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The Thruston Family. Chapter X.
THE English Thrustons laid great stress on family records,
and as early as the Seventeenth century kept a genealogy which has been
handed down from father to son, and after remaining in Louisville for three
generations is now in the possession of Dr. Charles Minn Thruston, of Waco,
Tex. Thanks to this old record book the genealogy of the family is unusually
complete, and the Kentucky family has not neglected to keep up the tradition
chronicling the history of fighters and lawyers, men of affairs and of
beautiful women.
Col. John Thruston, of the third generation at Gloucester
Point, Va., married Sarah Minn and had only one son, Charles Minn Thruston,
who was known as the fighting parson of the Revolution, although he was
officially the Rev. and Col. Thruston. He was educated at William and Mary
College, and studying for the ministry, went to England to take orders.
He moved from Gloucester Point to the Shenandoah Valley, and the old church
at Berryville, where he preached, is still standing. His military career
started at the age of twenty, when as a lieutenant of Provincials he took
part in the campaign
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which resulted in the evacuation of Fort Duquesne. When the Revolution
broke out he exhorted the Virginia youths to enlist, and at the head of
a regiment joined Washington in New Jersey.
The Rev, and Col. Thruston married, first, Mary Buckner,
by whom he had three sons- John, Buckner and Charles Minn Thruston, to
whom he left his lands in Kentucky. He married a second time Ann Alexander,
and removed to Tennessee and later to Louisiana, where he lived on a plantation
until his death, in 1812.
John Thruston and Charles Minn Thruston came to Louisville,
while Buckner Thruston settled in Lexington. John Thruston came west as
a lad of 16 to fight under Gen. George Rogers Clark in the Illinois regiment.
He served in the campaigns, against Kaskaskia and St. Vincents (Vincennes),
with the rank of cornet. He received in 1831 a grant of 2,666 acres of
land in Illinois under the Virginia act of 1779, which provided that the
volunteers (officers and soldiers), who served through the campaign which
reduced the British forts in Illinois, should receive remuneration in land.
John Thruston, who came to Louisville in 1789, married
his cousin, Elizabeth Thruston Whiting, and their home was "Sans Souci,'
which stood on the site of "Hayfield," the home
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of Mrs. Robert Tyler. They had ten children, but of these only two are
ancestors of Louisville folk, Elizabeth Taylor Thruston, who married Worden
Pope, of the pioneer family, and Charles Minn Thruston, who married Eliza
Sydnor Cosby, daughter of Judge Fortunatus Cosby, and his wife, Mary Ann
Fontaine.
After the death of John Thruston, his widow married Capt.
Aaron Fontaine, the grandfather of her son's wife.
Elizabeth Taylor Thruston and Worden Pope had three sons.
Patrick Henry Pope married Sarah Lawrence Brown, and was the father of
Edmonia Pope, who married Dr. William Galt, their children being Ellen
Galt and Urith Galt; of Ellen E. Pope, who married Dr. John Thruston; of
Mary Anna Pope, who married George Nicholas, and was the mother of George
Nicholas and Pope Nicholas.
Edmund Pendleton Pope married Nancy Johnson, and was the
father of Judge Alfred Thruston Pope, who married his cousin, Mary Tyler
Pope, their children being Dr. Curran Pope and Alfred Thruston Pope. Mary
Tyler Pope was the daughter of Col. Curran Pope and Matilda Prather Jacob.
Charles Minn Thruston, born in 1793 at Sans Souci, was
a celebrated criminal lawyer in Louisville. He and wife, Eliza Sydnor Cosby,
had
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a large family, and there are in Louisville descendants of three of
their children. Their daughter Mary Thruston, married Dr. Lewis Rogers,
the well-known physician, and was the mother of six children. Jane Farrar
Rogers married Robert Atwood, her children being Lewis R. Atwood, Lizzie
Atwood, Mrs. Oscar Beckmann, William Atwood, who married Nellie Stark.
Her daughter, Mamie Atwood, married Tom Knott, and was the mother of Lewis
Atwood Knott, of New York.
Eliza Thruston Rogers married Dr. B. M. Messick, and their
only child in Louisville is Martha M. Messick. Anne Thruston Rogers, who
married Harvey Yeaman, was the mother of Dr. Rogers Yeaman. Harriet Rogers
is Mrs. George Gaulbert, the mother of Carrie Gaulbert, Mrs. Attilla Cox.
Dr. John Thruston married Ellen Pope and was the father
of Mrs. Sarah Thruston Hughes, whose children are: Commander William Neal
Hughes, U. S. N.; Major Thruston Hughes, U. S. A.; Anabel, Mrs. Garnett
Zorn; Katherine Fontaine, Mrs. Walton Maxey, of Beaumont, Texas, and of
Dr. Charles Minn Thruston, of Waco, Texas.
