Thorne Family Papers

Jonathan Thorne (1801-1884) was descended from a distinguished Dutchess County Quaker family. His father was a successful merchant, and about 1820, Jonathan moved to New York City where he became a prominent businessman. In 1823 he married Lydia Ann Corse. The family maintained a summer residence in Dutchess County and raised prize-winning cattle and sheep. Jonathan and Lydia had eleven children, but five died in their youth. Jonathan married a second time in 1872 to Eliza T. Merritt. Phebe Anna Thorne (1828-1909) was the third eldest, the oldest surviving daughter, and never married. A devout Quaker who wore plain dress, she was acknowledged as a minister of New York Monthly Meeting and traveled with Rachel Hicks, also a New York Quaker minister. The family was active in Quaker concerns and philanthropy, and Phebe Anna and her brothers established in 1894 a meeting hall and school in Millbrook, their birthplace in Dutchess County, in memory of their parents. Phebe Anna died at the home of her brother, Samuel (1835-1915), a successful businessman who maintained a home in Millbrook. He married Phebe Van Schoonhoven, and their daughter Margaret married C. Richard Tjader.