Biography of Joseph B. Thoburn



Excerpted from "Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1911-1912", Edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary. 

Vol XII., State Printing Office, Topeka, Kansas 1912.



submitted by Teresa Lindquist (merope@radix.net); (copyright) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist

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JOSEPH B. THOBURN was born at Bellaire, Belmont county, Ohio, August 8, 1866. His parents immigrated to Kansas, settling 

upon a homestead near Peabody, Marion county, early in March, 1871. There most of his early life was spent on a farm. His 

father, Maj. Thomas Crawford Thoburn, was of Scotch-Irish parentage and was born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1829. Major 

Thoburn spent over three years in the volunteer military service during the Civil War, being mustered out with a creditable 

record in September, 1865. A few days later he was married to Miss Mary Eleanor Crozer, who was a native of Stark county 

and who was of Huguenot French and English descent. She died at Peabody, April 20, 1893. Major Thoburn died at the home of 

his daughter, Mrs. Blanche I Currie, Hasbrouck Heights, N. J., September 19, 1911. They were pioneers of the type which 

bore an effective though unostentatious part in laying the foundations of a new community and shaping its institutions. The 

subject of this sketch learned the printer's trade after leaving the farm. Subsequently he took a course in the Kansas 

Agricultural College, graduating from that institution in 1893. In June, 1894, he was married, at Manhattan, to Miss Callie 

Conwell. He is a newspaper writer by profession, and has been a resident of Oklahoma City since 1899. Prom 1902 to 1905 he 

served as secretary of the Oklahoma Territorial Board of Agriculture. For a number of years past his efforts have largely 

been devoted to the work of research and writing along the lines of local history, his special field being the Great Plains 

country. He is one of the authors of the brief outline of the history of Oklahoma which is in use as a textbook in the 

public schools of that state. Mr. Thoburn is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of the Sons of the American 

Revolution, and has long been one of the most active members of the board of directors of the Oklahoma Historical Society.



(Included with the article: "Indian Fight in Ford County in 1859," page 312)