Many people have helped in the writing of this work. The names of relatives and friends who were kind enough to share their memories with me are listed in the footnotes. Without their help, much history would have been lost and this work would not have been.
Genealogy is a continuous story that never ends.
I have not attempted to tell the story in full or given any part of a complete account of the early Thorntons. In the brief summary that follows, I have recorded the history which I have found through research and documentation. Yet, I have not begun to make a scratch on the surface of the times and history of the early Thornton family who lived so long ago just South of Lone Oak. The early Thorntons of Hunt and Rains Counties came to the area as they Helped build the Katy Railroad from Missouri to Texas. The couple originally came from Virginia, then lived in Missouri before they traveled to Texas and settled near Lone Oak with the three brothers.