Ancestors

Phillip Sheridan Thurston

Phillip Sheridan Thurston was born on 26 July 1882, a son of Daniel Thurston and Julia A. Howell. His middle name was that of Philip Sheridan, the Union cavalry general of the Civil War. He went by Phil.

He married Bertha Kate Clarkson, a daughter of the buffalo hunter Matt Clarkson, and they farmed in Saline Township, northern Ellis County, with their mail through Natoma. They had ten children between 1907 and 1923: Alice, Martha, Eunice, Blanche, Howard, Beulah, Harley, Louella in 1919, Charles Elmer, and an infant who died in 1923. Bertha died on 1 February 1923, aged 36, and was buried at Fairport beside that last baby.

Phil was a working farmer with an eye for new methods. In October 1917 he was on the Ellis County jury list, two places above his neighbor Perry Simpson. In April 1918 his brothers William, Frank and Daniel came to visit at P. S. Thurston's on a Sunday. In June 1922 the county agent ran a motion picture on tuberculosis in cattle, and Phil, then of Natoma, said afterward that it was worth a dollar admission to see.

He married again. His second wife, Muriel Bertha Dougherty, was born in Rooks County in 1904. They had more children, among them Pattie Jane in 1933, Bernetha Gay in 1935 and Walter Joseph, who died as a baby in 1941 Muriel also had Netherland children from an earlier marriage.

Phil Thurston died in the hospital at Lincoln, Kansas, on Wednesday, 21 June 1967, aged 84. His death notice called him a former Ellis County resident and said he was survived by his wife Muriel, 17 children, one sister, two stepbrothers, 40 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. The funeral was held at the First Methodist Church in Hunter. He is buried beside Muriel under a stone that reads "Phil S. July 26, 1882, June 21, 1967".

If Phillip Sheridan Thurston is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Phillip Sheridan Thurston (1882-1967)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/phillip-sheridan-thurston-1882-1967-bb9fd2.