Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co. 1893. p. 475. SAMUEL R. THURSTON In the opening of the Territorial era, Hon. Samuel R. Thurston was easily the most representative character. He probably embodied in himself more of the spirit and life that lay at the foundation of the new commonwealth that was being formed on the Pacific coast than any other one many and did more to give trend and character to its subsequent history than any other of his period. So, to dismiss his career and work with the few sentences we could give him in the chapter that records his death would be wrong. Mr. Thurston was born in Monmouth, Maine, in 1816. His father died while he was young and the family removed to the small town of Peru, in Oxford county, where he grew up to manhood. He early became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and before he was twenty years of age became noted, locally, as an eloquent and fervent exhorter in revival meetings. Though with limited education, his ability was evident, and his command of language remarkable. There was, however, one quality of his character which led judicious advisors to persuade him to adopt the profession of the law, and that was his aggressiveness and combativeness. Appreciating the interest taken in himself by several leading men of the county, he entered upon a thorough course of study and, in 1843, graduated with honors at Bowdoin College, Maine. During his college course he developed much skill in debate and in written polemics. He also showed more than usual interest in politics, and on the occurrence of every election he found time to go out among the people and make speeches for the Democratic party; becoming prominent as a political speaker while yet an undergraduate. His interest in political affairs and his stirring speeches attracted the attention of ex-Governor Robert C. Dunlap, who received young Thurston as a law student in his office. In this place young Thurston found a congenial atmosphere, as the Governor had been much in public life, and had served as Speaker of the National House of Representatives. Here a glimpse of national politics could be obtained, and the interest in public questions here awakened in him never abated while he lived. After being admitted to the bar in Maine, Mr. Thurston married and went West, establishing himself in Burlington, Iowa, and becoming the editor of the Burlington Gazette, a Democratic journal. Remaining here two years he decided to emigrate to Oregon, which he did in 1847 with his little family, traveling by ox teams and wagon, according to the custom of the times. On arriving in Oregon in the autumn of that year, he settled at Hillsboro in Tualatin, now Washington county, and began the practice of the law. In 1848 he represented that county in the Legislative Assembly of the Provisional Government of Oregon. The following year the United States having extended its jurisdiction over Oregon, and organized a Territorial Government, Samuel R. Thurston was elected the first delegate in Congress. He had the honorable distinction of being the first representative elected by the people, under a law of the United States, from that vast domain lying west of the Rocky mountains now embracing five States and a part of three others, and two Territories, comprising one-fourth of the present area of the Unions. The retrospect of forty-three years in the history of our Government, beginning with Thurston's election, from the Pacific coast in 1849, to represent Oregon in Congress, and following along to the present day, is startling indeed. Then the slow-moving ox teams -- now the flying express railway train. Then the wilderness and savage life -- now organized States with two senators and many representatives in Congress -- the country teeming with every product and manufacture of civilized life, with schoolhouses, churches and colleges everywhere. Thurston arrived in Washington in the autumn of 1849, and set himself at work at once for his constituents with such vigor and diligence that success followed to a remarkable degree. If he did not originate the idea of a donation land law for the settlers of Oregon he carried the idea into effect by combining all that was practicable into a measure and working in season and out of season, and with skill and diplomacy in securing its passage through Congress. This was the donation act of September 21, 1850, which lies at the foundation of the most valuable titles to land west of the Rocky mountains and north of California. He also secured the passage of measures providing for the extinguishment of the Indian title to lands lying west of the Cascade mountains by prier treaties; for a superintendent of Indian affairs, and their Indian agents; a surveyor-general's office, and the saving of all settled lands; for post offices and mail routes; for the coast survey and lighthouses, and many other matters of great public moment, involving appropriation for Oregon of nearly $200,000, a very large sum in those days for so small a population. It is not probable that Oregon then embracing all west of the Rocky mountains and north of California, contained more than 10,000 white people. There was one thing in the Oregon land bill, for which much censure has been bestowed on Mr. Thurston by some writers, to which, as it has figured largely in one aspect of Oregon history, we must here give some careful consideration. It was the insertion in the bill of a clause excepting from its operation the Oregon city claim, held and occupied by Dr. John McLoughlin, and providing that the same should go to the university land fund. But those who have