This is the history and genealogy of the Thornhill Family and the Related Families. There is special  emphasis on Columbus Thornhill and Sarah Glover and their children. Columbus Lafayette Thornhill,  the progenitor of the Polk County clan, was himself one of 11 children, but he and a brother Enos M.  'Dean' Thornhill, who died in 1944, were the only ones to come to Florida. They came from Sylvester,  Georgia.
 They came because Mrs. Thornhill's great-uncle, William King had come in 1865 and settled north of  Polk City.  C. L. brought his family, including his wife and three children, to Polk county in an ox  cart in the fall of 1875.  They stopped first in the woods four miles west of Auburndale and spent  two and half years there.  He bought the Math King homestead and moved the family and established a  homestead at Eagle Lake. He set out a seedling grove. He had some cattle and pigs and everyone  merely notched the pigs ears and branded the cattle and turned them loose in the woods.  There was  nothing but woods then - big pines mostly - with here and there an oak grove and spots called  hammocks, where blackberries and high bush huckleberries grew. There was a tangle of all sorts and a  good many bears were killed in them.  Wild game of all sorts were abundant. Everyone had a gun and  knew how to use them.
 The land was rich and everyone could have made money but they didn't. They scratched at the ground  and raised the corn they needed to have ground into grits and meal.  There was a water mill at  Bartow and shelled corn was carried there on horseback or in an oxcart.

The Thornhills have married into other pioneer families of Florida and they are related to the  Kings, the Fussell's, the Glovers, the Knowles and the Mann's. The family of C. L. and Carrie  Thornhlll included five boys and five girls. 
  
 Lucius married Missouri Bell Fussell in 1899. Of the ten children, Lucius and Missouri had the most  children. 
 The males Newell, George, L. H., C. L. and Roscoe. The females were Bertha, Rachel, Mary Jane,  Alice, Ruth, and Grace.
 Newell Eldridge married Alice Christine Mobley about 1905. The children were Mildred Eunice and  Newell Eldridge.
 Lula Olivia married James Edward Dixon in 1898. Their children were William Luke, Lavada Oveido,  Patrick Henry, Roy Henderson, Shirley Lorena, Ada Guynetta, and Edward Rowson. John Benjamin married Evalena Estelle Davis in 1903. Their children were Lila Lera, Lida Ovieda,  John Benjamin Jr., Norlee, and Robert Gordon.
 Robert Columbus married Billie Bird Stevens about 1901. Their children were Jewell Lula, Opal  Marietta, and Reginald (Reggie).
 Fannie Magnolia married Wiley Harrison Embrey. Their children were Jessie Jim, Thomas Columbus,  Arnold Monroe, Alma Sybilla, and Iris Edith.
 Bena Rosey married Joseph Dennis Coburn.  Their children were Letoise, Marguerite Alice, Ray, Joseph  Dennis Jr.  Joseph was killed in action during WWII in Burma. An Infant that died at birth.
 Monroe Harris married Annie Paris in 1913.  They hand an only child - Carrie Mae Osiza Bell married John Campbell about 1907. Their children were Merita Almirea, Aleeta (Allie),  John William, Webster, and Reese.
 Oviedo Ann married Steward Creel in 1913. Their children were Susie Elva, Milford Cleveland (Fritz,  and Mary Melva.