1915 Jul 26 Winona Republican-Herald

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Mary Elizabeth Thornton, who was stricken with atheroma Thursday morning, died at 1 p. m. the same day without regaining consciousness, at Minneapolis, aged seventy-one years. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. B. P. Stoker, she was born May 6th, 1844, at Binghampton, Bloom county, New York, and attended the Monroe Collegiate Institute at Eldridge, N. Y. She was married Dec. 15, 1865, to Theodore Birdlebough at Norwich, N. Y., coming west in 1866 and settling first Eau Claire, Wis., where Mr. Birdlebough was cashier and bookkeeper for the Eau Claire Lumber company. Later they moved to Money Creek. One son, Walter, now of Winona, was born to them. Mr. Birdlebough died Nov. 12, 1867. On Dec. 8, 1869, she was married to James Thornton at Winona. Four children were born to this union, Myron, now of Jordan, Mont., Mary, now Mrs. H. D. Rice of Watertown, S. D., Roy, who died in infancy, and Alice, now Mrs. W. L. Hunker of Moline, Ill. Mr. Thornton died in Winona June 7th, 1895. For several years following she made her home in Winona, later staying with her children, and a year ago she went to Minneapolis to live. She was a faithful Christian, a member of the First Baptist Church of Winona. Funeral services were held Sunday morning from the home of W. T. Birdlebough, with interment at Money Creek cemetery, by the side of her husband and son.