Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/471

 Colonel Grimsley's Proposed Expedition 439 Colonel Thornton Grimsley Colonel Thornton Grimsley was born on the 20th of August, 1798, in Bourbon county, Kentucky. His father, Nimrod Grimsley, was a resident of Fauquier county, Vir- ginia, and having a large family removed to Kentucky at an early day, and helped to make up the number of that enterprising population who immigrated to what was considered the richest soil in America. His father and mother did not long live in the new homes which they had chosen, but died during the years 1805 and 1806, leaving a helpless family of eight children. The subject of this memoir, by the dissolution of his parents, was left an orphan at seven years of age, and three years after losing his parents he was apprenticed to the saddlery business. He served his master faith- fully for eleven years, and the only compensation which he received was three months of schooling, yet, by his diligent application to business, and a mind naturally of a superior order, he soon won the respect and confidence of his master, and in 1816 he was sent to St. Louis in charge of a valuable assortment of goods, at which place he completed his term of indenture; and on reaching twenty-one years of age, the first act he performed in his independent manhood, was to return to Kentucky and attend school for six months, from the proceeds of extra work which he had performed during the term of his apprenticeship. After having exhausted his slender resources, in obed- ience to the invitation of his old master, Thornton Grims- ley returned to St. Louis, and took charge of his business for about fourteen months, and then, feeling that he could succeed better untrammeled by the dictates of a superior, in 1822 he placed his name upon a sign-board, and boldly commenced his fortune. Miss Susan Stark, of Bourbon county, Kentucky, who was sister of the wife of the master under whom he learned
 * * On commencing business for himself he married