Thornton, Anthony
b. November 9, 1814, in Bourbon County, Kentucky; d. September 16, 1904, in Shelbyville, Illinois. Thornton came to Illinois
from Kentucky and moved to Shelbyville in 1836. Shortly thereafter, Thornton was admitted to the bar in
Vandalia, Illinois, when that town was the state capital. He served as a member of the state constitutional convention of
1848. In
1851, he served a term as a Whig in the state legislature. When the Whig party disbanded, Thornton was not one of the party
members who joined the Republican party. Thornton was elected to Congress in 1864 as a Democrat. In June of 1870, he was elected
to the Illinois Supreme Court. After holding that position for three years, Thornton tendered his resignation, preferring
to
practice law privately instead.
John J. Duff, A. Lincoln: Prairie Lawyer (New York: Bramhall House, 1960), 217; Usher F. Linder,
Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois (Chicago: The Chicago Legal News Company, 1879), 209-14;
John Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co.,
1899), 1:458-59; Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois (Chicago:
Biographical Publishing Co., 1891), 240-42; Villa Grove Gazette (Illinois), 16 September 1904, 1.
Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.