Home in DeKalb County, Missouri

Two years after Willi and Sallie’s last child was born the Thornton clan was ready to move again. It was time to pack the wagons and travel one of the shorter distances, about 130 miles north to what was first part of Clinton County, the southwest part of what was later named DeKalb County, Missouri. The community where they settled was named Clarksdale.

Early history shows that at first the immigrants did not farm the land because they did not have plows. The land had many tree stumps and the immigrants did not think it had good soil. Once heavy-duty plows were made in St. Joseph, Missouri they could turn the prairie grass into sod. At first it would take six or eight head of horses or oxen to pull a single plow through the tough soil. At times farmers would first plow two or three inches deep and be followed by another crew that would plow another two or three inches in the same furrow. It took about 25 years before the prairies were prepared and the danger of prairie fires were over before people began to build homes on the land.

In 1839, William Todd Thornton and Hannah, and their year-old daughter, Sarah Isabel, were the first of the Thorntons to settle in the area. William Todd came with his uncle Wm. Adams, and his sister Cordilia [Thornton] Agee and her husband Isaac Agee. With this group were Elder Jesse Todd and his family.

William Todd Thornton and his family built their home on Jordan Creek soon after they arrived. Unfortunately it was too close to the creek and a flood destroyed it. They purchased land on higher ground in 1840, paying $1.25 an acre in gold for it. The house was made with logs and had two rooms, low ceilings, and fireplace, split hardwood floors and walnut siding. Later, as their family grew to 14 children they added two more rooms. Many of the meager furnishings were made from materials found on the farm.

The rest of the Thornton families living in Callaway County joined William Todd Thornton in northwest Missouri. William, his wife Patsy, Willi and Sallie Thornton, James and Sarah Thornton, Simeon Thornton [Toney], and their children reached DeKalb County by 1840.

Sally [Thornton] and John DeShazer, who have been living in various parts of the Midwest, also arrived in DeKalb County in 1840 shortly after her younger brother and his wife had settled in their home. There is no record of Sally or John’s death or where they are buried. By the time they reached northwest Missouri they were in their early 50s and probably exhausted from their years of travels by covered wagon.

The extended Thornton families, with aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, settled into adjoining farms. Artie wrote that they “made a community of kinfolk…[that included]…ministers, teachers, woodworkers, bricklayers, blacksmiths, nurses, and midwives." They built homes, a church, a saw mill a grist mill and a school house. That is an impressive list of accomplishments for one family.

In 1843, within three years after the family arrival in northwest Missouri, the patriarch of the Thornton family, William, died at 78. There is no information on his death or a recorded will. There is no record on when his wife, Patsy, died but it was sometime after the 1850 census when she was 85 years or older. She was living with her son, Willi, at the time of her death.

William and Patsy both had long, rich lives of experiences—from growing up together and getting married in Virginia, homesteading in North Carolina, working in the mines in Kentucky, to farming and working mills in two areas of Missouri. It is not surprising that their memories and stories would sometimes be confused when someone would ask them “Where are your from?”

What compelled them to move so often? William and Patsy migrated to four distant places, built homes from scratch, and began new lives with each move. Most families today may move often for a new job or to attend school, but most occur in the comfort of air conditioned car from one pre-built home to another with all kinds of support groups. This is quite a contrast from families living in the late Eighteenth Century where distances covered took weeks instead of days. Was there something in their genes that created this itch to pack the wagons and start a fresh new life? William and Patsy’s children also moved quite often. Willie and Sallie stayed with his parents but the women traveled through the Midwest. In Willie’s family of 9 who lived beyond childhood, three took to the Oregon Trail and the rest stayed to live within a 10 mile radius of the parents.

Willi Thornton, like his father, was as much of an inventor / mechanic as a farmer. In the History of DeKalb County, Willi is recognized as a “leading farmer and businessman in Clarksdale.” In Artie’s recollections of Willi she said he was known for his inventions. Once settled in DeKalb County, he and Adam Kerns invented a corn crusher and in 1855 he introduced the first powered saw and gristmill in the county.

Residents in the area attempted to build water mills but the streams were too strong during high water and lacked water during other times. The Thornton Saw Mill was “horse” powered and the gristmill was operated with steam. Horses, oxen, and sometimes cows supplied the motive power. Many members of the Thornton family worked in the sawmill and its products were used in several county construction projects.

