San Diego County Biographies
 
T. J. BRINTON 

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Is one of San Jacinto's business men and a member of the G. A. R., J. A. 
Addison Post, No. 121.  He was born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, near the 
old battle-ground of Chall's Ford, April 12, 1844. His father, Thomas Brinton, 
and his mother, Jane Brinton, were both natives of Pennsylvania, her maiden name 
being the same as his. They were the parents of ten children, our Mr. Brinton 
being the youngest. He got his education at the common schools, and at a 
boarding school in Concord, Pennsylvania.
        In 1861 the country was convulsed with excitement over the Rebellion. At 
that time T. J. Brinton was only seventeen years of age, small and slender, but 
he wanted to enlist. The following year he was accepted, and enlisted August 16, 
1862, in Company G, One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer 
Infantry. He participated in the battles of Antietam, Gettysburg and 
Fredericksburg, but after being in the service nine months his delicate 
constitution succumbed to the exposure and the hardships of the soldiers, 
marches and camp that his life was despaired of, and he was honorably discharged 
on account of disability, June 23, 1862. He returned home and after a few 
months' careful nursing at home he partially recovered his health, and with his 
brother, Joseph, bought a farm. Soon after this he went to Cleveland and Chicago 
visiting and seeing the country. After six months' absence he returned to his 
farm. He then went West again, and was in St. Louis one year and a half, when he 
went back East and sold his farm. In 1868 he bought wild land near Des Moines, 
Iowa, and in a short time sold it again. He stopped in Des Moines nine months, 
during the winter, and in March traveled again. He went to Illinois, Vermont, 
and then to St. Louis, and from there to Chicago, where he studied telegraphy. 
In the spring he went back to Des Moines, and, the party that purchased his farm 
not fulfilling his contract, he was obliged to take his farm back. He then went 
to Polk, where he engaged in the drug business, and after a year he sold this 
business and went to Des Moines, where he clerked in the hotel where he was 
boarding. He then went to Omaha, where he bought a hotel, which he ran eight 
months, when he sold it, having dropped $2,500, and went back to Des Moines a 
wiser man. He then engaged in the insurance business, in which business he 
continued until January, 1876, when he came to California. He opened a drug 
store at Orland and remained in that business until August, 1885, when he sold 
and in November, 1885, he came to San Jacinto. The boom had just started, and he 
drifted into it. He purchased twenty acres of land, now in the city limits, for 
$3,000. He has since sold a portion of it for $6,000, and has still some on his 
hands, for which he was offered a big price. He bought a drug business of Mr. 
Beeman, and has a nice stock of drugs and fancy goods, and is a competent and 
obliging druggist. He was married, in 1881, to Miss Bernard, a native of Iowa. 
They have one son: George T., born in Colusa County, California, October 25, 
1883. Mr. Brinton is a Master Mason, and was master of his lodge at Orland, 
California. He is a No. 1 citizen, and is interested in the welfare and growth 
of San Jacinto.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California… Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  358-359