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Dr. C. M. Thornton, physician at Osage, Ill.,was born in Greene County, Ala., August 21, 1850. His father, Luke, was born September 22, 1828, and reared chiefly in northern Alabama. He was a planter of fair means, and a Mason and member of the Missionary Baptist Church. When a young man he went to western Alabama and soon married Nancy, daughter of Moody H. May, a wealthy planter and mill owner. Of their five sons and one daughter our subject is the eldest. The father was a Confederate soldier, of the Twentieth Alabama Infantry, and was in all the engagements of his regiment up to 1864. He was wounded while charging the enemy's works near Marietta, Ga., and died from its effects July 8, 1864. The mother, born in Greene County, Ala., is still living in her native county, in her fifty-sixth year, a faithful member of the Missionary Baptist Church. Besides the common school advantages at home our subject attended Plato Academy, Knoxville, Ala., and Baldwin College, northeastern Mississippi, after which he came to Jackson County, IlL, and taught some time and read medicine under Dr. Charles Bain, of Murphysboro, Ill. In the spring of 1873 he attended the St. Louis (Mo.) Medical College, and in the winter the Louisville (Ky.) Medical College, from which he graduated at the close of the college year in 1876. He has built up his present extensive practice since 1875 by constant devotion to it, with the exception of one term at lectures. Besides this he personally manages his large drug and general merchandise business there. December 13, 1876, near Murphysboro, Ill., he married
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Addie M., daughter of James F. Osburn, a farmer and native of Johnson County, Ill. Their children are Nina, Edna, Nellie, Zona, Blanche and Golda, born respectively October 14, 1877; November 1, 1878; July 22, 1880; December 17, 1881; July 13, 1884, and September 30, 1886. His wife was born in Jackson County September 6, 1852. Her parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and died in Jackson County, the father April 7, 1881, and the mother January 15, 1871. Our subject is a Democrat and cast his first vote for Tilden. He is postmaster at Osage, IlL, where he has one of the pleasantest homes in the vicinity.