from the July 18, 1964 TUSCALOOSA NEWS

Thornhill Rich In History

by Lib Bird News Correspondent

FORKLAND - A great-great-granddaughter of the original owner of Thornhill is the new owner of the antebellum mansion. Mr. and Mrs. Brockway Jackson acquired the ancestral home Wednesday when the house and furnishings were sold at auction.

Jackson's bid of $162,000 for the mansion and 805 acres of land was the top single bid. Earlier the home and for other parcels of land had been auctioned separately to bring bids totaling $99 933.40.

Thornhill, sitting on top of a hill overlooking miles of rolling green pastures was built in the 1830s by James Innes Thornton of Fredricksburg, Va. who came to Alabama as a young man. After the death of his first wife, Thronton returned to Virginia to marry a childhood sweetheart, Ann Amelia Smith. When their daughter was born they were living in Tuscaloosa where he served as Secretary of State at the state capitol. He built Thornhill on land purchased by the Bragg family in the 1830s.

The auction was held according to the will of the late Mrs. Helen Williams Allison Thornton. Her Husband the late James Innes Thornton, II, a grandson of the builder, had no children, although she was survived by sisters and Allison children.

Jackson's purchase of Thornhill followed by more than seven years of his buying another antebellum mansion, Rosemount, nearby. He later sold that home to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Simpson of Birmingham.

Oddly enough one of his competitive bidders at Rosemount is now Jackson's son-in-law, Watson Jones, of Camden, had not met Ann Jackson then. At the auction, they and little Brockway Jackson Joens were in the background.

At Thornhill hundreds of antique dealers and collectors were present for the auction of the furnishings which followed a barbeque lunch on the lawn. Between the two auctions visitors were invited in to see the beautiful home. Most of the furniture was auctioned from the porch but at the end the auctioneer moved inside for the larger pieces which included a bed selling for $975.

The item arousing the most curiosity at its high bid of $112 was a doll house. Two large printings sold for a total of $600 and the pier mir-(typo)

chases totaling $6,000.

There were 440 items sold for a total of $13,070, according to J.L. Todd Auction Co. A Huntsville resident who was restoring a home made purchases totaling $6000.

Even a kerosene lamp, which would sell in a country store for $1.29 brought $500 in competitive bidding. Everything was sold including mops and brooms. One gun sold for $70.

When the visitors tired of the sale for awhile they strolled about on the beautiful lawn and looking down over the hillside where they could see rolling pastures for miles around.

Betty Woolf Thornton

"This is a photo of them in 1920.  In the background was Betty’s father Judge Woolf who was the probate judge for Marengo County.  He lived at Thornhill in his later years. Betty and he are buried in Dayton, AL."~ Brock Jones

page 97 of STARS FELL ON ALABAMA by Carl Carmer:

Miss Betty said," I brought this old love letter of a planter's son out here for you to see. It doesn't belong to us but I borrowed it because I thought you would be interested. They wrote a different style in those days."