Reuben Harris Thurston

   FamilySearch ID: LLMZ-3ST. Find a Grave ID: 44697279.

  General Notes:

A farmer in Garden City at the time of his death." In religion a free thinker; having a fertile mind, he writes essays and poems upon religious and moral subjects, discrediting the bible as a revelation, but holding to the great first cause, God, as revealed in nature only. He always advocates morality, 'and is a most genial gentleman, a man of good judgement and taste.", p455

Reuben Harris evidently traveled with his father Peter in 1813 from Vermont to Ohio at the age of about 7 or 8, grew up and married in Licking County [Granville] Ohio and moved at some point to Garden City, MN, although there is no indication of when.

Reuben was a farmer in Garden City, Minnesota when he died. Brown Thurston, in his massive 1880 work on the Thurston family, typified him thusly: "In religion a free thinker; having a fertile mind, he writes essays and poems upon religious and moral subjects, discrediting the bible as a revelation, but holding to the great first cause, God, as revealed in nature only. He always advocates morality, 'and is a most genial gentleman, a man of good judgment and taste.", p455

1840 THURSTON REUBEN H. Delaware County OH 202 Berlin Township Federal Population Schedule OH 1840 Federal Census Index OHS4a2594245 ¹⁹³

  Events

• Census, 1840, Berlin Township, Delaware Co., OH. See notes

• Occupation. Farmer

• Census, 1850, Berlin Township, Delaware Co., OH. ²⁰⁵

• Obituary: Mankato Free Press, Apr 1880, Mankato, Blue Earth Co., MN. Obituary of Reuben H. Thurston, Mankato Free Press (Mankato, MN), April 1880:

An Old Settler Gone-Sudden Death of R. H. Thurston.

R. H. Thurston died suddenly, at his residence on his farm, near Garden City, on the morning of the 13th, in the 74th year of his age, having been born in Vermont, Dec. 11th 1806. His mother was twice married, her first husband, being a Wheeler, and her oldest child was the father of Hon. Wm. A. Wheeler, Vice-President of the United States. Emigrating early to Ohio, he became one of the most enterprising and thrifty farmers of the central portion of that State. He came to Minnesota in the spring of 1856, and bought the old Vauslyke pre-emption near Garden City, which was his late residence. His contemporaries in that early settlement, were E. P. Evans, John B. Skinner, Edson Geary, John Tompson. Geo. Lamberton and E.T. Mills. In 1827 he married to Miss Mary Brooks, sister of the Rev. Dr. Cyrus Brooks, of St. Paul. Of this marriage there were nine children, most of them are well known in this county; Dr. Irvin H. Thurston, Mrs. Mary E. Snow, of St. Paul, Mrs. Sarah H. Cowgill, of Iowa, Mrs. Rose L. Baker, former wife of Gen. J.H. Baker of Mankato, C. B. Thurston, of St. Paul, Mrs. Callie F. Finch, Frank Thurston, and Charlie E. Thurston. Mr. Thurston was well known throughout his whole life, for his independance of thought and liberal views. In early manhood, he belonged to the oldschool of Ohio abolitionists, and at a time when it required boldness and courage to maintain such a position. His peculiar liberal views were well known in this county, and in the days of his full mental power, there were few indeed who cared to encounter his keen logic. His whole life was morally without spot of blemish. To those who knew him intimately, the rectitude of his life and the principles of scrupulous faith and honor which governed him, placed him in the front rank of tried and trusted men. Indeed, as men go, he was a remarkable character, and his name and memory will be sweetly cherished by those who knew him well.

Reuben married Mary Morse Brooks, daughter of Nathan Brooks and Sarah Morse, 15 Mar 1827 in Granville, Licking Co., OH.²⁰⁴ (Mary Morse Brooks was born 12 Jun 1803 in Underhill, Chittenden Co., Vermont, died 11 May 1876 ²⁰⁴ and was buried in Garden City, Blue Earth Co., MN.)