Thornton Lineage

Giles "Nonie" Monroe Thornton was born June 1880 to George Washington Thornton and Hattie Graham on their 94-acre farm in Pulaski County near Snowville in southwest Virginia where the family had lived for generations. They had 2 milk cows, 3 pigs, 10 chickens and grew corn and sorghum. When Nonie was about 2, the family moved to nearby Radford City where his father found work in the Foundry.

When he was 20, in 1901, Nonie married 19-year-old Agnes Thornton, his first cousin once removed. Her father Reason was Nonie's grandfather GJ Thornton's brother (his great uncle). Their families' farms were near each other, and Agnes' grandfather John Elkins served in the Confederate Army with Nonie's grandfather GJ in the Civil War.

After they married, Nonie and Agnes rented a house down the block from his parents in Radford. They had 3 boys - Earnest, Emmett and Marvin. In 1908 Nonie drowned at the age of 28 when his boat capsized crossing the New River with some friends to get watermelons on a warm sunny fall Sunday. His eldest son Earnest was almost 6, Marvin, his youngest, just an infant. (29 years later, Nonie's brother Robert's son Isaac also drowned in the river.)

Agnes carried on, working as a washer woman, but within 10 years she died of pneumonia (likely of Spanish Flu). Earnest and Emmett went to live with Nonie's parents and Marvin went to live with Nonie's sister Minnie. He always went by "Nonie", and his middle name Monroe was passed down to his son and grandson, who didn't even know his first name was actually Giles.

Earnest Monroe Thornton was the eldest of 3 boys, born in 1902 in Radford, Virginia a few blocks up the hill from the Foundry where many in the family worked. They lived a few houses from his father's parents.

In 1908, when he was 6, his father Giles Monroe ("Nonie") drowned when his boat capsized while crossing the sNew River near their house to get some watermelons. Ten years later, his mother Agnes, who supported the family washing clothes, died, probably from the Spanish Flu. Earnest (then about 16) and his brother Emmett went to live with their grandparents George and Hattie, and brother Marvin went to live with Aunt Minnie nearby. Earnest left school when he was 9 (3rd grade).

Around 1928 at the beginning of the Great Depression Earnest moved to North Side, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Around this time he met his wife Helen Strawser (born in Preston County, WV). He worked various jobs and eventually became a watchmaker.

Earnest and Helen had 4 children - Wanda Harriet, Eva, Virginia (Babe), and Charles Paul Monroe. Things seemed to be going well for them, but he drank and gambled, and was a mean, abusive man. In 1940, after Helen had kicked him out, he was arrested for shooting at someone during a fight and sentenced to 60 days at the county work farm. He was 5'11", 183 lbs, with blue eyes.

In 1942 he briefly enlisted in the Army at the age of 40 but was not called on to serve (probably due to his age) and was discharged 3 months later. He and Helen got back together, but only a few years later in 1944 he died from an overdose of sleeping pills. His 7-year-old son Paul is said to have "sat in the coal bucket and laughed."

George Washington Thornton was born in 1858 near Snowville, Virginia (near Godbey's Bluff) on his parents' 135-acre farm, the 4th of 13 children. In 1861 George was just 3 when the Civil War broke out and his father GJ enlisted in the Confederate army, although it appears he served close to home at a hospital and didn't see any action. However, many cousins and uncles served. In 1877, George married Harriet "Hattie" Graham when he was 19. The families were close - they were neighbors and George's sister Drusilla had married Hattie's brother Noah 2 years earlier. George and Hattie started their own farm, with the help of Hattie's brothers Thias and Asial.

Around 1882 George and Hattie sold their farm and moved with their 2 young sons Robert (4) and Nonie (2) to the new Radford City to work at the Foundry Pipeshop down the hill by the river. At first they rented a house and soon were able to purchase a house and several other lots on the block up the hill from the Foundry. Their tiny house on 2nd Street was always full of children (they had 9), grandchildren, neices and nephews, especially after son Nonie drowned in 1908 and his wife Agnes died in 1918, leaving two of their three boys in their care.

