Oakleigh Thorne

W.O.S. Thorne, more generally known as Oakleigh Thorne (July 31, 1866 − May 23,1948), was a publisher of tax guides who also served as a director of Wells Fargo & Company from 1902 to 1918. He later became a breeder of champion Angus cattle.

Thorne was born in 1866 in New Hamburg, New York, the son of Edward Thomas Thorne and Charlotte (Pearsall) Thorne. He was educated in the schools of Poughkeepsie, New York. On February 26, 1889, he married Helen Seymour Stafford, with whom he had three daughters. The couple made their home in Millbrook, New York, which remains the family's principal place of residence.

He should not be confused with his great-grandson Oakleigh Thorne, who was #1014 on Forbes' 2008 list of the world's billionaires.

In 1892, Thorne purchased a small printing company that under his management became Commerce Clearing House, a major publisher of tax guides for lawyers and accountants.

Thorne was elected a director of Wells Fargo & Company on January 2, 1902. This was at the time control of the express company passed to E.H. Harriman; the company headquarters moved from San Francisco to New York City in 1904. Thorne remained a director of Wells Fargo until the company ceased express service in 1918.

Expanding into the realm of railroad speculation, Thorne and his partner Marsden J. Perry bought up a controlling interest in the failing New York, Westchester and Boston Railway in 1906. Combined with the assets of the competing New York & Portchester Railroad, the Millbrook Company was created as a holding entity that was transferred to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad following the Panic of 1907.

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