Gates Phillips Thruston was an American lawyer and businessman. Born in Ohio, he served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and started a legal practise in Nashville, Tennessee in the postbellum era. He served as the president of the State Insurance Company. He also was an amateur archeologist, and the author of several books about Native American mounds and artifacts. His collection is held at the Tennessee State Museum.
Early life
Gates P. Thruston was born on June 11, 1835, in Dayton, Ohio. His paternal grandfather, Buckner Thruston, was a United States Senator. Thurston graduated as a valectorian with a Doctor of Humane Letters in Archeology and Literature from Miami University in 1855. He received a law degree from the Cincinnati Law School. He volunteered for the AmericanCivil War and joined the Union Army, being commissioned as Captain in the 1st Ohio Infantry Regiment. He took part in the battles of Shiloh and Stones River, in the later as ordnance officer on the staff of the XX Corps under Maj.Gen. Alexander M. McCook, his former regimental commander. Afterwards he became and aide and adjutant to Maj.Gen. William S. Rosecrans when he commanded the Army of the Cumberland, though eventually returning to the XX Corps as its Chief of Staff. Thruston fought in the Battle of Chickamauga and continued his staff work under Maj.Gen. George H. Thomas during the Atlanta Campaign. He eventually was promoted up to Lieutenant Colonel and served as Judge-Advocate General of the Army of the Cumberland; afterwards being brevetted Brigadier General for his services during the war. Toward the end of the Civil War and during early Reconstruction, Thruston established provost courts, arguing that the only means for African-Americans to be accorded equal treatment under the law was through the supervision of the Army.
Thruston was married twice. He married his first wife, Ida Hamilton, the daughter of James M. Hamilton, in December 1865. In 1894, he married Fanny Dorman. He had a son, Gates Thruston Jr., who predeceased him. Thruston died on December 9, 1912, in Nashville, Tennessee. His funeral was conducted by a Presbyterian minister; pall-bearers included James Hampton Kirkland and Robert Ewing, and he was buried at the Mount Olivet Cemetery. His collection of Native American artifacts, which he had donated to Vanderbilt University in 1907, has been exhibited at the Tennessee State Museum since 1986. A book about the collection authored by Stephen D. Cox, the curator of cultural history at the museum, was published in 1985.
