James Johnston Thornton

James Johnston Thornton (November 24, 1816, in Highland County, Ohio – February 29, 1884 Guadalupe County, Texas) was a prominent military reconstruction judge, land developer, and quartermaster of the Union Army. He was also the uncle of famed businessman and philanthropist, George Washington Brackenridge, of San Antonio, Texas.

Thornton was a member of a pioneering Ohio and Indiana family that had migrated to the region from South Carolina over opposition to slavery. The Thorntons and related families were devout Scots-Irish Presbyterians and formed a supportive community on Rattlesnake Creek, Ohio. His parents, John and Mary Johnston Thornton, raised twelve children in central Ohio and were respected farmers in the local communities. Several of their sons became soldiers; several others became pioneering ministers.

According to Thornton’s sister, Minerva Thornton Bickell, James J. Thornton was an avid reader and left home at the age of 19 to pursue an education: he worked constantly and studied, spending a term at Bloomington College (now, University of Indiana at Bloomington) and teaching preparatory classes (1835). After Thornton’s family moved to the Logansport, Indiana, area, in 1836, he worked with the engineers building the Erie Canal that ran from Bloomington to the Ohio River in southern Indiana.

Thornton subsequently moved to southern Indiana and read law in the office of prominent local attorney, John A. Brackenridge. When Abraham Lincoln was reading law, the future president visited the courtroom to hear Brackenridge’s oratory and later borrowed books. Thornton excelled in his studies and was named justice of the peace for Warrick County, Indiana (1842).

However, by the end of the 1840s, Thornton began hearing glowing reports from family members and friends who had travelled to Texas and told of the availability of land and new opportunities. Thornton was sold and packed his family off to Seguin, Texas, where he opened a land office and practiced law.

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