From: Chriss Chapman
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 15:52:57 -0700
Subject: [CA-GOLDRUSH] Most Wanted: Colonel Thomas THORN
Colonel Thomas THORN, b in an eastern state, in the 1820s emigrated south to MS
and then to TN where he married Miss Mary SHERMAN. They went to AR, then to TX.
In 1849 he got gold fever and organized 200 wagons to proceed across the plains
of NM and AZ. Their water supply was so meager that they had to stop several
times to dig a well. After two years of hardships they reached their
destination, a mining region in north CA known as Mariposa. He was not satisfied
with mining on a small scale, so he entered into a plan for turning the bed of a
river where many had hopes that gold might be gathered in less time. He spent
about fifty thousand dollars, made a new channel, turned the river into it, and
it broke its confines. The work and money were lost. Colonel THORN was in active
service during the Mexican war. Thomas THORN and Mary had five children, Thomas
James, the eldest, b Little Rock Ark. 8/2/39, Katherine Annette died of yellow
fever in 1857 on her passage from Panama to San Francisco and was buried at sea.
Then there were two sons, they died young in CA. Then there was Bessie who
married James Patrick MCGELLIOTT. His father Patrick MCGELLIOTT tried Hydraulic
mining in Bagby CA. I could go on but I'm sure I have taken up too much space
already. Thank you, Chriss.
Goldrush Most Wanted | California Genealogy | Free Genealogy