Susan Wroe Edwards Thorn Journal

Collection

Identifier: A-0101

Staff Only

Abstract

Typescript of a journal describing the early days of the Texas Revolution and a trip from Nacogdoches to Clifton Forge, Virginia, by this wife of a prominent Nacogdoches businessman. Also includes biographical and genealogical information on the Thorn family and their descendants.

Dates

Creation: 1835-1836

Language of Materials

The collection is in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Biographical or Historical Information

Susan Wroe Edwards, daughter of Hayden and Susan Beall Edwards, was born in 1800. In 1825 she married Frost Thorn of Nacogdoches, Texas, a land impresario who also had interests in mercantile trade, banking, salt mining and lumbering. He was reputed to have been the first millionaire in Texas. They had three children: Mary Marcellite (b. 1842), Frost Thorn II (b. 1850), and Estelle, who died in infancy. Frost Thorn died in 1854 and Mrs. Thorn married his nephew, James F. Thorn, in 1856. No children were born of this marriage. In 1876 Thorn's son and daughter were drowned in a yachting accident in New York harbor, but they left behind several grandchildren. Mrs. Thorn died in Tyler on December 11, 1891.

At the time of her journal, Mrs. Thorn was about 35 years old, childless, and in uncertain health. The journal begins on Nov. 8, 1835 with references to the preparations for the Texas War of Independence, touching on soldiers, gallantry, weather, the Siege of Bexar, and rumors of Indian uprisings. Unfortunately, the journal breaks off on Jan. 1, 1836, skipping one of the most interesting periods of Texas history, and is not resumed again until June 6, at which time the Thorns were leaving on a journey to New York. The bulk of the journal describes the trip, making social comments about their fellow travelers and companions at resort spas, and includes philosophical remarks on religion and literature. Mrs. Thorn describes the topography as they pass through" Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, and she reports news from Texas as she hears it. Much of the journey was made by steamship up the Mississippi River, the rest was by stagecoach. The farthest point mentioned was Clifton Forge, Virginia.

Biographical and genealogical materials on the Thorns and their descendants have been added to the collection

("THORN, FROST." The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/TT/fth32.html [Accessed Mon Jun 28 9:45:26 US/Central 2004 ]; "Susan Wroe Edwards Thorn Journal." East Texas Research Center. Ralph W. Steen Library. Stephen F. Austin State University).