|
Frank
Manly Thorn "Thorn, Frank Manly, lawyer, was born at Collins, Erie co., N.Y., Dec. 7, 1836, son of Abram and Phila Meal (Pratt) Thorn, grandson of Joseph and Abigail (Eddy) Thorn, and a descendant of William Thorn, who is first on record in New York in 1657. He was educated in the common schools and at the Fredonia Academy. After teaching school two winters, he studied law at the Albany Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1860. He practised his profession first at Buffalo, N.Y. He engaged in mining and refining of petroleum in Venango county, Pa., during 1861-67, when he permanently settled at Orchard park, N.Y., where he still resides. He was justice of the peace in 1868, and served on the country board of supervisors, 1871-80. He was chief clerk of the bureau of internal revenue in 1885, and superintendent of the United States coast and geodetic survey, 1885-89. Although not a scientist, he was placed in charge of the survey to investigate and correct certain irregularities, and his administration met with general approval. . . . Since 1868 he has written many articles in prose and verse for newspapers and magazines. He was associate editor of the Buffalo "Courier" in 1874 and 1977, and of the Buffalo "Republic" in 1885. He now contributes signed editorials to the Buffalo "Evening Times." Mr. Thorn was active in Grover Cleveland's campaign for the governorship of New York in 1882, and likewise during his campaign for the presidency in 1884, 1998, and 1892, and was a Cleveland Democracy delegate to the national Democratic convention in Chicago in 1892. He was married Mary 14, 1967, to Eola, daughter of Cephas Smith of Orchard Park, and has four children, Gertrude A., Frank B., Channing C. and Ralph." [Source: 13 The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York: James T. White & Company, 1906)] |
|