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{{Short description|American politician (1837–1890)}}
[[Image:Jacob Montgomery Thornburgh - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|Jacob Montgomery Thornburgh]]▼
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Jacob Montgomery Thornburgh
▲
|state=[[Tennessee]]
|district=[[Tennessee's 2nd congressional district|2nd]]
|party=[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]
|term=March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1879
|preceded=[[Horace Maynard]]
|succeeded=[[Leonidas C. Houk]]
|birth_date={{birth date|1837|7|3|mf=y}}
|birth_place=[[New Market, Tennessee]], U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|1890|9|19|1837|7|3|mf=y}}
|death_place=[[Knoxville, Tennessee]], U.S.
|resting_place = [[Old Gray Cemetery]]<br/>Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
|spouse=Adaline Smith<br/>Laura Emma Pettibone
|children=
|profession=Attorney, Politician
|religion=
|alma_mater=Holston College<ref name=rothrock />
|footnotes=
}}
'''Jacob Montgomery Thornburgh''' (July 3, 1837<ref>Rothrock (''French Broad-Holston Country'', p. 497) lists July 5 as his date of birth. Thornburgh's grave monument at Old Gray Cemetery gives July 3 as his date of birth.</ref>– September 19, 1890) was an American attorney and politician who represented [[Tennessee's 2nd congressional district]] in the [[United States House of Representatives]] from 1873 to 1879. The son of a prominent state legislator, Thornburgh fought in the [[Union Army]] during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], and served as [[attorney general]] of the state's third judicial district after the war. Following his congressional term, he formed a law partnership with several prominent Knoxville attorneys, and engaged in philanthropy.<ref name=rothrock>East Tennessee Historical Society, Mary Rothrock (ed.), ''The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1972), pp. 497-498.</ref>
==Biography==
===Early life===
Thornburgh was born in [[New Market, Tennessee]] in [[Jefferson County, Tennessee|Jefferson County]]. His father, Montgomery Thornburgh, was a Tennessee state senator and attorney general.<ref name=rothrock /> His mother was Olivia.<ref name="1850 cen" /> He attended Holston College (in New Market), and studied law under his father and Judge Robert McFarland. He was admitted to the [[bar association|bar]] in 1861, after which he commenced practice in Jefferson County.<ref name=rothrock /> His brother, Major [[Thomas Tipton Thornburgh]], was commander of Fort Steele and was killed during the [[Battle of Milk Creek]] in 1879.<ref name="MG - funeral">{{Cite news |date=October 29, 1879 |title=Funeral of Maj. Thornburgh |pages=2 |work=The Morristown Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91396047/funeral-of-maj-thornburgh/ |access-date=2021-12-29}}</ref><ref name="1850 cen">{{citation| title=Thomas T. Thornburgh, Jefferson, Tennessee | year =1850 |work=United States Census |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration | location=Washington, D.C. }}</ref>
===Civil War and aftermath===
== References ==▼
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Thornburgh fled to [[Kentucky]] and enlisted as a private in a brigade commanded by General [[George W. Morgan]].<ref name=cumberland>''Reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland'' (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke and Company, 1891), p. 283-284.</ref> In 1862, he joined what would eventually become the [[4th Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry]] with the rank of [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|lieutenant colonel]]. He became commander of the unit following the resignation of Colonel [[Richard M. Edwards]] in July 1863. He saw action at the [[Battle of Okolona]], and led one of the first units into [[Mobile, Alabama]], after the city fell in 1865.<ref name=cumberland /> Thornburgh's father, a prominent Unionist, was arrested by Confederate authorities during the war and died in a Confederate prison in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].<ref name=cumberland /> His brother, [[Thomas Tipton Thornburgh|Thomas]], enlisted in the Sixth East Tennessee Volunteers and rose through the ranks, establishing a career as an officer in the military. He died in the western frontier during the [[Battle of Milk Creek]] with the [[Ute people|Utes]] in 1879.<ref name="Appletons">{{Cite book |title=Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography | volume=VI | chapter=Thornburg, Thomas T. |publisher=Sunderland-Zurita |pages=102}}</ref>
{{CongBio|T000239}}▼
Thornburgh was appointed [[attorney general]] of the third judicial circuit of Tennessee in 1866, and was elected to this office in 1868 and 1870.<ref name=rothrock /> In spite of his family's hardships during the war, he was conciliatory in his actions toward former Confederates,<ref name=cumberland /> and briefly practiced law with his old mentor, Robert McFarland, who had supported the Confederacy.<ref name=rothrock /> In 1872, Thornburgh was appointed United States commissioner at the [[International Exposition]] held in [[Vienna]], [[Austria]].<ref name=rothrock />
===Congressional career===
In the early 1870s, Tennessee's [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]-controlled legislature [[gerrymandered]] the 2nd Congressional District in hopes of breaking Republicans' electoral dominance in the district. Sensing defeat, the district's Republican congressman, [[Horace Maynard]], withdrew from the race for the 2nd District seat and instead ran for the state's [[Tennessee's At-large congressional district|at-large district]] seat. Thornburgh accepted the Republican Party's nomination for the 2nd District seat, and in spite of the Democrats' redistricting efforts, won the seat in the general election.<ref name=mckinney>Gordon B. McKinney, "The Rise of the Houk Machine in East Tennessee," East Tennessee Historical Society ''Publications'', Vol. 45 (1973), pp. 61-78.</ref>
In the election of 1874, [[Leonidas C. Houk]] challenged Thornburgh for the Republican nomination for the 2nd District's seat. After a very competitive campaign, both candidates claimed the nomination, and both intended to run in the general election, which would have split the Republican vote and threaten the party's hold on the seat. Senator [[William Gannaway Brownlow|William G. Brownlow]], by this time a revered figure among East Tennesseans, intervened on Thornburgh's behalf, and Houk withdrew, allowing Thornburgh to coast to an easy victory. Thornburgh ran unchallenged in 1876, and decided not to seek reelection in 1878.<ref name=mckinney />
===Later life===
Thornburgh largely retired from political life after 1879, although he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1880. He returned to Knoxville and formed a law partnership with Charles D. McGuffey (a nephew of [[William Holmes McGuffey]], author of the ''[[McGuffey Readers]]''), and later formed a partnership with future [[United States Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] justice [[Edward Terry Sanford]].<ref name=rothrock /> In 1889, Thornburgh donated a large number of books to the burgeoning [[Lawson McGhee Public Library|Lawson McGhee Library]].<ref name=rothrock />
Thornburgh died on September 19, 1890, and was [[burial|interred]] in [[Old Gray Cemetery]]. His daughter, [[Laura Thornburgh]], was a journalist and author, perhaps best known for publishing one of the first hiking guides to the [[Great Smoky Mountains National Park]] in 1937.<ref name=rothrock /> His son, John Minnis Thornburgh, was a prominent Knoxville lawyer and Republican Party leader during the early 20th century.<ref name=rothrock />
{{reflist}}
==External links==
▲* {{CongBio|T000239}}
* {{Find a Grave|8039090}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{US House succession box
| state= Tennessee
| district= 2
| before= [[Horace Maynard]]
| after= [[Leonidas C. Houk]]
| years= 1873–1879}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornburgh, Jacob Montgomery}}
[[Category:1837 births]]
[[Category:1890 deaths]]
[[Category:
[[Category:People of Tennessee in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Politicians from Knoxville, Tennessee]]
[[Category:Southern Unionists in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee]]
[[Category:19th-century American legislators]]
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