James Thorn, M. D.

JAMES THORN, M. D. On the 20th of July, 1802, he was born at Colchester, England. He graduated at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, Aug. 6, 1824. After practicing in England, he came to the United States and made his home in Troy, 1832.

As said by his biographer, "His professional life in Troy was, until the insidious beginning of his fatal sickness, an eminent success. For more than a quarter of a century he carried the responsibilibies of a large and important family practice in the city, and at the same time so far excelled in surgery as to stand much of the time without a rival in that specialty, performing during many years the most important surgical operations of the city. Dr. Thorn's fondness for publicity and his great personal popularity naturally led him into politics, and gave him success in that field. Besides minor offices, he twice occupied the position of mayor of the city, having been elected in 1862, and again in 1864. His terms of office were full or more than ordinary labor and responsibility. The payment of bounties for soldiers during the early years of the war, and the relief often needed by the families of volunteers, made it his duty to control the handling of large sums of money, and the great fire of May 10, 1862, naturally placed him at the head of the committee for distributing relief to hundreds of impoverished families; yet no one found him guilty of selfishness or partiality, and no one believed that he was richer after his term of office."

During the last ten or twelve years of his life he became gradually helpless, physically and mentally, and previous to his death he sought the care of attendants of the Marshall Infirmary, where he died Nov. 27, 1876.

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