By 1930 it looked like life finally was settling down for George and Hattie, now in their 60s. They moved in with their daughter Minnie and her husband George Kirtner along with Nonie's son Marvin and his wife Juanita. But a series of deaths and illness plagued their last decade. Son Wade had been committed to a mental hospital in 1925 and had been in serious trouble with the law. George continued to try to get him released to his care. In 1931, Charlie's wife died of TB at the age of 39. In 1936, after 59 years of marriage, George's wife Hattie died at the age of 77 of pancreatic cancer and he began having heart trouble. One year later in 1937 his eldest son Robert died in April of sudden kidney failure, and in November Robert's son Isaac drowned in the New River one day after his 21st birthday, making him the 2nd person in the family taken by the river. Minnie's husband died one month later, and then Minnie died five months later at the age of 49. After Minnie died, George moved in with son Watt. On the anniversary of Hattie's death, Nonie's son Marvin died of pneumonia. 12 days later George died in 1941 at the age of 82 at the home of his son Watt.

Gordon Jefferson "GJ" Thornton was born in 1833 to Peter Thornton and Susannah Bell on their farm near Newbern, Montgomery County, Virginia (in an area that would soon become Pulaski County).  At the age of 18, GJ married Maggie Boothe 9 days after her 14th birthday and 2 days after Maggie's brother James married GJ's sister Lucinda (they all got their marriage licenses on the same day). The families were neighbors.

In December of 1861, at the age of 27, GJ enlisted in the Confederate Army, Co. I, 50th Virginia Infantry. His younger brother Jeremiah had enlisted 6 months earlier and had been briefly hospitalized at Newbern after a hard 2 day march in the heat. It appears GJ served all or most of the war working at the nearby Montgomery White Sulphur Springs hospital (near Christiansburg). He and Maggie had 3 young sons at the time. The hospital, once a fancy resort, was used as a hospital during the war. By August, 1862, the hospital was already at capacity with 400 sick and wounded soldiers when the order for 300 more patients was issued. GJ was reportedly even a patient there for a week in 1863 - at the same time they had 873 patients. His brother in law John W. Elkins, John's brother George and a cousin Creed Graham enlisted in the same unit along with many other friends and cousins from the area. George Elkins was assigned to make saltpeter (a key ingredient in gunpowder). GJ mustered out 2 months before Lee's surrender. Creed was present at Appomatax on April 9, 1865 when Lee surrendered.

After the war, GJ returned to farming on their 135-acre farm near Snowville not far from the Alms House located off Owens Road (around the Byrd Lodge area) near numerous Grahams. When GJ's father died in 1862 he bought his father's loom from the estate sale.

GJ and Maggie had 13 children, including 2 sets of twins back to back. GJ died of "Bright's Disease" (a kidney disease) at the age of 78, 7 years before Maggie. He is buried in the Graham Thornton Cemetery, on his farm on Spooky Hollow Road, Snowville, Virginia overlooking the New River.

GJ's brother Reason's daughter Agnes would later marry his grandson Nonie (1st cousins once removed).

Margaret "Maggie" Elizabeth Boothe was born in 1840 near Newbern, Virginia, the youngest of 11 children of John Boothe and Mary Foster O'Neal. Her father died when she was 2 years old and her mother never remarried.

Maggie married Gordon Jefferson "GJ" Thornton only 9 days after her 14th birthday and 2 days after her brother James married GJ's sister Lucinda. In 1862, her husband enlisted in the Confederate army but it appears he didn't go far, probably serving at the nearby Confederate Hospital.

After the war they lived on a farm in Snowville not far from the Alms House located off Owens Road (around the Byrd Lodge area). Maggie and GJ had 13 children, including 2 sets of twins back to back. After her husband died she applied for a military widows pension. She died 7 years later in 1922 at the age of 81 of "Dropsy" (severe edema caused by heart, liver or kidney disease). She is buried in the Graham Thornton Cemetery, on Spooky Hollow Road, in Snowville, Virginia.

Peter was supposedly born in Spotsylvania (northern Virginia by Fredericksburg) in 1803 to Thomas Thornton and Susan Meredith. When Peter was about 5, his father moved the family south down the Wilderness Road to Montgomery (now Pulaski) County to an area near Christiansburg. His father died sometime around 1816 when Peter was about 13, leaving his mother a widow with 5 children, living near Blacksburg.

Around 1829, Peter married Susannah Bell, who was about 10 years younger. She had been born in the area. They bought land near Godbey's Bluff on Beaver Hill on the New River in what is now Pulaski County. In 1840 he and his brothers Robert, Meredith, Thomas all owned farms near each other. Each (except Robert) owned a single horse.

