Thornberry is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Clay County Clay County is the name of 18 counties in the United States. Most are named for Henry Clay, U.S. Senator and statesman: * Clay County, Alabama * Clay County, Arkansas (named for John Clayton, and originally named Clayton County) * Clay County, Fl ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. According to the

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

, the community had a population of 60 in 2000. It is located within the

Wichita Falls metropolitan area The Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area is a metropolitan area in North Texas that covers three counties – Archer County, Texas, Archer, Clay County, Texas, Clay, and Wichita County, Texas, Wichita. As of the United States Census, 2010, ...

History

The community was first known as Illinois Colony when it was founded in 1890 by people who moved to the area from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. However, it was renamed Thornberry within a few years of its inception, in honor of Amos Thornberry, a prominent settler and devoted

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

ist who brought large-scale orchard-based agriculture to the county. The village had a post office by 1891, but it closed in 1908. A planned train line that would have connected Wichita Falls to Thornberry was never built. The 1930s and 1940s population list showed 20 people living there. Locally, there were two rated enterprises in the late 1940s and four in the mid-1930s. Thornberry recorded 60 residents between the late 1950s when the village had three businesses, and 2000 when it had none. The population in the community is expected to break 100 by 2057. On August 18, 2007, an F1 tornado struck Thornberry.

Geography

Thornberry is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 2393 and 171, northeast of Wichita Falls in northwestern Clay County.

Education

Thornberry is served by the Burkburnett Independent School District. It is zoned for I.C. Evans Elementary School.

References

Unincorporated communities in Texas Unincorporated communities in Clay County, Texas Wichita Falls metropolitan area {{ClayCountyTX-geo-stub