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Err Thornton
Muscatine County
Err Thorton passed away in Drury township, Illinois, on the 11th of January, 1897, in the ninetieth year of his age (born July 22, 1807, in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania). He came to Muscatine in July, 1834, and was the second permanent settler of Muscatine. On the 10th of May, 1834, he arrived on the prairie near New Boston, Illinois, and on the 4th of July following crossed the river at that place into Iowa. With his brothers, Lot and Levi, both of whom preceded him to the grave, he made a claim on the bluff about nine miles below what is now Muscatine. At the time of his arrival he was twenty-seven years of age. At the first public land sales in the territory, which took place in November of 1838 at Burlington, Err Thornton, John Vanatta and Aaron Usher as commissioners for the county of Muscatine, selected the quarter section of land on which the court house now stands. He served the people of Muscatine County in the House of Representatives in the Fifth Legislative Assembly of the Iowa Territory. He was married to Lillie Woods. He was a man of prominence in the affairs of the early days of this section and up to the time of his death held the esteem of all who knew him. He was a fine specimen of manhood physically, standing six feet two and a half inches and weighing one hundred and seventy pounds.
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