Elizabeth Camp Thornton (née Denison) was born in Sacketts Harbor (Livingston County), New York, on September 26, 1829. Her first marriage was to John Rutherford Jr., and she wrote to Zebulon B. Vance in 1878 as "Mrs. John Rutherford" regarding the appointment of Dr. J. C. Whiteside as the physician to the imprisoned workers on the Western North Carolina Railroad. She died in Hickory (Catawba County), North Carolina, on September 26, 1829.