City: Memphis
THORNTON, Gustavus Brown, physician; born Bowling Green, Va., Feb. 22, 1835; English descent; son of James Bankhead and Marianna T. (Horner) THORNTON; fathers occupation, lawyer; paternal grandfather James Bankhead THORNTON, of Caroline Co., Va., maternal grandfather Dr. Gustavus Brown HORNER of Warrenton, Va.; educated in Memphis, Tenn., and Richmond, Va.; graduated from University of New York, M.D., 1860; chief surgeon C.S.A. with rank of Major, 1862-1865; married three times, first, Martha Louisa HULLUM, of Memphis Tenn., 1869, second Mrs. Gustavus A. HENRY, of Alabama, April 14, 1884, third, Mrs. Mary B. FOWLER, of Griffin, Ga., Jan. 24, 1906; Democrat; City Hospital physician, 1868-1877; president Memphis Board of Health, 1879-1889, resigned; reappointed in 1893 and held the office until Feb., 1898; member of Tenn. State Board of Health, 1881-1889; president Tenn. State Medical Assn., 1881-1882; president Memphis and Shelby County Medical Society, 1909-1910; founder of present City Hospital during the Clapp administration, and in charge of old hospital from 1868 to 1879; first recommended the city park system 1897; for a number of years was a member of American Public Health Assn., to which he contributed several papers; member of American Medical Assn.; author of various official reports and papers on hygeinic [sic]and medical subjects which bear upon and constitute important part of the sanitary history of Memphis; contributor of numerous articles to various medical journals; served as physician to yellow fever victims in Memphis, Tenn., throughout the yellow fever scourges of 1867, 1873, 1878 (in charge of City Hospital 1878 and 1879); remained at post of duty and was stricken with the plague in 1867, and was also seriously ill from exhaustion and overwork at close of epidemic, in Oct. 1878; elected president of the Association of Medical Officers of the Army and Navy of the Confederacy at the United Confederate Veterans Reunion at Memphis, 1909; delivered an address of historic value before the Association of Medical Officers of the army and navy of the Confederacy, April 26, 1910, at Mobile, Ala.; he attested the high personal and professional character of the C.S. Army Surgeons; appointed by Dr. W.H. Welch, Pres. A.M.A., as one of the Confederate representatives from the A.M. Assn. on the committee to erect a National Monument at Washington, D.C., in commmoration [sic] of the Confederate and Federal medical officers of the civil war who were killed in battle; while in public office he was an earnest advocate of Federal government, assuming charge of maritime and interstate quarantine against yellow fever; local surgeon I.C.R.R., Southern R.R. and Union R.R.; engaged in private practice of medicine and surgery, Memphis, Tenn.; member of Cumberland Presbyterian church and Angerona Lodge F. & A.M.
Source: Who’s Who in Tennessee: A Biographical Reference Book of Notable Tennesseans of To-Day. Memphis: Paul & Douglas Co, 1911.
