Move to central Missouri, around 1816

In the early history of our country, one of the major accomplishments of President Thomas Jefferson was the purchase claims to the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. This new territory almost doubled the size of the existing United States. It ranged from what is now Louisiana, north to the Canadian line, and east of the Mississippi River to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. The French claimed the land from Native Americans tribes—Dakota, Illinois, Osage, Choctaw and others—who numbered several million and lived on the land for many centuries. The French eventually ceded it to Spain who lost it to Great Britain in 1763. By 1800 Napoleon coerced Britain to cede it back to France. As Napoleon began his conquest into Europe in 1803 he needed cash. He offered to sell all claims to the Louisiana Territory to the US, making it the largest area ever added to America at one time. President Jefferson could not pass-up this bargain. Since the Indians were not part of the bargain and received no money for their homeland it took another 90 years of Indian wars to remove them for the European settlers.

In the center of the Louisiana Territory, on the western shore of the Mississippi River, was the Missouri Territory. As soon as it became open for settlement in 1812, families from the eastern part of the US quickly took possession of the fertile farmland in the Missouri Territory. The north central part of Missouri was settled mainly by Virginians and Kentuckians, while the southern portion was favored by those from Tennessee and the Carolinas. The peak of migration was in 1815. By 1816 the first steamboat traveled upstream on the Mississippi River from New Orleans to St. Louis. Transportation in both directions on the river was popular and quickly became the best way to travel north and south.

The lure of the Missouri River’s rich farmland for as little as $1.25 an acre enticed William Thornton and Jesse Todd and their families to move from their 12 years in Kentucky. In 1816 or 1817, when William was 50, the families hitched the oxen and packed the wagons for the new territory across the Mississippi River. Willi, age 23, his wife, Sallie, age 22, and their infant child, Cordilia, joined the Thornton clan for a trip that would take them more than twice the distance previously covered when they moved from North Carolina to Kentucky.

The easiest route to Missouri was across land to the Ohio River, floating down the Ohio to the Mississippi River and upstream to St. Louis. From there they would enter the mouth of the Missouri River and travel upstream to the center of Missouri.

Some members of the clan remained in Madison County. Patsy Thornton’s father, Barnett Owen, was 65 when his daughter migrated west, stayed in Madison County and eventually died there in 1829. In his will he left “only twenty dollars each” to Patsy and her three brothers and two sisters who left Kentucky. The rest of his estate was left to the four daughters who still lived in Kentucky. To his son Barnett Jr., Barnett Sr. wrote: “…he has had his equal part of my estate already and is entitled to no more.” Peter Todd’s father, Benjamin Sr., died in Madison County earlier in 1810. When Peter’s son and daughter left Kentucky, Peter was 60 years old and remained there until his death in 1841.

By 1819 William Thornton and his family are recorded on the tax roll in Montgomery County, Missouri. When the 1820 census was taken William and his family was listed in Montgomery County. In November 25, 1820, Callaway County was organized from a section of Montgomery County which included the land owned by the Thorntons.

The Thornton farm was several parcels of land in the Auxvasse Prairie part of Callaway County, southeast of Fulton and just north of the Missouri River. In nearby farms lived earlier settlers Isaac Agee and William Coats. Members of their families would eventually marry into the Thornton family. The Rev. William Coats, the first pastor for the newly formed Salem Baptist Church in Auxvasse Township, encouraged Willi Thornton and his family to join the church. The Thornton families settled down for a lengthy 23 years in Callaway County.

James Thornton, Willi’s youngest son, and Sarah had 9 children while they lived in Callaway Country. One son, Levi, was born in 1828 and died 20 years later from fighting in the Mexican War in 1846 through 1848. One of their daughters, Nancy Jane, would later marry into the Todd family. James is mentioned in the book History of Callaway County, written in 1884. It says that he supplied the inhabitants with gunpowder for many years. He would be seen at musters and public gatherings peddling out his powder at three bits per pound. He was a man who scorned to kill small game; and when he did hunt, it was for bear or an old buck. He left smaller game for others to kill. The author of the story tells of riding with James to Fulton Missouri when they came upon a bear. James has his gun with him, as he did for most occasions. He quickly dismounted and sent a bullet through the bruin’s heart, killing him on the spot. He brought the hide to a July 4th celebration and sold it for 3 dollars.

