Evening Times (Washington, D.C.), 3 July 1897.

I have not been able to find out much more about this strange abduction tale, other than the circus in question was Barnum & Bailey. The Thorntons were an interesting family. Presley Thornton Sr., before going straight and getting on with the government, had some larceny history. Son Presley Thornton Jr. carried on the tradition, as did son Harry Thornton, who was arrested around the time Phillip Thornton went missing. Sister Fannie Thornton disappeared for weeks in the spring of 1896 and, also around the time her brother was snatched, was badly injured when trampled during a “fire panic” at school. It beggars belief that a ten-year old boy could vanish without wider attention paid to his plight or show up alone in rural Wilson County seeking (and obtaining) a job, but — 1897.