John Thornburn was born in the parish of Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, March 29, 1824. At the age of twenty-three he had served four years as an apprentice to the blacksmith's trade, and worked six years as a journeyman. He emigrated to America in 1848, in company with his younger brother, Robert, his father and mother following the next year. He worked a short time at his trade in Pittsburgh, Pa., but came to Michigan the same year and located one hundred and twenty acres of land in Delhi, which is a part of the farm he now owns. He chopped five or six acres of woodland and built a log house, which his father occupied the next spring. He then worked four years in Ypsilanti, Mich., and from there went to Lansing in 1852 and commenced blacksmithing in North Lansing.

Two years later he married Miss Hannah J. Olds, who was born in Prattsburg, N. Y., in 1829, and came to Michigan in 1832. He worked five years and did a successful business; but his health failing he moved to his present home in Delhi, and turned his attention to the management of the farm and to stock-raising. He has now over eight hundred acres to land in a high state of cultivation, with good buildings and fences, and a large part ot it tile-drained. He owns a very fine herd of shorthorn cattle, and sheep and swine of the most improved breeds. He has three sons, -- James B., who is superintending the farm; William Warren, who is also a farmer; and Robert Clark, who is at home with his parents.

Taken from:
"History of Ingham and Eaton Counties Michigan, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers", by Samuel W. Durant.
Published by D. W. Ensign & Co., 1880.
Page 244

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Sondra Higbee