Born in Ohio, he served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and started a legal practice in Nashville, Tennessee in the reconstruction era.

Afterward, he became an aide and adjutant to Major General William S. Rosecrans when he commanded the Army of the Cumberland, though eventually returning to the XX Corps as its Chief of Staff.

[1] 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.

[1] An amateur archaeologist, Thruston dug at Noel Farm in Nashville, where he found Native American artifacts,[4] and he started a collection.

[1] Additionally, Thruston was a collector of medals and coins for which he won an award at the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition.

[8] A Presbyterian minister conducted his funeral; pall-bearers included James Hampton Kirkland and Robert Ewing, and he was buried at the Mount Olivet Cemetery.

[9] 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.

[5] A book about the collection authored by Stephen D. Cox, the curator of cultural history at the museum, was published in 1985.