Peter and Susannah had at least 6 children before she died around 1854. Many other families into which his sons and grandchildren would marry lived nearby.

In 1855, Peter remarried Rebecca Bailey, also widowed, both 52. In 1858, his brother Thomas died, leaving a widow and houseful of children plus his wife's extended family of several "idiotic" adults (12 people in all). Peter assisted in selling his brother's land to help support them. In 1860 Peter owned 128 acres of land, 1 horse, 4 cows (2 of them milk), 7 sheep, 15 pigs. He grew wheat, rye and corn. Peter's estate listed a loom, so they were spinning and weaving wool. He could not read or write.

Peter died in 1862 at the age of about 59 leaving his second wife and 5 children from his first marriage, the youngest 18. His estate listed sheep, hogs, 3 beds, a cradle, clock, saddle, colt, a few cows, 2 oxen, and many farm/household items. Son Gordon (GJ) bought his father’s loom and fixtures for $5.

Two of Peter's sons - GJ and Reason - are my direct ancestors because GJ's grandson Nonie would later marry Reason's daughter Agnes who was his first cousin once removed.

Thomas Thornton was born sometime before 1765, possibly in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near Fredricksburg. Sometime around 1785, he married Susannah Meredith, also probably in Spotsylvania where their son Peter was born in 1803. Sometime around 1805, Peter moved his family south on the Wilderness Road to a farm near Newbern area in what is now Pulaski County (part of Wythe County then). They lived on the road that led from Newbern to the river a short distance down the hill from town. They had at least 7 children, 5 of whom are known - Thomas, Peter Reuben, Robert, Meredith and Priscilla. All four sons owned farms nearby each other for most of their lives.

Thomas died around 1816 when he disappears from the records. His widow Susannah is found in the 1820 census living on her own near Blackburg, and then with her son Thomas Jr. in 1840 until she died.

According to Y-DNA tests, Thomas is NOT descended from William the Immigrant as is commonly believed, despite living in Northern Virginia during the same time. However, William and Thomas ARE both descended from a distant ancestor generations back in England (so they're distant cousins). We have not yet found Thomas' parents or the immigrant ancestor.

There is a John Thornton in Tennessee whose descendant is a DNA match to Thomas, but no connection in the records has been found yet.

Susannah was born around 1766 in Virginia, possibly Spotsylvania County where she married she married Thomas Thornton. They had at least 7 children. Around 1805 they moved south to Newbern in Pulaski County where they settled and raised their children. After her husband died around 1816, she lived in Blacksburg with her three remaining children and later with her son Thomas on the family homestead until she died around 1845.

Her last name Meredith is unconfirmed, but there are many Merediths in the extended family and one of her sons' first name was Meredith, whose findagrave indicates her last name was Meredith.

John was born in 1795 Pittsylvania County, which is located on the southern border of Virginia. His parents are unknown although I do know his sister's name. Mary moved to Montgomery County in the 1820s and was living "on her own" for 4 years before she married Samuel Harris in 1828. She had to obtain a certificate stating she was an orphan to be allowed to marry.

In 1814, at the age of 23, John volunteered at Danville to defend against the British in the War of 1812. He was mustered in as a Private in 7th Virginia Militia. He served at Norfolk, Virginia, but probably did not see any action since the British had already turned their attention elsewhere (one week later the British burned Washington D.C.). He was discharged 6 months later due to poor health (a third of the troops were unfit for service from a deadly and debilitating disease that was sweeping through Virginia) just 3 weeks before the Treaty was signed ending the war. Six months later in 1815 he married 17-year-old Mary Foster O'Neal (he was 27).

Over the next 29 years, the family moved 3 times - 2 years later to Wythe (to the west), then Grayson and finally Pulaski County nearer to his sister and her husband lived (Floyd County). There they leased land (sharecropped) from John Whittaker's plantation for 10 years (John Whittaker and his brother owned over 1000 acres). He had to clear it and give Whittaker a third of the grain he raised on the land. Their son Jessee later married John Whittaker's daughter Elvira.

Mary and John had 11 total children. He worked as a farmer, cooper and a shoemaker. He was 6'2" w/ blue eyes, light hair and light complexion.

John died in 1843 on their farm in Pulaski County at the age of 48 when their last child Maggie was about 2 years old. His sister Mary testified for his wife for her to get her Widow's pension.

