You may be interested to know that I found out a little bit about James Hardin Thorpe (and yes, that does seem to be his name), the oldest son of J. Martin Thorpe and Louisa Bibb. He was born 9 July 1848 in Rockbridge, Greene Co., IL. On 3 October 1871 he married Mary Virginia Bowman (born 1 May 1852 in Greene Co.; died 16 December 1874 in Rockbridge) in Rockbridge, IL. They had two children: Martin Thorpe, born 6 December 1871, died 7 May 1875, both in Rockbridge; and Bertha Virginia Thorpe, born 29 July 1872 in Rockbridge, died 31 March 1960 in Monrovia, Los Angeles, CA. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Rubicon. I suspect she is the Bertha Thorpe who is mentioned in Ebert K. Metcalf's obituary that you have posted on sonton.com. She was adopted by Ebert and Mariah after her mother died in 1874. By the way, James Hardin, his wife Mary Virginia Bowman and their son Martin are all buried in Hardin Cemetery in Linder, Greene Co. I have no idea where that is, but you may know. I find it interesting that he is buried in Hardin Cemetery, since that is a name that comes up in the Thorpe line. Maybe that is a clue?
