D. R. Thornton from Mississippi married Mary Anna, daughter of frontier fighter Peter Garland, in Anderson County, Texas, in 1853. The Thorntons settled here in 1857 as cattle raisers and helped make this frontier safe for less hardy citizens. Mary Anna Thornton served fellow settlers as a midwife and doctor, and the couple reared eight children. Thornton, a Confederate soldier in the Civil War, later served as county commissioner from 1876 to 1878 and gave land for a local school in 1882; Hannibal Cemetery stands on the donated land.