Early life Jesse Quinn Thornton was born August 24, 1810, near
Point Pleasant, Virginia (now
West Virginia). He grew up in
Champaign County, Ohio, and studied law in London for nearly three years. Returning to the United States, he
read law in Virginia and was admitted to the bar in 1833, afterward attending lectures at the
University of Virginia. In 1835, Thornton moved to
Palmyra in western
Missouri, where he practiced law; he also edited a newspaper. On February 8, 1838, he married the widowed Agnes M. "Nancy" Huston Logue, a teacher. Thornton, an abolitionist, ran into difficulty in pro-slavery Missouri and in 1841 he and his wife moved across the
Mississippi River to
Quincy, Illinois.
Oregon Hoping to improve their health, the Thorntons decided to emigrate to Oregon. They left Quincy on April 18, 1846, and after a brief stop in
Independence, Missouri, joined the
William H. Russell wagon train on May 15. This company was made up of travelers bound for both Oregon and
California; among the latter were many of the emigrants who later formed the
Donner Party. On June 1 Thornton and his partner John B. Goode became involved in a dispute about their wagon and team, and the following day arbitrators requested the Oregon-bound wagons to leave the group. When they reached
Fort Hall, near present-day
Pocatello, Idaho, Thornton's party met
Jesse Applegate, Lindsay Applegate, David Goff, and
Levi Scott, who were authorized by the
Provisional Government of Oregon to survey a new route to the
Willamette Valley that would avoid the
Columbia River. On August 9, 1846, Thornton's group set off on the
California Trail, which they followed until they reached central
Nevada. From there the new
Applegate Trail (also called the Southern Route) went northwest and entered Oregon from the south. The road built by the party was inadequate for wagon travel and required the first group to take it to make many improvements, slowing their progress. Some emigrants, including the Thorntons, were forced to abandon their wagons and possessions along the way.
Politics On February 20, 1847, Governor
George Abernethy of the Provisional Government appointed Thornton to the position of Supreme Judge where he served until November 9, 1847. He resigned when Abernathy asked him to go to Washington, D.C., as a delegate from the Provisional Government to present Oregon's bill requesting official territorial status to
Congress. He sailed for the east on the ship
Whiton along with a memorial created by the
Provisional Legislature of Oregon. During a one-month layover in San Francisco he met survivors of the Donner Party, who provided him with information about their disastrous journey to California. During his travels Thornton wrote up his overland diary, which was published as
Oregon and California in 1848 in early 1849. In 1864 and 1865, Thornton returned to politics when he served in the
Oregon House of Representatives as a Republican from
Benton County. From 1872 until 1888 he served on the board of trustees for
Willamette University in
Salem.
Death and legacy Thornton died in Salem on February 5, 1888, and was buried at
Lee Mission Cemetery. Mrs. Thornton died the following year and is buried beside him. They had no children of their own, but left an adopted daughter. ==Footnotes==