Soon after the Thornton families arrived in DeKalb County, Willi’s second son, Jeptha Thornton, married Martha R. Walker who was born in Tennessee. In February 1854, Jeptha deeded one acre of his land for $1.25 to the Trustees that organized the first school in DeKalb County. As was the common practice, the school was named after the person who originally owned the land.

TheThornton School

The Thornton School was typical of most backcountry independent schools where education occurred in small “neighborhood schools” maintained by private subscription and taught by itinerant masters for a few months each year. These humble institutions were similar to schools in the British borderlands where the local gentry hired the teachers.

The schoolhouse was a frame building built with lumber from the nearby trees and milled at the Thornton Saw Mill located about a quarter mile south of the school land. The school had a door at each end and three windows on each side. Inside, oak desks faced the East and the teacher’s desk sat on a rostrum. The black board was a panel covered with black paint. Above it were hooks to hold three “persuaders” used for unruly children. A box stove with a drum on top provided heat for the one room. The children placed their lunch pails in the rear corner of the room.

At first, the Thornton children were the majority of the students in the school. As enrollment grew, several of the Thornton men and women taught in the school at various times. “Uncle Jerry” Thornton lived close to the school and took considerable interest in its operation, serving as a trustee and clerk. In 1872 there were 62 pupils enrolled. Their ages ranged from 5 to 20 years. The building was remodeled in 1908 or 1909 and many of the older, mortised sills were used in the new structure.

Some Thornton Families migrate to Oregon

One of William's daughter, Patsy Martha [Patty], and her husband James Toney arrived in Clinton County, Missouri in 1838 and bought some farmland before her father and mother arrived. After about 9 years of farming, the Toneys were still restless in Missouri. On January 20,1847, they sold their land took their 3 sons and 2 daughters to Oregon. Patty was 52 when they organized five wagons for their family and others to travel on the Oregon Trail.

When they reached The Dalles, Oregon, they were met by Daniel Barnes, son of Francis [Thornton] Barnes. James Toney and two of his sons drove the cattle overland to Fort Vancouver. The other two sons took charge of the raft and brought the womenfolk and wagons down the Columbia River. They all met at Oregon City, Oregon, just south of Portland. The two older Barnes boys had been in Oregon for one year. James Thornton Barnes fought in the Rogue River Indian War that was part of the Whitman Massacre in Washington. He and Daniel tried their luck at the California Gold fields but both returned to Oregon to farm and raise stock at Goose Lake and the Sprague River Valley.

Soon to join the Thornton relatives in Oregon were one of Willi Thornton's daughters, Cordilia, and her husband Isaac Agee, and Simeon Thornton, son of Patsy Martha [Thornton] Toney, before she was married. Simeon married Elizabeth Adams, daughter of Ann [Todd] Adams, Sallie [Todd] Thornton's sister. Simeon and Elizabeth farmed in DeKalb County and had five children before they sold their land to be part of the wagon train headed west.

Sometime in 1852 the two families met near St. Joseph Missouri and hitched several teams of oxen. The six-month trip that followed the Oregon Trail took them across the western states to the central part of western Oregon. The Trail had only been opened for 10 years and it usually took six months of rough traveling to make it to the coast. The families had about 16 children whose ages ranged from a few months to 13 years old. Cordilia [Thornton] would have another child while they were on the Trail. Betsy, Simeon Thornton's wife, was expecting to deliver her baby when they arrive in Oregon.

Simeon's great granddaughter, Opal Larson who lives in Oregon, has this story about their travels when they reached Oregon: When the party came through the Blue Mountains to where the John Day River meets the Columbia River, the cliffs made it necessary to take the wagons apart and lower parts down with ropes. The women's job was to walk with the horses and oxen. During one of these experiences Betsy began to deliver her sixth child. The arduous trip and difficult delivery was too much for her frail body and she died. Simeon's mother, Patty [Thornton] Toney, who had been in Oregon for five years and was 57 years old, traveled east to meet the family and help care for the six children. Simeon took out a land claim near his parents in the Oregon City territory. He eventually moved to Alturas California where he died at the age of 99.

Eleven years after the second group of Thornton families arrived, in 1865, another member of the Thornton family decided to join the Agees and Toneys in Oregon. Jeptha Thornton, his wife Martha and their 9 children, joined by W.P. Adam and his family, followed the Oregon Trail from Missouri. Their oldest son, Wm. Edward Thornton, was married and had 3 children.

