Elijah Adison Thornhill
by Kenneth O. Sims
when using this material, please give appropriate credit
Elijah Adison Thornhill was born February 19, 1843 at Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia. He was the second son and fourth known child of Jesse A. and Arabella (Jones) Thornhill who were married Thursday, August 10, 1826 in Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina. The August 12,1826 issue of the Camden Journal recorded the marriage and stated that they were "both of this place").
Elijah spent his boyhood in or near Lawrenceville where he was attending day school in June,1860 at age 17 (U.S. Census). War broke out April 12, 1861 when the guns of the south fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. On July 16, 1861, shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Elijah joined the Confederate Army at Lawrenceville as a private in Company I of the 16th Georgia Infantry under the command of Captain H.P. Thomas.
On April 27, 1863, Elijah's company was part of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under the command of Robert E. Lee when the campaign of Chancellorsville, Virginia began. The opponent was Major-General Hooker and the Union Army of the Potomac. On May 1, Lee threw Hooker on the defensive and on May 2, drove him out of his entrenchments to a fresh defensive. Lee sent his chief subordinate General T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson with a force around to the right and back of Hooker. The ensuing battle of May 2-3 in this small village in Spotsylvania County, Virginia was one off the greatest of the Civil War. The South won the battle, but the victory was not without tragedies. Stonewall Jackson, who was know as a hard-nosed disciplinarian, but is recorded as one of the South's greatest generals, was shot by his own men during the battle and died from those wounds on May 10. Elijah was wounded in the shoulder on May 3, the last day of the battle, As a result of the wound, he lost his left arm on May 4, 1863.
Some existing military records indicate the following:
He was admitted to the General Hospital Camp Winder, Richmond, Virginia on September 4, 1862 with bronchitis and was returned to duty on September 9, 1862
He was paid on November 6, 1863 for the period May 1, 1863 to October 31, 1863.
He was a patient in the 3rd Alabama Hospital in Richmond Virginia on May 18, 1863.
He received a sixty day furlough from the 2nd Alabama Hospital in Richmond , Virginia on June 18, 1863. He evidently returned home to Lawrenceville. Although CSA records indicate that he continued to be enumerated and paid as a soldier at least until October, 1864 when he applied for retirement; in an application dated May 19, 1889, he stated that he was honorably discharged June 18, 1863, the date of the furlough.
He was paid on March 7, 1864 for the period January 1, 1864 to February 31, 1864 including payment for clothing.
He was paid on April 30, 1864 for the period March 1, 1864 to April 30, 1864 and signed by actual signature for the payment at Atlanta, Georgia
He was absent from his company during May and June, 1864 because of arm off.
He was paid on October 13, 1864 for the period May 1, 1864 to June 30, 1864 and signed by mark for the payment at Greensborough, N.C. .
He was absent from his company during July and August , 1864 because of arm off.
On October 23, 1864 he applied for an order to appear before a medical board of examiners.
On March 18, 1865, less than one month before the Confederate States fell, the medical examining board of the Army of the Confederate States at Augusta, Georgia granted Elijah a Certificate of Disability for Retiring Invalid Soldiers. This provision was approved under an act which the Congress of the Confederate States had approved February 17, 1864. Their recommendation was that he be retired and placed on the retired list of Soldiers of the Invalid Corps. That certificate described him as 22 years old, 6 feet, three inches high, fair complexion, blue eyes, and dark hair.
Even though military records leave it unclear as to whether Elijah remained at home after June, 18,1863 it is known that on December 27, 1863 he married his childhood next door neighbor Lucy Ann Forrester, the daughter of Martin and Mary Forrester of Gwinette County, Georgia. Family tradition says that twins were born to Elijah and Lucy on September 28, 1864 and that one died early. The other was John William Adison (Will) Thornhill the progenitor of the Sand Mountain Thornhill's in North Alabama. A third son ,Jesse M.T. was born in 1867.
With , or shortly after the birth of a fourth son, James D.A. in 1868-9, Lucy died leaving Elijah about twenty five years old, with one arm and with three sons under five. Shortly thereafter he remarried on April 13, 1870 to Lucy's first cousin Edith Mellisie Austin, the daughter of John Jr. and Ellender Melly (Forrester) Austin of Walton County. The wedding took place in Gwinnett County, but, as is the custom in the State of Georgia, the marriage license was recorded in Walton County, the home county of the bride. James evidently died before his tenth year. Edie, as she was called, evidently raised Will and Jesse.
Elijah and Edie lived in Walton County, Georgia for about sixteen years near Edie's parents and Elijah's sister Martha Elizabeth and her husband Seaborn Anglin. Martha's son, George W. Hampton Thornhill is the ancestor of the present day Gwinnett County, Georgia Thornhill's with whom the writer visited and became acquainted during research.
During these years in Walton County, at least five children were born to Elijah and Edie. The first, a girl Ellen Isabelle, was born in 1874. Belle, as she was known, was possibly preceded by another child which died early between 1871 and 1873,. (In the 1900 U.S. Census of Blount County, Alabama, Edie stated that she was the mother of seven children, six of whom were living.) The births of Philip (1875), Thomas (1877), Vina (1881) and Elijah (1884) followed Belle.
On January 20, 1880, Elijah applied to the pension department in Walton County, Georgia for an artificial arm. He accepted a cash settlement of sixty dollars instead.
