Representative Willis Hall Thorniley View All Years

HONORABLE WILLIS HALL THORNILEY

MR. SPEAKER: Your committee, appointed to prepare resolution commemorating the life of the Honorable Willis Hall Thorniley, beg leave to submit the following report:

Willis Hall Thorniley was born near Marietta, Ohio, in 1841. He departed this life in 1928. His parental great-grandfather was born in England, coming to America in 1795. The family settled in Marietta township, Washington county, Ohio, where six generations of Thornileys have or are living.

“Wick,” so he was known to his friends, was attending school in Marietta when the war of the states developed. Putting aside his books he joined Colonel Hindebrand’s regiment, Company 77, O. V. I. He saw three years of service, being engaged in numerous battles. At Shiloh his life was probably saved by a full cartridge box which took the force of the bullet that struck him. Recovering from the wound at Shiloh, he was transferred to Arkansas, where he served until the end of the war.

Returning to his home, he engaged in farming, which occupation he continued to the end of the road. He married Miss Minerva A. Beswick in September, 1869, who with the following children, survives: Paul Van and Thomas B. of Seattle, Washington; Willard J. of Newport Pike, Ohio; Mrs. Frances Seares of Roxana, Texas, and John L. of Marietta, Ohio.

In the early eighties he and his family moved to Van Buren county, Iowa, where he continued his occupation of farming and stock raising.

In 1888 he was elected representative of his adopted county, and served in the Twenty-second General Assembly with distinction. Upon his retiring from office, he returned to his native land where he spent his last thirty years.

Always interested in public affairs, Mr. Thorniley took to his home in Ohio the mutual insurance idea recently developed in Iowa, and organized the Washington County Mutual Insurance Company, being an officer in the company to his death. He also helped to organize The Ohio Valley Farmers’ Club, and for many years was a trustee of the Washington County Children’s Home.

Mr. Thorniley had a wonderful mind for details, traveled extensively and had a fund of knowledge acquired by few men. He enjoyed a joke, was a good story teller, and was always popular in any assemblage.

Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Forty-fifth General Assembly, in Extra Session, That in the loss of Willis Hall Thorniley, the state and humanity in general lost an honored and valued citizen, a man of high ideals and a man of real worth.

Be It Further Resolved, That a copy of this memorial be spread upon the Journal of this House, and that the Chief Clerk be instructed to send an enrolled copy to each member of the family of the deceased.

C. L. BESWICK,

J. WILBUR DOLE,

WM. PAISLEY,

Committee.

Unanimously adopted, March 7, 1934.