James Calvin Thornton and Anna Mary Redman

When J.C. Thornton married Anna Mary Redman February 28, 1892, he was 24 years old and Anna was 22. Their first child, Ethel Lettie, was born a year after their wedding, in 1893. A year later their first son was stillborn. In 1897 Artie May was born, followed by Samuel Calvin in 1900, Ira Redman in 1903 and Louin Chappell in 1906. [Photo of J. C. Thornton and family around 1910.]

James was a big-framed man who weighed around 190 to 200 pounds. He was better educated than most of his neighbors and knew parliamentary procedures that made him a favorite to conduct meetings.  He was quite active with the local Grange, served as clerk for the Salem Church, and elected a member and clerk of the Mr. Hope School Board.

In March 1908 they moved the family from their home in Washington Township to a 232-acre farm in Grant Township, north of Maysville Missouri. By 1919 they purchased an adjoining 40 acres of land where they farmed, had honeybees, and raised purebred stock.

In spite of being in the rural section of northwest Missouri, education was very important to the family. Louin said that it was understood that if any of the children were punished at school they would receive additional punishment at home. There was a grand piano in the family home but since none of the family played, many guests were invited to use it during visits. Nips loved to sing and often entertained family and friends in their parlor.

All the children were educated in the Thornton or Mt. Hope schools. When the oldest daughter, Ethel, was 20 years old she married a local farmer, John Bynum Wren, and had six children: Zelma, Wilma, Oma, Virginia, J.C. and Dorothy. Ethel and John lived and farmed their entire life in Maysville. Ethel died in 1985 at age 92.

Because of the importance of education, it was understood that, other than Ethel, the rest of the children would attend college. Artie, Sam, Ira, and Louin finished four years of college and were awarded degrees. The three boys would continue their education and complete graduate degrees in education and agriculture. All three would also become teachers for part of their lives. This dedication to education continued with the three brother’s expectation of their families—all seven grand children would have degrees from the University of Missouri.

Artie May has an interesting history in the Thornton family. After she graduated from the Maysville High School she attended Central Missouri State Teachers College in Warrensburg where she was awarded Bachelor of Science degrees in Math and Education. Her first jobs were in her hometown as a teacher at the Mr. Gilead and Red Star rural school and the Clarksdale High School. In 1930 she traveled to Washington D.C. to be a statistical clerk in the Census Bureau, where she worked for two years. When she left the job she visited her local senator’s office for a letter of recommendation so she could get another government job. Her senator was Harry S Truman, soon to be the Vice President and President. Unfortunately the letter has been lost. She returned to DeKalb County and worked as the Chief Clerk in Agriculture Programs for the County. From 1942 to 1943 she was a Junior Professional Assistant at the Ft. Monmouth New Jersey Signal Corps. By the middle of the World War II she was a riveter at Boeing Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas. She was still working in the area following the war.

In 1948 her parents called and said that they would match her income if she would come home and take care of them. James Calvin was 80 with a serious hearing problem and Anna was 78 and almost blind with cataracts. The family farm was still in operation but it did not have indoor plumbing. Artie, who never married, agree to their terms and stayed on the family farm caring for her parents until their deaths—Anna died on May 7, 1962, a few months after their 70th wedding anniversary. James died on December 4, 1966. Anna was 92 and James was 98.
During the 1970s Artie sold the family farm in Maysville to her nephew, Tommy Thornton. She devoted her time assisting many people in searching for their ancestors at the DeKalb County Historical Society. In the late 1980s Artie was unable to remain alone on the farm and was moved to the Maysville Nursing Home. On December 21, 2000 she died at age 103.