Two of their children married into the Thornton family: Lucinda married James Thornton and her sister Maggie married James' brother GJ Thornton

Mary was probably born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia in 1801. Pittsylvania is located on the central southern border of Virginia. Her parents are unknown, but they were born in Virginia.

In 1818 at the age of 17, she married John Boothe, 10 years her senior, in Pittsylvania County. He had just served 6 months at Norfolk in the 7th Virginia Militia guarding the fort against the British in the War of 1812.

Two years later they moved west to Wythe County and then Grayson County and finally Pulaski County near Newbern where her husband leased land (share cropped) from John Whitaker to farm and sell the timber. John died at the age of 52 in the winter of 1843, leaving her with at least 6 children, the youngest 2 years old.

She later moved from the Whitaker land to another area of Pulaski County near Newbern. Her son Jesse married Whitaker's daughter and remained on the farm next door to his father-in-law. In 1870 she was living near Snowville with her widowed daughter Luemma and her two children. Luemma's husband John Meredith had died early in the Civil War along with his uncle Daniel. Both had fought for the Confederacy and survived the battle of Bull Run at Manassas only to die of disease.

In 1878 she applied for her widow's pension due to her husband's service in the War of 1812. She received several parcels of bounty land which she sold plus a pension of $8 a month. John's sister Mary testified for her to get her Widow's pension. In 1880 she was living next door to her daughter Maggie and her husband GJ Thornton.

She died at the age of 80. She could not read or write. Two of their children married into the Thornton family: Lucinda married James Thornton and 2 days later, her sister Maggie married James' brother GJ Thornton.

Susannah was born about 1813 in Montgomery County, Virginia, near Christiansburg. She grew up in the area and married Peter Reuben Thornton around 1829 when she was 16 years old. He was about 10 years older than her, and had moved to southwestern Virginia with his family from Spotsylvania. Peter and Susannah had at least 6 children before she died, probably all born on their farm on Beaver Hill. Her widowed husband remarried Rebecca Bailey/Miles in 1855.

I have not confirmed her parents yet.

Mary was born about 1802 in Montgomery County, Virginia near Christiansburg to a large family.

In 1821, at the age of 19 she married James W. Graham, also 19. They moved to a farm near Christiansburg. They had 11 children.

By 1850 they owned 200 acres valued at $900. Their sons also owned farms nearby.

Mary died around 1862 in Pulaski County at the age of about 60 (no death record found yet).

I don’t believe these Hollidays are related to the famous Doc Holliday. His ancestors came from Ireland directly to Carolina and went to Georgia. But I have not researched this further or checked for any DNA connections.

Robert "Bobbie" Graham was born in 1825, one of 10 children born to James W. Graham and Mary Polly Holliday. They lived on a farm in what is now Pulaski County, Virginia near Christiansburg.

When he was 24, he married Edith "Edi" Boothe in 1848. She was 20. Her mother was Rachel Graham, so they were likely cousins at some level. They had 10 children.

By 1850 they lived on a 15 acre farm near Newbern with 1 horse, 2 milk cows, 12 pigs and produced corn, wheat, oats, buckwheat, flax, butter and honey. Thomas Thornton lived nearby - 3 of their children would marry Thornton siblings.

Robert appears not to have served in the Civil War even though he was 35, but many friends and relatives served. By 1880 they owned 23 acres, 2 horses, 7 pigs, 12 chickens and produced buckwheat, indian corn, hay, wheat, flax, 600 lbs tobacco and 50 lbs. honey.

There is no record of where he is buried, but most of his children and grandchildren are buried in the Graham/Thornton Cemetery.

Helen was born in 1909 in Tunnelton, Preston County, West Virginia to Charles Strawser and Evalina Martin. Her mother was her father's 2nd wife, so, although Helen was her mother's first child, she was born into a house already filled with 5 children from her father’s first wife who had died in childbirth to baby Annie. Between his 2 wives, Charles had 17 children (5 by Anna Margaret Kercheval and 12 by Eva). The house was on "No. 4 Hill" (now No. 4 road / South Street) about half way up the hill from the town Tunnelton.

Her father worked as a coal miner and farmed 34 acres which he owned. When Helen was a baby, one of her older half brothers (Loyal, Noble or Roy) poked her in the eye with a pin leaving it blind and grey. The wood-frame house was the first house to have electricity on the hill. Her father wanted to be the first but died right before it was turned on in 1930.

