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Thornton watertower
TE photo, 2001 |
History
in a Pecan shell
Thornton was started in 1868, just two years before the railroad came
through. In this case it was the Houston and Texas Central Railway.
The town's name came from one of the founders, John E. Thornton.
The town grew, although slowly. Besides agriculture, there were brick
yards and ceramics manufacturing. The Thornton Institute was started
in 1877. This was a college that later became the Thornton School.
In 1890 the population was 460, over twice what it was in 1880. The
town incorporated in 1907 and in 1927, just before the stock market
crash, Thornton hit its population zenith of nearly 2,000 people.
In the first years of the Depression the population fell by more than
half. Today the population is estimated at 650. |
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Detail
of the Thornton School
TE photo, 2001 |
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Thorton's Masonic Emblem dates back to 1878.
TE photo, 2001 |
Please
don't confuse Thornton with Milam County's Thorndale (Population 1,100).
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Thornton Texas
Forum
Information
sought on Death of Baptist Minister near Thornton
I have an ancestor that lived in the [Thornton] area before Thornton
was a town. It was in the 1860s that Reese Alexander Clifton and
his in-laws, the Steele Family bought land. Reese was a Baptist
minister and in 1872 he was murdered by some local carpet baggers
that had taken over the county - so the family history goes. His
family continued to live on the family farm until the late 1880s
then sold out and moved to Haskell County. We will be in the area
in March with other relatives to locate the family farm and cemetery.
Any information [anyone] can furnish on the death of Reese Clifton
would be appreciated. - Dana Funk, February 7. 2006
Anyone with photos or incidents of Thornton's history is
invited to share them with our readers. Please contact
us.
© John Troesser
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