William Patton Thornton

Dr. William Patton Thornton (February 6, 1817 in Hillsboro, Ohio – October 10, 1883, in College Hill, Ohio), son of William and Martha Patton Thornton, was a prominent physician, educator, author, politician, and member of the influential Thornton family of Logansport, Indiana. Sir Henry Worth Thornton and Judge William Wheeler Thornton were his nephews.^[1]

Education and career

After a brief study for the ministry (1837) at Wabash College, Indiana, William began his preparations for medicine at the Ohio College of Medicine; He graduated from Kemper’s Medical College, St. Louis, and Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.^[2] After graduation, Dr. William P Thornton spent five years in Houston, Mississippi, where he began to specialize in diseases of the trachea and larynx.^[3]

In 1847 Dr. Thornton returned to Ohio and established a thriving practice. In the late 1850s, he spent two years in Europe, studying the latest procedures in Paris and Vienna.^[4] Dr. Thornton was one of the first Cincinnati doctors to undertake such a study. Upon his return, he began his long affiliation with the Cincinnati Hospital and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, where he was named chair of the Anatomy and Physiology Department.^[5] Dr. Thornton published academic papers^[6] on cholera^[7] and laryngology.

1877–1883

After retiring from practice in 1877, Dr. W P Thornton served as mayor of College Hill, Ohio, until his death. Joseph F Tuttle,^[8] President of Wabash College, delivered the sermon at Dr. Thornton’s funeral. Thornton left a sizeable portion of his estate to Wabash College to endow a professorship.^[9]

Family

In 1841 William Thornton married Electa Bacon in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio, near his brother,^[10] Dr. Joseph L. Thornton, a prominent educator and past president of the Ohio Valley Paper Company. William was a cousin of Samuel W. Thornton, a member of the Nebraska Legislature of 1887, and Judge James Johnston Thornton of Seguin, Texas.

Notes

1. See Thornton genealogy: www.thorntonsoky.blogspot.com; www.sonton.info
2. Juettner, Otto. Daniel Drake and his Followers: Harvey Publishing Company, 1909 (pg. 311).
3. Appleton’s Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events. D. Appleton & Co., 1877.
4. The Lancet-clinic. Mississippi Valley Medical Association; Ohio Valley Medical Association, 1916 (pg. 243).
5. The Cincinnati Medical and Surgical News, v. 2 1861 (pg. 208-9)
6. See Footnote 3
7. The Cholera Epidemic of 1873 in the United States. United States Surgeon General’s Office, G.P.O., 1875.
8. Tuttle, Joseph Farrand In Memoriam. Press of Robert Clarke & Co., 1883.
9. New York Times: Nov. 11, 1883
10. Helmke, Jaclyn. A Family History of the Simonton Family,…, 2000