The third child, Samuel Calvin, born April 2, 1900, was named after his mother’s younger brother, Samuel Redman, who was working at Jerry Thornton’s implement business in Clarksdale when his namesake was born. Dad remembers that when his family moved from Clarksdale to Maysville his parents built a home on their farmland. They moved before the home was finished and Dad remembers living in the small structure that would become the smoke house. Sam would not be a farmer or cattleman like his parents and brothers. He said that he was too small and couldn’t do the heavy farm work. His interest was first in education. After attending the rural schools in Maysville and Maysville High School he attended Central Missouri State Teachers College in Warrensburg where he received a BA in Education. He continued his education at the University of Missouri where he was awarded a MA in Education. During the mid 1920s he spent a summer doing graduate work at Columbia University in New York City and the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Sam’s first job was a teacher in a rural community of Rockingham, near Hardin, Missouri, about 60 miles from his home. Central School, a high school, was formed in 1917 to serve children in that rural district. Fresh out of college, Sam was designated Superintendent for the staff of eight teachers. The community did not give much support for the school because the consolidation had carried by only one vote, 52 to 51. Later when the school sought support from bond elections, they all failed and it was funded only by donations. During the summer months in the late 1920s Sam would continue his studies and court a young teacher named Mary Nelson. Their story is later in this narrative.

Ira Redman Thornton, the forth child, born September 2, 1903, grew to be the tallest of the Thornton children. He also graduated from Central Missouri State Teachers College and continued his study at the University of Missouri in Columbia, where he was awarded a MS in Agriculture. Like his brothers he taught school for a short time in Stet and Norborne Missouri. He married Agnes Lucille Barnett, who was from Tina, Missouri, in 1932. They had two children, John R. and Jim.

After teaching a few years Ira used his skills in agriculture and worked as the County Agent to assist farmers in Ray County. In the early 1940s he and his wife formed the Thornton Construction Company to promote soil conservation for farmers by building ponds and terraces. Following World War II he helped many returning veterans manage their farms. He and Agnes also farmed 3 miles east of Richmond where they raised livestock. They sold their construction business in the mid 1970s.

My brothers and I would often visit our cousins in Richmond, about an hours drive from Carrollton. We remember how they seemed to have many more interesting toys than we had, including a gasoline powered go-cart that our mother would occasionally let us drive. Agnes would make us rich milk shakes and add a raw egg. Since they lived on a farm and we considered ourselves “city kids,” we always found interesting places to play.

Agnes developed Alzheimer’s disease in the late 1970s and lived in a nursing home until she died in 1988. Ira remained active and lived in his Richmond home until his death in 1997. He was 94 years old.

The fifth child of Nips and Anna Thornton was Louin Chappelle, born September 20, 1906. Actually when he was born he did not have a middle name. The story from his sister, Artie, was that when he went to college he had to complete several forms that asked his middle name. Since he didn’t have one he made it up on the spot. When asked in 1999 where he got the name he said that when he was very young, his family was visiting a bank in town and the banker gave him a dime. Louin was so grateful he adopted the banker’s name “Chappelle” as his middle name.

Louin was also educated in the Mt. Hope rural school and Maysville High School. Instead of going to Warrensburg like his brothers and sister, he attended Wesleyan College in Cameron, a few miles from his home in Maysville. He continued his education at the University of Missouri where he received a MA in Agricultural Education. After graduation he taught vocational agriculture in Norborne Missouri for 9 years and, after World War II, he taught “Veterans on the Job Training” in Maysville.

While he was in high school he and his brother Ira had a room near the school so they wouldn’t have to make the long trip home. Their older sister Artie would cook for them during most of the school year. Louin began to notice a schoolmate who would wait across the street from where they roomed. Leta Inez Owens was waiting for her brother and sister to pick her up by horse and buggy for the trip to her house. Louin and Leta’s first date was to one of the school’s teacher training parties. They would date for 8 years before they married.

They had two children, Tommy and Don. We would visit them often on their Maysville farm where Louin raised Angus cattle. Since we were not allowed to have guns in our house and we would ask to shoot Tommy and Don’s guns during our visits. Leta died in the 1980s and Louin, the last of JC and Anna’s children, died October 16, 2007, just 26 days after his 101st birthday. He was active on the farm at the time of his death.

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