Thornton was our fourth president, but at some point in Samford's history he simply disappeared from collective memory. Thornton was still listed as Howard College's fourth president as late as 1894. Historian Mitchell Bennett Garret recorded his presidency in his Sixty Years of Howard College, 1842-1902, and James F. Sulzby used Garrett's information in his two-volume Toward A History of Samford University, but Thornton is otherwise overlooked. For decades, he has been excluded even from Samford's official tally of its fully-empowered presidents (as opposed to those who served in an interim capacity).
Before serving Howard College as a professor of chemistry and modern languages, Thornton studied at the University of Alabama and at various European universities. He was among the many professors, administrators and students who left Howard to serve in the Confederate States Army, rising from the rank of lieutenant in the 39th Alabama Infantry regiment to become an assistant adjutant general. He returned to Howard only a few years before his elevation to the presidency.
