Alameda County Biographies

M. K. THORNBURGH

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Was born in Jefferson County, Virginia, near Harper�s Ferry, December 22, 1829.  
When he had attained the age of twenty years, he proceeded to Louisville, 
Kentucky, where he resided five years, then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, for 
twelve months.  At the expiration of that time he went to West Point, near 
Kansas City, and thence, with three companions, started to cross the plains to 
the Pacific Slope.  After a trip of four months our subject arrived in 
Sacramento, the day being September 15, 1853.  He proceeded at once to 
Marysville, Yuba County, but remaining there only a short time, he transferred 
the scene of his operations to Canon Creek, Sierra County, and engaged in 
merchandising.  Two years thereafter he returned to Marysville, and obtained 
employment in the Sheriff�s office, with his brother, but subsequently proceeded 
to Bear River and embarked in stock-raising, an occupation he followed for two 
years more.  He then undertook the management of the hotel at the well-known 
�Johnson�s Ranch� for a couple of years. Thence he moved to Lincoln, and engaged 
in mercantile pursuits for six years, finally establishing himself in the 
produce and commission business in San Francisco.  There he dwelt until making 
his home in Oakland in 1875, when he established himself at the corner of Eighth 
and Chester Streets.
 
History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883, p. 986