He offered to transfer the charter and assets of Brandon College to the town of Sharon on the condition that a building for the new school, to be named Madison College, be provided.
Thornton was the first president, as well as "professor of moral and intellectual science and sacred literature."
Madison College offered the following degrees: A.
B., A. M., D. D., and LL D.[1] The college suspended operations during the civil war.
It reopened after the war but closed in 1872, "perishing for want of endowment and patronage.