Between January, 1884, when son Elijah was born, and September, 1886, when the last child, a girl, Eliza was born, the family moved to Northwest Alabama. It is difficult to pinpoint where this family lived, or if in fact they even stayed in the same place. Descendants usually describe themselves as from Sand Mountain, Alabama. Although there is a small town in north Dekalb County called Sand Mountain, the area referred to as Sand Mountain is in several counties. Sand Mountain seems to most generally associated with DeKalb County. Elijah's first pension application in Alabama was dated June 29, 1887 and was filed in Marshal County. Two applications were filed in 1891 and were both in Blount County. Two applications filed in 1896 and 1897 were filed in DeKalb . The 1896 Dekalb application gave his post office as McVille, Alabama, which is in Marshall County just east of Albertville, and almost in DeKalb County. Another application filed in 1897, less than a month before the 1897 Dekalb one, was in Blount and gave his address as Murphee's Valley which is an area in Blount south of Oneonta. The last application, which was signed in 1899, was filed in Etowah County. Sand Mountain is in all of these places.
At some point after the reentry of the Methodist Episcopal Church ( the original predecessor of today's The United Methodist Church) began in the South (ca. 1867-1868), Elijah became involved as a clergyman in that church. Shortly before the Civil War, most Methodist Episcopal Churches in the south severed with the mother church over the slavery issue and called themselves The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, a name which stuck until the formation of The Methodist Church in the late 1930's. When the Methodist Episcopal Church began to reenter the South after the Civil War and began to attempt to reclaim it's land, it was generally referred to as the Northern Methodist Church or sometimes as the Black Methodist Church because of it's concern for, and work with, freed slaves. One can see from this scenario that Elijah was not involved in a most popular movement to say the least as the "Northern Methodist Church" clergy appears to have often been regarded with contempt by most southerners because of their close relationship to the black population. Elijah Thornhill was evidently one of those southerners who, although they fought for the south, had greater visions than the Southern Church could afford them; and even in the constant danger they were subject to in the last half of the nineteenth century, openly sought those visions. It should be mentioned however, that the black population in northwest Alabama was relatively small in the 1860's and 1870's, as it is today,so it is conceivable that Elijah may not have been as not as involved with the black issue as he might have been in other parts of the south in general and of Alabama in particular. It is said that he preached all over North Alabama. His tombstone is our only record. It reads simply "Reverend E.A. Thornhill Northern Methodist Minister".
Elijah Adison Thornhill died in his sixty-fifth year, November 30, 1908. He was buried in the cemetery at the Antioch Methodist Church three miles east of Oneonta out Highway 231, then one-half mile north on highway 30, Blount County, Alabama. It is said that he preached there many times.
Edith Mellisie (Austin) Thornhill died at the home of her son Thomas, February 10, 1918 and was buried next to Elijah.
Children of Elijah Adison Thornhill
A. John William Adison (Will), a son, was born September 28, 1864 in Gwinnett or Monroe County, Georgia; and married July 23, 1889 in Etowah County, Alabama to Ida W. Greer.
Children:
1. Harvey, who married Lorene _______ and died September, 1957.
a. Linda, who married _________ Lester.
b. Joe C.
2. Mance
3. O.D. (full name)
4. Thelma, who married ________ Davenport.
5. Jewel, who married _________ Robertson.
6. Willie, who married __________ Nelson.
B. Jesse Martin Travis, a son, was born October 26, 1867in Walton, County, Georgia; was named for his grandfather's Jesse Thornhill and Martin Forrester; married Nancy Angeline Sparks; moved to Texas; and died June 24, 1936.
C. James D.A., a son, was born 1868-9, probably in Walton County, Georgia and died before 1880 in Walton County, Georgia.
D. Ellen Isabelle, a daughter, was born February, 1874, probably in Walton County, Georgia; married James Cantrell Hughins.
Children:
1. Clinton A., who was born December, 1891, Blount county, Alabama.
2. Hollie Emaline, who was born November, 1894 in Blount County, Alabama and married James Purtle Kiley.
3. Gracie A., born December, 1896, Blount county, Alabama
4. Bonard Oscar, born August 31, 1899, Blount county, Alabama
5. James Ray
E. Phillip Austin, a son, was born May 31, 1875, probably in Walton County Georgia; married Mary Francis (Mollie) Sparks died December 4, 1944; buried at Freeman Methodist cemetery, 5 miles southeast of Geraldine on highway 75, DeKalb County, Alabama.
Children:
1. Eddie B., who was born December 23, 1898; and died October 20, 1904
2. Erwin O., who was born ca 1906, and who died July 1957.
3. H.C.
4. __________, who married Ronald Butler.
5. Ida, who married _______ Butler.
6. Lovell, who married _______ Smith.
7. Lorene, who married ________ Cocker.
8. Lois, who married ___________ Loftis.
9. Imogene
F. Thomas Dallie, a son, was born May, 1877, probably in Walton County, Georgia; Anna M.E. Scott on October 18, 1900 in Blount county, Alabama; and died in November, 1934.
Children:
1. Lessie
2. Eugene E.
3. Herbert H.
G. Vina, a daughter, was born in Walton County, Georgia and married _______ Roberts.
H. Elijah Oscar (Bub), a son, was born June, 1884 in Walton county, Georgia; married 1. Bessie McGowen on July 22,1906 in Blount County, Alabama; 2. to Ester Foster; and died in August, 1956.
Children:
1. Ruth Odell.
2. Arthur Raymond R.
3. Ruth Olivia, who married Homer Gibbs.
4. Hobart Barney.
5. Addison Leonda , who married M.B. Mccollum.
I. Eliza Julia (Pinkie), a daughter, was born in September, 1886, probably in Marshal County, Alabama; and married Albert Jackson Gilley September, 17,1908 in Marshall County, Alabama