She stopped going to school after the 8th grade. Being one of the older girls in the house Helen was tasked with caring for the house and her 10 younger siblings, and probably why she left home (only two others of her siblings left West Virginia). Shortly before or soon after her father died, she headed for Pittsburgh, PA where met Earnest Thornton who also had come north to Pittburgh from Radford, Virginia to find work.

Although their first daughter Wanda Harriet was born in Preston County in 1931, Helen soon moved to the North Side, Pittsburgh to be with Earnest. There she had 3 more children - Eva, Virginia (Babe), and Charles Paul. Things were going well - Earnest was working doing house painting and even started his own watch repair business. But then he began drinking and gambling. He would tell Helen to "dream up some numbers" for him to play. He was abusive, beating the children with switches. She finally kicked him out. He hit rock bottom when he got arrested for shooting at someone during a bar fight, and he was sentenced to 60 days on the work farm. After he was released, he enlisted in the army in 1942 at the age of 40, but was not called to served and was discharged 3 months later.

So Earnest was trying to turn his life around and Helen let him return home. But within a couple years, he overdosed on sleeping pills he had been prescribed for "stomach issues" and died, leaving her a widow with 4 young children. But she and the children were relieved by his death (7 year old son Charles Paul sat in the coal bin and laughed when he learned of his father's death according to family).

The family was fraught with tragedy. Two of Helen’s children, Charles Paul and Eva, became severely mentally ill and were institutionalized much of their adult lives. In 1965, her son Charles Paul was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after he tried to stab Helen. Her eldest daughter Wanda Harriet and her daughter Linda were murdered in 1970 by Linda's boyfriend in front of Linda's son. Helen's sister Ruth was also mentally ill and hospitalized often.

Helen never remarried. She lived most of the rest of her life on Arch Street on the North Side in Pittsburgh. Helen died of a stroke at the age of 70 in Coraopolis, PA in 1979.

Harriet "Hattie" Graham was born to Robert "Bobbie" Graham and Edi Boothe on a small farm near Snowville, Virginia (near Godbey's Bluff) on her parents' 23-acre farm, the 6th of 9 children. She was 7 when the Civil War broke out in 1861, but there is no record of her father (age 35) serving and her 3 older brothers were too young still. She grew up surrounded by family - her paternal grandparents lived next door, and there were numerous brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins in the area.

In 1877, 22-year-old Hattie married neighbor George Washington Thornton (19). The families were close, and George's sister Drusilla had married Hattie's brother Noah 2 years earlier. George and Hattie started their own farm, with Hattie's younger brothers Thias and Asial helping out.

Around 1882 George and Hattie sold their farm and moved with their 2 young sons Robert (4) and Nonie (2) to Radford City for George to work at the Foundry Pipeshop. Their small house on 2nd Street was always full of children (they had 9), grandchildren, neices and nephews, especially after son Nonie drowned in 1908 and his wife Agnes died in 1918 leaving their 3 young boys to their care.

By 1930 George and Hattie, now in their 60s, moved in with their daughter Minnie and her husband George Kirtner along with Nonie's son Marvin and his wife Juanita. Hattie died in 1836 at the age of 77 of pancreatic cancer.

Reason "Bud" Thornton was born in 1844 in Pulaski County near Newbern in southwest Virginia. He was the youngest child of Peter Rueben Thornton and Susannah Bell. He grew up on their 37-acre farm on Godbey's Bluff. He was 17 when the Civil War broke out in 1861. His brothers GJ and Jeremiah served in the Confederate Army, but there is no record of Reason enlisting (a year later his father died at the age of 59, so he may have remained at home to care for his parents and the farm).

In 1869, when Reason was 25, he married Elizabeth Elkins (21), the daughter of their neighbor John Elkins. Reason and Elizabeth were 3rd cousins (Jeremiah Farmer was their ggg grandfather). The marriage was performed by their neighbor Reason V. Godbey. Elizabeth's brother John Elkins had married his sister Elizabeth Thornton 11 years earlier.

They soon had their first child Didama and they lived for a few years with neighbor Reason Covey working as a farmhand. By 1875 they had several children and had moved to Glades (Jonesville?) in Lee County (in the SW tip of Virginia, just 34 miles from the Cumberland Gap) where daughter Octava was born. They had followed Reason's brother Jeremiah and his family and others there from Pulaski and Montgomery Counties who had begun moving westward again after the war seeking work and land. In 1881 their 9th and last child, Agnes, was born either in Lee County or Tennessee (Jefferson County).