Anne Blake Thruston married William J. Johnson, of the
pioneer family, and was the mother of Charles Thruston Johnson, who married
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first Sally Ward Danforth, and second, Miss Stuart; and of Lizzie Johnson,
who married George Breed, and was the mother of Lilla Breed, of Louisville,
and George and Edwin Breed, of Boston.
John Thruston, the second son of Charles Minn and Eliza
Thruston mentioned above, was a midshipman in the navy at 16, but gave
up his commission, returning to Louisville on account of his father's illness.
He became a prominent Louisville physician, and during the Civil war was
in charge of the Military Hospital at Eighth and Green for nine months.
His brother, Charles Minn Thruston, was a deputy in the
county clerk's office, then held by his cousin, Col. Curran Pope. Later
he was elected clerk of the county court, filling the position for three
terms. He made his residence for a short time in New York, and returned
to be re-elected to his former office by a great majority. He was a great
political leader and a man of pleasing personality and wide popularity.
His wife was Leonora Keller. They had no children.
Capt. Charles Minn Thruston fought in the
Revolution, at the age of 11, as aide to his father, the Rev. and Col.
Thruston, at the Battle of Piscataway. In 1793 he married Gen. George
Rogers Clark's sister, Fanny Clark, after the
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death of her husband, Dr. James O'Fallon. Their home was at Westport.
Capt. Thruston was killed in December, 1800, by Luke, his body servant,
who feared that his master would punish him for repeated misdemeanors.
Capt. Thruston refused to take Luke on a trip back to Virginia, and warned
him that any misconduct during his absence would mean a thrashing. The
slave had not attended to his duties during his master's absence, and before
the return of Capt. Thruston, ran away. However, one night early in December,
a servant reported to Capt. Thruston that Luke had been in the kitchen
and had stolen a leg of lamb. Capt. Thruston and his small son went out
to look for Luke, tracking him by footprints in the snow. When discovered
hiding in a corn shock, Luke sprang on his master and stabbed him with
a carving knife which he had stolen from the kitchen. Luke was caught and
was hung by verdict of the jury. Capt. Thruston's widow married her cousin,
Judge Dennis Fitzhugh, and her home stood in the square between Green and
Jefferson, Brook and Floyd.
Capt. and Mrs. Thruston's son was named Charles Minn Thruston,
but owing to confusion arising from the name being borne by his cousin,
the son of John Thruston, was called Charles W. Thruston. He was a successful
manufacturer
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and merchant, and his wife was Mary Eliza Churchill, daughter of Col.
Samuel Churchill. Their daughter, Fanny Thruston, married Andrew J. Ballard,
the lawyer. Fanny Thruston Ballard was a great beauty and belle, and
died in Vienna in April, 1896, while making a European trip. On this trip
she visited the home of the early Thrustons, seeing the old manor house
and porter's lodge at West Buckland, England, and an old church nearby,
where her ancestors are buried within the chancel.
S. Thruston Ballard and Rogers C. Ballard Thruston are
her sons, the name of the latter being changed to preserve the family name
of Thruston. S. Thruston Ballard married Sunshine Harris, and has one daughter,
Mary Ballard, who married Dr. David Cummins Morton. The late Charles T.
Ballard, who married Mina Breaux, was the father of Abigail Ballard, Mrs.
Jefferson Stewart; of Charles T. Ballard, U. S. N.; of Fanny Ballard, Mrs.
Charles Homer; of Breaux Ballard, whose wife was Jane Fish, and
of Mina Ballard, Mrs. Warner L. Jones. The youngest member of the
family is little Frances Homer.
"Lansdowne," the home of Mrs. and Mrs. S.
Thruston Ballard, at Glenview, bears the name of the early Virginia home
of the Thrustons, at Gloucester Point.
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Buckner Thruston settled in Lexington in 1788, practiced law and was
Judge in the State courts. His wife was Janette January, of Maysville.
He was Senator from Kentucky in 1804, and retired to become United States
Judge for the District of Columbia. His home from 1804 was at Cumberland,
Md.
Gen. Charles Lee, a great personal friend of the Rev.
and Col. Charles Minn Thruston, left his library to Buckner Thruston, saying
that he was the only man he knew capable of appreciating it.
There are descendants, in Louisville, of the Rev. and
Col. Charles Minn Thruston by his second wife, Ann Alexander, their daughter,
Eloise Thruston, born 1792, in Virginia, marrying Major Edmund Taylor,
and settling on Beargrass. Sarah Courtney Taylor, one daughter, married
John De Colmesnil, and their home on Jefferson street, between Eighth and
Ninth, was long a landmark of that old neighborhood. Sarah and John Colmesnil's
daughter, Courtney Colmesnil, married John Murphy, of Nelson county, for
years manager of the Galt House, and has a daughter in Louisville, Mary
May Murphy, widow of Joseph Simmons. She is the mother of Courtney Simmons,
Lily Simmons Huber, Joseph Simmons and Sarah Thruston Simmons.
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Sarah Thruston Simmons was instrumental in organizing the Charles Minn
Thruston Chapter, Children of the Confederacy in Louisville.
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