock and gravel used on many
highways in central California, the shipments reaching thirty car loads per
day. Returning to Escalon, Mr. Thornton
again took up the realty business until 1911, when he purchased the Escalon
Tribune. This he successfully operated
for some four years, when he sold his interest to Mr. Morgenson. Mr. Thornton has also successfully engaged in
the real estate and insurance business in Escalon.
On August 16, 1911, Mr. Thornton was
united in marriage with Miss Edna E. Early, born near
Stockton, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. Early, ranchers and pioneers of
the Weber district, six miles southeast of Stockton. Mr. and Mrs. Thornton are the parents of
three children: Lucille, Evelyn E., and
Mildred Marie. Mr. Thornton is secretary
of the Escalon Water & Light Company and is now a stockholder and director
of the company; he was the vice-president of the Escalon Commercial Club and
chairman of the board of trustees of the Escalon grammar school, who have just
completed a new $18,000 building.
Fraternally, he is a past noble grand of the I. O. O. F., at Manteca and
Mrs. Thornton is active in the Parent-Teachers Association of San Joaquin
County, the Home Department of the Farm Bureau, the Woman’s Improvement Club,
and the Ladies’ Guild of the Presbyterian Church in Escalon. Both Mr. and Mrs. Thornton are enthusiasts of
the outdoor life and a portion of each season is spent in the high Sierras or
at the seashore with their family.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1007-1008. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases