U. N. Thornton, M. D., C. M., was born in Ontario, Durham county, Canada,
July 1, 1865, and worked his way from the position of a farmer lad, through
college, up to his present enviable position among the most skillful and
firmly established physicians of Leland, Illinois. He is a son of Thomas and
Susan (Powers) Thornton, and a grandson of John Thornton. Thomas Thornton
was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England, in 1822, and came to Canada with his
parents when he was seven years old. There he grew to manhood and became a
tiller of the soil, following that as his principal occupation. He was
married to Susan Powers, daughter of Nathaniel Powers, both of whom were
born in Vermont, as were all their ancestors, whose nativity were in
America. The family were started in this country by Thomas Powers (spelled
Pouers), who left the parent trunk and settled in the New England States of
America in 1643, having come from England. The father of Nathaniel Powers
was a soldier of the Revolution. The mother of our subject died in 1880, at
the age of fifty-four years.
U. N. Thornton was the eleventh child
in a family of twelve — six brothers and six sisters. His early years were
spent on his father's farm and he then entered Albert College, at
Belleville, Ontario, where he matriculated in the arts. He then began the
study of medicine in the Trinity Medical School, of Toronto, from which he
received a fellowship and graduated at the University of Trinity College in
1887, with the degrees of M. D. and C. M. In the fall of that year he came
to the states and opened an office at Rockford, Illinois, but remained only
a short time, as a better location was offered at New Milford, this state,
where he practiced four years. He was an assistant surgeon at the Rockford
Sanitarium for three months, when he went to Chicago and practiced until
December, 1892, and then located in Leland, where he has since been
practicing, and has built up a large patronage among the better class,
although his services are given alike to rich and poor. He is a general
practitioner, preferring to keep up on all branches rather than to devote
himself to one particular class of disease.
He was married November
20, 1890, to Miss Augusta Dale, of Thorold, Canada. They have two children:
Charles D., five years old, and Dorothy, aged two. He is a Republican and
belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of the Globe and the
Home Forum, and is a Royal Arch Mason. He also belongs to the LaSalle
Medical Society and takes an active part in the deliberations of that
organization.
Extracted 13 May 2019 by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois, published in 1900, volume 2, pages 607-608.
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