Sometime during the next 20 years Reason died, along with all but one of his children - Agnes. No record of his death (or the children's) has been found, but he likely died in Jefferson County, Tennessee where his widow Elizabeth and daughter Agnes (18) were recorded in the 1900 census. It is possible that Elizabeth died shortly after because one year later, Agnes moved to her parents' ancestral home of Pulaski County, VA and married her 1st cousins once removed (her father's brother GJ's grandson) Nonie Thornton, giving their descendants two brothers, Reason and GJ Thornton, as direct ancestors.

Elizabeth was born in 1847, the youngest of 9 children of John M. Elkins and Mary Elizabeth Farmer, on their farm in Pulaski County at Godbey's Bluff near Newbern in southwest Virginia. Her father farmed and operated a grist mill near Snowville.

In 1869, when she was 21, she married Reason (Bud) Thornton (25), the son of her neighbor Peter Thornton. Many of the families in the area were closely related by blood and marriage through the generations. The Cornetts, Elkins, and Farmers were connected across many generations. Elizabeth's brother John had married Reason's sister Elizabeth 11 years earlier. Elizabeth and Reason were 3rd cousins (Jeremiah Farmer was their gg grandfather). Both her grandmothers (Sarah and Polly Cornett) were sisters.

They soon had their first child Didama and lived for a few years with Reason Covey not far from her where she grew up. By 1875 they had several children and had moved to Glades (Jonesville?) in Lee County (down in the tip of Virginia near the Tenn. border and the Cumberland Gap) where daughter Octava was born. Reason's brother Jeremiah had moved there about 15 years earlier. In 1881 their 9th and final child Agnes was born, either in Lee County or Tennessee (probably Jefferson County).

Sometime during the next 20 years Reason died, along with all but one of their children (Agnes). No record of his death or their children's has been found, but they likely died in Tennessee where Elizabeth and remaining daughter Agnes (age 18) are recorded in the 1900 census "south of Southern Railroad" near Carson-Newman College in a house she owned free of mortgage. She worked as a washer woman and was illiterate. No record of her death has been found.

Soon after the 1900 census, daughter Agnes moved to Pulaski County, VA, her parent's birthplace, and married her father's brother GJ's grandson Nonie (her 1st cousin once removed) in February of 1901.

Agnes was the youngest of 9 children born in 1881 to Reason Thornton and Elizabeth Elkins, probably in Lee County, Virginia (in the SW tip of Virginia on the Tenn. border). Her middle name Fridy may be from the day of the week she was born on (Friday). Her father's brother Jeremiah and family also lived in Lee County at the time, and her parents had moved there from Pulaski County a few years before she was born. By 1900, when Agnes was 20, she and her widowed mother were living together near Knoxville in Jefferson County, Tennessee, "south of Southern Railroad." Her father had died, her uncle and his family had moved to Washington State, and all of her 8 siblings had died, only 3 of whom we even know their names - Didama, Octava and James. Her mother worked as washer woman.

By the next year, in 1901, Agnes Thornton had moved to Pulaski County, Virginia, where her parents had grown up, and married Nonie Thornton who was her 1st cousin once removed - Nonie's g-grandparents and Agnes' grandparents were Peter & Susan Thornton and Nonie's grandfather GJ was her father's brother (her uncle), so their descendants have two brothers Reason and GJ Thornton as direct ancestors. GJ and her mother's father had served in the Confederate Army together during the Civil War and were neighbors.

After they married Agnes and Nonie rented a house in Radford on 2nd Street just down the block from his parents George and Hattie. They had 3 boys - Earnest, Emmett and Marvin. In 1908 Nonie drowned at the age of 28 when his boat capsized crossing the New River with some friends to get watermelons on a warm sunny fall Sunday. Their eldest son Ernest was almost 6, Marvin, the youngest, just an infant. Agnes continued on, working as a washer woman. She could read and write. Around 1918 she died of pneumonia, probably the Spanish Flu. No record of her death or where she is buried has been found. Earnest and Emmet went to live with Nonie's parents and Marvin went to live with Nonie's sister Minnie nearby. Her own children did not know that her last name was Thornton (they thought it was Elkins - her mother's maiden name).