Besides fish being plentiful in all the streams, deer would be seen in the prairie in herds of twelve to twenty and sometimes as many as fifty would be seen grazing together. Elk, wild turkey and prairie chicken were numerous. Trapping wolves was a profitable business after the State began to pay a bounty for wolf scalps.

William Thornton and Sallie Todd

During the twenty-one of the years in Callaway County, Willie’s Sallie was either pregnant or recovering from childbirth. Sallie and Willi raised 9 children — two infants died soon after birth. Willi and Sallie’s first child, Cordilia, was born in 1815 before they moved from Kentucky. Just 16 years later in Callaway County, Cordilia married Isaac Agee, son of Matthew and Sarah Agee. The Agees were from Franklin County, Virginia and lived on a farm close to the Thornton’s farm in Missouri. Cordilia’s marriage certificate lists her name as “Cordilly.”

Isaac’s father, Matthew Agee and his son Tillman, are included in the book, History of Callaway County, written in 1884. It says that the two of them settled on Coats’ Prairie (named after the Coats Family) in 1817. Matthew married into the Coats family and had a large apple and peach orchard from which he made brandy. In 1833 the cholera made its appearance in his family when one of his sons came down with the sickness. Their remedy was to have the child drink a barrel of water in 24 hours. The story says the child recovered.

Willi Thornton’s second child was William Todd, born April 5, 1817. His first name continued the family tradition of passing the father’s name on to the oldest son. William’s middle name, Todd, was in honor of his mother’s family name. It was also prophetic because 20 years later he would marry one of Uncle Jesse Todd’s daughters.

Sallie [Todd] Thornton’s older brother Jesse Todd grew up with the Thorntons in Kentucky and traveled with them to Missouri. Jesse Todd also grew up with Lucy Isabell Dalton whom he married in Madison County and had 8 children. Jesse became a preacher in the Primitive Baptist religion, served churches in Callaway and DeKalb Counties and officiated at several of the families’ weddings. His children and those of his sister, Sallie [Todd] Thornton, had a close affection for each other. Even though they were first cousins, three of his children married their Thornton cousins. One of his sons would marry one of James Thornton’s daughters. And, one of his daughter’s sons would marry Willie and Sallie Thornton’s daughter.

The connections with the Thornton and Todd families became very complicated with an aunt becoming sister-in-laws and nieces and nephews became son or daughter-in-laws. This arrangement was not that unusual at that time. In the early history of the settlements, marriage occurred very frequently among kin.

William Todd Thornton was the first of three Thornton brothers to marry their first cousins in the Todd family. In 1837 he married Hannah Todd and year later they would have the first of their 15 children.

Willi and Sallie Thornton continued to have children: James, born in 1819 died as an infant. Jeptha was born in 1821. In addition to having children just about every two years, Sallie had developed a reputation of knowing the medicinal qualities of herbs. Living on the frontiers in Kentucky and Missouri she gained a reputation as a reliable midwife.

Hannah Marinda, born on in 1824, was Willi’s second daughter. She also appears in the 1884 book, History of Callaway County. It tells the story about Tillman Agee marrying William Thornton’s daughter when she was only 13. As the story goes, the next morning after the wedding he left her to get breakfast while he went out to work. He worked in the fields until 9 o’clock without being summoned for his meal. Having become impatient, he went to the house to see what was the matter and found his wife sitting on the floor playing with her dolls. It is a good story but it was the wrong Agee. Instead of Tillman, it was his brother William Oliver Agee. The young bride was Hannah Marinda Thornton, who did marry William Agee when she was 13 and had her first child at 15 years old, and six more in the next 13 years.

The rest of Willi and Sallie’s children, all born in Callaway County, were: John, born in 1826, Thomas Riley in 1828; Luke in 1831; Martha Jane was born in 1833 but died as an infant; Jeremiah Todd [our connection] born in 1834; and finally Sally Ann in 1837.

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