made reflections upon Mr. Thurston for his action in this particular have only expressed one side of a very sharp controversy of that period and have not considered the real cause of this action. Let us state the case: When Dr. McLoughlin first announced his claim to the ownership of the Oregon City site, he was not and never had been a resident upon it, but was a resident of Vancouver, on the north side of the Columbia river, and was chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, a foreign corporation. He was a British subject, and had not even declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States. This was in 1842, and while the British crown claimed the whole of Oregon, and was, by treaty, in quiet occupancy of it. In this state of things Rev. A. S. Wallis, an American citizen, and a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, established himself, and began to work there at an earlier date, making claim to the land as an American citizen. Whatever the exact fact of prior occupancy might have been, the controversy as to the Oregon City claim was between an American citizen and a British subject, and the element of ownership that entered into the broader controversy between England and the United States, as to the country itself, entered into this. The chief, and indeed, the only opposition to McLoughlin was based on his being the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, which was established in Oregon to sustain the British claims to the country, and that company did all in its power to sustain that claim. On the other hand, for many years the American missionaries at this time was not only the strongest but almost the entire influence antagonizing the British sway in Oregon, and maintaining the ascendancy of the United States. Is it then remarkable that strong efforts were made and high feeling was evoked in the controversy? The spirit of antagonism between these two elements was not wholly allayed by the treaty of 1846, because the British Government still claimed under the terms of the treaty large indemnities in money and the privilege of assorting possessory rights in its subjects resident in the country and it was not known for some time whether McLoughlin would claim as a citizen of Great Britain, or whether he would become naturalized and claim as a citizen of the United States. This was the condition when Thurston became a candidate for delegate to Congress, in 1849. Two elements entered into Thurston's personal relations with the question of this claim between McLoughlin and Wallis: First, Thurston had been a zealous and consistent member of the church of which Mr. Wallis was a minister and missionary from boyhood, and he naturally, and, it might be said, properly, represented the views and sympathies of that church. Second, Thurston was an American, and, of course, he could not do otherwise than sustain that side of the controversy, of which this was only an incident. The issue that was called "Hudson's Bay and anti-Hudson's," that entered so strongly in the formation of the Provisional Government, and had been carried clear through its existence, had not exhausted its force when the election for delegate to Congress came on. It was the chief issue then as before, Thurston representing the American, or "Anti-Hudson's Bay" sentiment. Therefore, in securing the provision in the land law of 1850, vesting the Oregon City land claim in the university fund, Thurston undoubtedly considered himself acting in the true interest of the American cause in Oregon. In his published address "to the electors and people of the Territory of Oregon," of September, 1850, he stated his views of the matter as follows: "It is sufficient for me to state here, without going into proof, that I do not now, nor did I while that land bill was under consideration, consider Dr. McLoughlin entitled to any favor or gratuity from the American Government. I believed then, and I believe now, and I have no doubt the proofs in existence will sustain it most triumphantly, that he has devoted long years of his life in the service of the British king and queen, in seeking to wrest the whole Territory from our Government, and acting as a spy and informant, to place more effectually the means of doing so in the hands of our enemies. I believe, too, that for a considerable portion of his life he has labored assiduously to force back the settlement of our Territory, and to stifle and bear down, by all means in his power, the throes of young Oregon to be delivered from the burden of foreign oppression, and from the chains and manacles of British power." Here Mr. Thurston places his own motive on the highest ground of patriotism; and considering the period and the circumstances it seems clear that he was justified in his position. Subsequently after Mr. Thurston's death, and after Dr. McLoughlin ceased to claim as a British subject under the treaty of 1846, and became a citizen of the United States by naturalization, public excitement against him was abated, and public sentiment began to move in favor of his receiving his land claim from Oregon where the land law vested the title. The Oregon Legislature after the death of McLoughlin, for the consideration of $1,000, named in the act to make it valid, authorized the transfer of the Oregon City claim to his heirs. Thus closed a long and bitter controversy, which had its two sides, and both of them were legitimate. While Dr. McLoughlin was a British subject, and at the head of a powerful foreign corporation representing British jurisdiction in Oregon, and after the treaty of 1846 assorting claims of the British Government