When Isaiah Prophet Thorne wrote to the Daily Times in 1941 asking for information about his family, he mentioned that he “was placed, when a small child, in Sherwood’s [Orphans] Schools, and later traveled with a school band.”

Preston and Edna Thorne and their elder children are listed in the 1880 census of Wilson County, and Isaiah was born about 1885. Both parents were reported living in 1890 when their daughter Hattie Thorne married, but may have died soon after, when Isaiah was still a young boy.

By 1893, Isaiah Thorne was the drum major of Sherwood’s band. Contemporary newspaper accounts, even when peppered with the casually cutting racism of the era, single out Thorne’s talent. In May, the band was in New England:

Morning Journal-Courier (New Haven, Conn.), 26 May 1893.

In August 1894, they entertained in the streets of Buffalo, New York:

Buffalo (N.Y.) Commercial, 7 August 1894.

Buffalo (N.Y.) Weekly Express, 9 August 1894.