Samuel Thurston

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Samuel Thurston

Samuel Royal Thurston (born April 17, 1815 in Monmouth , Kennebec County , Maine , † April 6, 1851 at sea) was an American politician . Between 1849 and 1851 he represented the Oregon Territory as a delegate in the US House of Representatives .

Early years

Samuel Thurston attended the Wesleyan Seminary in Readfield and then the Dartmouth College in Hanover ( New Hampshire ). He then studied until 1843 at Bowdoin College in Brunswick . After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1844, he began to work in his new profession in Brunswick that same year. In 1845, Thurston moved to Burlington , where he again worked as a lawyer and edited the Iowa Gazette .

Political career in Oregon

He came to Oregon in 1847 via the Oregon Trail . There he first settled in Hillsboro as a lawyer. In 1849 he moved to Oregon City . Thurston became a member of the Democratic Party . After the Oregon Territory was established in August 1848, he was elected the first delegate for that area to the US House of Representatives. In Washington, DC he served between March 4, 1849 and March 3, 1851 a term; as a delegate, however, he had no voting rights in Congress . However, he successfully defied the Hudson's Bay Company's land claims , which had a base in Fort Vancouver , and supported the passage of the Donation Land Claim Act in 1850, which gave each family in Oregon approximately one and a half square miles of land when they were ready was to settle there permanently and work the land for at least four years. Thurston was also a racist. He called for the immigration of African Americans to Oregon to be banned.

Another résumé

Thurston's term in Congress ended on March 3, 1851. On the voyage home he fell ill on board the ship "California" and died. He was first brought ashore in Acapulco and temporarily buried there. His body was later transferred to Salem and finally buried there.

According to him, Thurston County named in Washington.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thurston County Place Names: A Heritage Guide . Thurston County Historical Commission. S. 87. 1992. Retrieved March 28, 2018.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Thurston, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thurston, Samuel Royal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Monmouth , Maine
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1851
Place of death on the open sea