and British subjects under it, opposition to him and to his claims was legitimate; but when conditions had changed and McLoughlin had become an American citizen and claimed by American right, no one can doubt if Thurston had lived, but he would have acquiesced in the views of most of his friends, who had stood by him in his former attitude, and, as he was a generous and impulsive man, that he would have been gratified with the ultimate adjustment. In his congressional labors Thurston accomplished a vast amount for his constituents in addition to the measures already indicated. In fact he far overworked his powers, and left but little strength for the trials of his return home. At that time traveling by the Isthmus route was dangerous on account of the "Panama fever." He was attacked by this disease, and died on the steamer California off Acapulco, Mexico, where he was buried. His death occurred April 9, 1851, at the age of thirty-five years. The Legislature of the Territory took measures to have his body brought home for burial. An immense concourse of people attended his funeral at Salem, and Hon. Delazon Smith, afterward United States Senator, pronounced a most eloquent funeral oration. By public appropriation a proper monument of Italian marble was erected to his memory on the quiet spot of his last resting place. Samuel R. Thurston was a man of remarkable gifts and powers. Of a highly nervous and sensitive organization, he yet shrank from no labor, exposure or danger. He was fearless and aggressive when believing himself in the right, or engaged in a duty. He was a most eloquent and forcible public speaker. He possessed a breadth of ability, which not only attracted attention as a new member of Congress seldom does, but gave promise of great success, and a wide field of usefulness in public life. He had one quality, which is generally the true test of strong character; whenever he appeared before the people he divided them into two parts -- friends and enemies, or perhaps it were better to say, adherents and opponents. But in his congressional work he knew no political party, but worked with diplomatic policy to bring all men to him in support of his measures for the good of Oregon. It has been said that his death saved him from humiliating defeat on his return for re-election. There is no ground for this assertion. He had earned a re-election, if any man ever did, and he would have received it by an overwhelming majority. Oregon has had few abler or more devoted citizens than Samuel R. Thurston. Transcriber's additional notes: In this biography, the name "Wallis" may be "Waller." from this same book, page 156 "Early in 1851 Samuel R. Thurston, delegate to Congress from the Territory, died. He was on his way home from Washington, and while at sea between Panama and Acapulco, closed his life, and was buried at Acapulco. When the news reached Oregon a few weeks later it caused a general expression of sorrow. He was a brilliant young man, full of firey ambition,and it was expected that he would not only secure fame for himself but would accomplish much for his adopted Territory. He had made a fine reputation during the short time he was in Congress for aability and efficiency, and it was thought that he would be returned, as he belonged to the party that was strongly dominent in the politics of the Territory. At its next session the Legislature honored him by bestowing his name upon a county organized north of the Columbia river, and now including the capital of the State of Washington." "Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders." Author: Joseph Gaston S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago-Portland, 1911 (included in a biography for Dr. John McLoughlin; Vol. 1, page 188) "In November, 1850, Samuel R. THURSTON, the first territorial delegate from Oregon territory, who was unfriendly to Dr. McLoughlin, wrote to Nathaniel J. Wyeth, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the latter then resided, asking for information against Dr. McLoughlin, as to his treatment of Wyeth, when the latter was in Oregon in 1832 and 1834. Wyeth replied in a letter of praise and also wrote to Robert C. Winthrop, then a congressman from Massachusetts, saying that Wyeth had no confidence that his testimony would be called for by any congressional committee and that he would like to present a memorial in favor of Dr. McLoughlin. In this letter, after quoting an excerpt from THURSTON's letter, Wyeth wrote Winthrop: "I have written Mr. THURSTON, in reply to the above extract, that myself and others were kindly received and were treated well, in all respects, by J. McLoughlin, Esq., and the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. . . The very honorable treatment received by me from Mr. McLoughlin during the years 1832 to 1836, during which time there were no other Americans on the lower Columbia, except myself and parties, calls on me to state the facts." Wyeth forthwith sent a copy of this correspondence to Dr. McLoughlin and wrote him, tendering Wyeth's good offices in the matter, and saying: "Should you wish such services as I can render in this part of the United States, I should be pleased to give them in return for the many good things you did years since, and if any testimony as regards your efficient and friendly actions towards me and other earliest Americans who settled in Oregon, will be of any use in placing you before the Oregon people in the dignigied position of a benefactor, it will be cheerfully rendered." Vol. 1, page 192 "In this sketch I cannot go into the matter of Dr. McLoughlin's part in the Oregon provisional