Dr. William Patton Thornton

Dr. William Patton Thornton (February 6, 1817 in Hillsboro, Ohio – October 10, 1883, in College Hill, Ohio), son of William and Martha Patton Thornton, was a prominent physician, educator, author, politician, and member of the influential Thornton family of Logansport, Indiana. Sir Henry Worth Thornton and Judge William Wheeler Thornton were his nephews.

After a brief study for the ministry (1837) at Wabash College, Indiana, William began his preparations for medicine at the Ohio College of Medicine; He graduated from Kemper’s Medical College, St. Louis, and Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. After graduation, Dr. William P Thornton spent five years in Houston, Mississippi, where he began to specialize in diseases of the trachea and larynx.

In 1847, Dr. Thornton returned to Ohio and established a thriving practice. In the late 1850s, he spent two years in Europe, studying the latest procedures in Paris and Vienna. Dr. Thornton was one of the first Cincinnati doctors to undertake such a study. Upon his return, he began his long affiliation with the Cincinnati Hospital and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, where he was named chair of the Anatomy and Physiology Department. Dr. Thornton published academic papers on cholera and laryngology.

After retiring from practice in 1877, Dr. W P Thornton served as mayor of College Hill, Ohio, until his death. Joseph F Tuttle, President of Wabash College, delivered the sermon at Dr. Thornton’s funeral. Thornton left a sizeable portion of his estate to Wabash College to endow a professorship.

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