When the Thornton wagons reached McMinnville, Oregon, Jeptha's brother-in-law, Isaac Agee, met them with a fresh team of oxen and they spent the winter with the Agees in Yamhill County. The following year Jeptha and his family, minus three daughters who married local residents, continued about 180 miles south to Roseburg. Jeptha became a preacher in the Primitive Baptist Church and was the first Postmaster at Oak Creek in 1878. He and Martha lived on the same farm in Oregon until their deaths in 1889 and 1899. Members of the Thornton families who migrated to Oregon still live in the Roseburg area.

The Thorntons who stayed in Missouri

Back in Missouri, in 1843 Willi Thornton's fourth son, John, married his first cousin, Sally Todd, another one of Elder Jesse Todd's daughters. John was 17 years older than his 16-year-old wife. They were married on the same day as Elder Jesse Todd's son, William Todd, married Nancy Jane Thornton, daughter of Elder James Thornton. Artie reports that because the two marriages in the Todd and Thornton families were held on the same day there was little material aid from the two parents.

John and Sally Thornton had 10 children between 1845 and 1871. In 1854, Luke Thornton, Willi's sixth son, would marry another of Elder Jesse Todd's daughters, cousin Cyrenia. They had five children. For many years, at least until the 1980s, there would be an annual Todd / Thornton family reunion in Maysville to celebrate the closeness of the two families.

Toward the middle of 1858, Willi became ill and died Sept. 6 when he was 66 years old. Apparently he accumulated some wealth. In this last will and testament, drawn up 5 days before his death, he left his wife Sallie the property, all the furniture, 2 slaves, and $400. He also gave each of his children $100.

Bethlehem & Salem Church

In DeKalb County, Jesse Todd and John Evans organized a Baptist church in 1842 that was of the Primitive or "old school" Baptist faith, who trace their history to the “original Baptists.” Religion for the backcountry families was mostly part of small Protestant sects who were converted to more evangelical forms of Christianity by Methodist and Baptist missionaries. Luke Thornton donated the land in Clarksdale for the first meetinghouse, named the Bethlehem Church.

Congregations in the Primitive Baptist Church were often composed of extended family members. The original 20 members included primarily the DeShazer, Adams, Thornton, and Todd families. It was the church of choice for most of the Thornton families.

The first meetinghouse was made of walnut sawed siding and homemade clapboard shingles, all fabricated at the Thornton Saw Mill. The congregation was lead by ministers called Elders who did not have any formal education in religion. Elder Jesse Todd was the first resident minister of the church and of DeKalb County. In the History of DeKalb County it say Elder Todd was "unlearned in the subtleties of scholastic divinity, [he] preached with a fervor that influenced many of the early pioneers to abandon the careless life so prevalent upon the frontier, and identify themselves with the church…" Elders in the Primitive Baptist church expected to be self educated in the Word of God.

The Bethlehem Church thrived until 1861 when the Civil War accented the congregation’s opposed philosophies on slave holding. Serious divisions within the membership based on conflicting opinions and trouble growing from the War caused the church to close. After the War, several members of the Bethlehem Church reorganized a new Baptist church called the Salem Church of Regular Baptists, with 22 members, the majority of whom had been identified with the original society. Members of the Thornton families held various offices and were active in the life of the church. William Todd Thornton was Church Clerk from 1851 to 1901. Jeremiah and his son, James C., later served in the office.

In 1880 the congregation built a new frame building on the same acre of ground as the old building stood. In a short essay on the history of the church, Mr. Eliza J. Thornton wrote that a team from St. Joseph, Missouri hauled white pine lumber into the community. The members worked together under the supervision of Luke Thornton and Ezra Gross to erect a 24 x 40 foot structure. It stood east west and had a belfry and a spire rising about forty feet from the ground.

There were four windows on each side. Inside, on the east end, was a rostrum about eight feet square on which stood the pulpit and two smaller stands for books or a pitcher of water. There was a center aisle with a row of seats on each side. The women occupied the south row and the men the north row during services. The older members and the clerk occupied seats near the pulpit.
The Primitive Baptist did not believe in instrumental music. When the proper time came for a hymn, one of the elders led in song and the rest of the congregation joined in. The service stressed simplicity with “preaching, praying and singing.” Their church day was the 4th Saturday of each month and extended into the following Sunday. On Saturday there would be a business meeting and maybe a sermon at 2 pm with a regular worship at 11 am on Sunday. Converts were baptized through immersion in the Little or Big Third Fork of the Platte River in the spring, summer, fall and warmer parts of the winter.

As the congregation began to favor the "city" churches, country churches like Salem Church began to fold. When older members died and membership dwindled, the Salem Church closed in 1916 and the building was sold for $375.

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