government, which existed from May 2, 1843, until March 3, 1849, when the Oregon territorial government was established. Nor can I state many unfriendly actions against him and his land claim by Methodist missionaries and their followers. These missionaries were the leaders of a local political party known as the mission party. Owing to the absence of many residents in Oregon in the newly-discovered California placer mines, this party succeeded, in 1849, in electing Samuel R. THURSTON, a new arrival, as the first delegate to congress from the territory of Oregon. He was a ready speaker, ambitious, and not over scrupulous. George Abernethy, one of the Lausanne party, a lay missionary, who had been steward of the Methodist mission, had charge of their store and of their secular affairs, and who had been governor under the provisional government, had become the owner of the Oregon Milling Company and he and his son claimed Abernethy Island. He and other conspirators against Dr. McLoughlin, found in THURSTON a willing instrument to carry out their nefarious plans. They succeeded, through false and malicious representations by THURSTON to congress, in having a clause inserted in the Oregon donation land law of September 27, 1850, giving Abernethy Island to Abernethy as assignee of the Oregon Milling Company, but under another name, and giving to the territory or Oregon the rest of Dr. McLoughlin's land claim, the proceeds from its disposal to be used for the establishment and endowment of a university. Almost all of Dr. McLoughlin's wealth was in this claim and in the mills and other buildings situated on it. Dr. McLoughlin sought redress from congress, but he was unsuccessful. While he was not actually ousted, he could not move nor sell his mills and other improvements. It resulted in his practical bankruptcy. He died at Oregon City September 3, 1857, a broken-hearted man, the victim of malice, mendacity and ingratitude. He was buried in the churchyard of St. John's (Catholic) church at Oregon City, where his body had lain ever since. In 1862, the legislature of the state of Oregon restored to Dr. McLoughlin's heirs all of the part of his land claim given to it by the donation land law." Vol. 1, p 255 "The Mail Service. -- The first movement to establish mail communication with Oregon by United States mail service was made in 1845, when the post master general advertised for proposals to carry the United States mail from New York to Havana, thence to Chagres river and back; with joint or separate offers to extend the transportation to Panama and up the Pacific coast to the mouth of the Columbia river, and thence to the Sandwich island, the senate recommending a mail route to Oregon. Between 1846 and 1848 the government thought of the plan of encouraging by subsidies the establishment of a line of steamers between Panama and Oregon by way of some port in California -- gold had not yet been discovered. Upon the discovery of gold in California a United States postal agent for the Pacific coast was appointed to reside at San Francisco, and manage the mails, appoint postmasters, and generally regulate the entire postal business for the coast. Under this authority, John Adair was appointed postmaster at Astoria, F. M. Smith at Portland, George L. Curry at Oregon City, J. B. Lane at Salem, and J. C. Avery at Corvallis; and the mail for Oregon from the eastern states was sent up on sailing vessels as they chanced to come during the year 1849. Not a single mail steamer appeared on the Columbia river in 1849; and when Mr. THURSTON, Oregon's delegate to congress, hunted out the matter in the postoffice department, he found that the secretary of the navy had agreed with Mr. Aspinwall, who had contracted to deliver mail in Oregon, that if he (Aspinwall) would take the mail once a month by sailing vessel "to the mouth of Klamath river, and touch at San Francisco, Monetery, and San Diego free of cost to the government, he would not be required to run mail steamers to Oregon until after receiving six months notice." CENSUS 1850, Dec., 4; Washington Co, OR. Terr, p 122, Linn City S.R. Thurston, 32, ME, lawyer Eliz'th F, 32, ME Geo. H., 4, IA Eliz'th, 1 1/2, OT D.F. McLane, 23, ME, machinist Robt. Moore, 69, PA, farmer (Samuel Royal Thurston died April 9, 1851, buried at Salem Pioneer Cemetery) http://www.open.org/~ pioneerc/pg44.html#ThurSamu191 1860, July 21; Yamhill Co, OR; Dayton pct, p 682 W. H. Odell, 30, IN, farmer, 2250 / 2000 Elizabeth, 36, ME George Thurston, 13, IA, att. school Elizabeth Thurston, 11, OR, att. school 1870, July 7; Lane Co, OR; Springfield, p 492 Wm. H. O'dell, 40, IN, surveyor, 2500 / 4250 Elizabeth F, 46, ME, keeping house & teaching 1870, June 8; Lane Co, OR; Eugene City, p 464 A. W. Stowell, 28, IN, clerk in store, 1200 pers. prop. Blendina, 21, OR, keeping house, 4000 / 1000 George Thurston, 23, IA, clerk, 3500 real estate 1880, June 1; Lane Co, OR; Eugene, p 252 Geo. Thurston, 33, IA, ME, ME, farmer Marietta, wife, 29, MO, MO, PA, keeping house Sybil, dau, 3, OR, IA, MO Saml R, son, 1, OR, IA, MO 1880, June 4; Marion Co, OR; East Salem Pct, p 34 W. H. Odell, boarder, 49, IN, SC, KY, editor Elizabeth, boarder, 53, ME, ME, ME (Elizabeth died March 31, 1890 and is buried at: Salem Pioneer Cemetery; Obituary & Notes) http://www.open.org/~ pioneerc/pg33.html#OdelEliz8140 1900, June 1; Marion Co, OR; Salem Wd. 3, p 128, 530 State st. Wm. H. Odell, 70, Dec 1829, OH, VT, IL, mar 6 yrs, surveyor Carrie, wife, 65, July 1834, MO, NH, VA, mar 6 yrs, 0 children ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in April 2006 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.