R. K. THORNHILL, Rutherford, New Jersey.
The subject of this sketch was born in New York City May 29, 1851, and is the son of Richard Thornhill, a hatter who left England and settled in that city back in the '40s. The young man attended public school some years and finished up his education in a private academy in Hackensack, New Jersey. For some years he worked as an apothecary in Jersey City and then acted as paymaster's yeoman in United States Navy at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In November, 1879, he secured a position as fireman on the Erie, but after working for this company some time he left for the west where he traveled about considerably, working as a fireman for the Texas Pacific Railroad for a period of three months. Returning east again he entered the employ of the Erie, and fired until February, 1887, when he was promoted to engineer and assigned to the freight department where he has been working since.

Mr. Thornhill was married in July, 1883, to Miss Mary A. Harmon, daughter of Uriah Harmon, a dentist of Chatham, New York. They have one daughter, Ida, who is attending school and resides with her parents in their own pleasant home. Mr. Thornhill is a member of Jersey City Lodge No. 543, B. of L.F.; Lodge 210, I.0.0.F. of Jersey City; Varrich Lodge No. 31, F. & A.M., and the Elks. He is a popular man among his associates, and is a highly esteemed citizen of Rutherford.

Excerpted from: "American Locomotive Engineers, Erie Railway Edition," H.R. Romans Editor; Crawford-Adsit Company Publishers, Chicago, IL 1899.

From the October, 1919 issue of Erie Railroad Magazine:
RICHARD THORNHILL�The death of Richard Thornhill, an Erie engineer on the New York division, was recorded in the Hoboken Observer. It stated that Engineer Thornhill, accompanied by Mrs. Thornhill, was returning to his home in Rutherford from a visit with their daughter in the same town, and that when on Ayer Place he suddenly collapsed and was carried to the porch of a nearby house. When a physician arrived Mr. Thornhill was dead. The cause of his death was heart failure. He had been off on sick leave for several weeks. He was among the oldest engineers on the New York division, and before entering the service as fireman he was a prescription clerk in a Jersey City drug store.