John M. was born near Christiansburg, Virginia in 1805 to John H. Elkins and Sarah Cornett, who owned several hundred acres in the New River Valley. In 1824 when he was 18 he married Mary Elizabeth Farmer (17) with whom he had 10 children. They were double cousins - first cousins with the same grandfather on his mother's Cornett side and 2nd cousins once removed on his father's Elkins side.

In 1832 John and Sarah began buying parcels of land in the New River Valley on Clapboard Branch and Falling Branch near Godbey's Bluff/Newbern in the Hiwassee District of Pulaski County. In 1840, he and his wife and children lived on their parents farm. By 1851 their neighbors included Peter Thornton and his sons Gordon (GJ) and Reason. During the Civil War, John's sons George and John enlisted in the Confederate Army, Co. I, 50th Virginia Infantry, along with GJ Thornton. Reason Thornton would later marry his daughter Elizabeth.

After the war John operated a grist mill and grew wheat and corn on about 30 acres of their 60-acre farm, but only had 1 horse, 1 milk cow and no slaves. He could not read or write.

John died 11 years after his wife Mary Elizabeth on their farm near Snowville in 1894 at the age of 89 and is buried in the Elkins-Cole cemetery.

Mary Elizabeth was born in 1806 near Christiansburg, Virginia to John Farmer and Polly Cornett. She married John M. Elkins and they had 10 children. They were double cousins - first cousins with the same Cornett grandfather and 2nd cousins once removed on her Elkins ancestry.

Two of her sons served in the Civil War for the Confederacy. She died on their farm near Snowville in 1883 at the age of 77, 11 years before her husband John. Most of her children outlived her.

John H. Elkins was born about 1775 to Archibald Elkins and Margaret Bishop in Montgomery County, Virginia, likely in what would become Floyd County, on 40 acres of the Loyal Company’s Grant lying on the north side of Little River. His father served in the Revolutionary War. In 1791 when John was 16, his father died, leaving him 130 acres (of nearly 1000 total acres in his estate) on Camp Creek for when he turned 21. Camp Creek is a stream 11 miles from Christiansburg, in Floyd County,  just south of Tindall. He later purchased several hundred more acres nearby.

John married Sarah Cornett around 1795. They had at least 5 children. He was a farmer and could not read or write. It is possible he served in the War of 1812, but no confirmation of this has been found.

By 1850, he and Sarah were in their late 70s living in Pulaski County near Newbern, near their daughter Jane who married Levi Holliday, who operated one of the ferries along the New River. Sarah was blind, and they were caring for a 14-year-old girl named Henrietta Bowden who was identified as "idiotic." Henrietta may have been related to Daniel Boone somehow and 10 months later would marry Wm. Holliday and have 6 children. William was the brother of Levi Holliday, who had married John and Sarah's daughter Jane 6 years earlier.

John died eight years later in 1858. Sarah died sometime after him.

John Farmer was the eldest son in a large family of Barnett Farmer and Elizabeth Elkins in Montgomery County, Virginia around 1786 before the town of Christiansburg was even founded (1792). He married Polly Cornett around 1805 about a year after her father moved to Montgomery County from Bedford County and bought the land adjacent to the their farm.  He set up farming on his father's land. John died sometime after 1860 on his farm in Pulaski County.

I am still working to verify the Farmer lineage. If confirmed, it leads all the way back to Thomas Farmer who came from England before the Mayflower.

Polly was born around 1772 to William Alexander Cornett and Jane Basham, probably in Bedford County, Virginia. Around 1805 she married John Farmer in Montgomery County about a year after her father bought land adjacent to the Farmers near Christiansburg in Montgomery County. Her younger sister Sarah (b. 1782) would later marry John H. Elkins and are also my direct ancestors.

James W. Graham was born on his parents' farm about 1801 in Montgomery County near Blacksburg, the middle child of 10 children. At the age of 19 he married Mary Polly Holliday, also 19. They moved to a farm near Christiansburg.

In 1834 his father Robert died. James was appointed executor.

By 1850 he owned 200 acres valued at $900. He had 2 horses, 3 milk cows, 3 other cattle, 30 sheep, 25 pigs and they grew wheat, indian corn, oats, rice, cotton, barley. His sons also owned farms nearby.

Mary died in the early 1860s and he lived with several of his children. In 1880 he was arrested for something and spent some time in the Pulaski County Jail. He died in 1889.

This is the same as GJ's father (GJ and Reason were brothers), and why Nonie and Agnes are 1st cousins once removed.