By Cathy Ingalls, Albany Regional Museum board member
Controversial. Contentious. Quarrelsome. Argumentative. Bold. Took part in feuds. Always ready to defend with “tongue, pen, or pistol.”
Those words describe Jesse Quinn Thornton, who arrived in the Willamette Valley from Illinois in 1846, later practicing law in Albany.
For a while he owned a farm in North Albany, and it is reported that every day he took a ferry across the Willamette River with another attorney, Samuel Simpson, to a law office on Front Street.
Thornton Lake is named for him.
Despite being an irascible person, he was a noted pioneer, legislator, judge and lawyer. He also came up with the state’s motto: “She Flies With Her Own Wings.”
Public Domain image from Wikimedia. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JesseQuinnThornton.png)
Thornton was born in 1810 near Point Pleasant, Va., now West Virginia. While an infant, his family moved to Champaign County, Ohio. He attended the University of Virginia and studied law in London for nearly three years.
When he returned to the United States, he read the law in Virginia and was admitted to the bar in 1833.
In 1835, Thornton moved to Palmyra in western Missouri, where he practiced law and edited a newspaper. In 1838 he married the widow Nancy M. Huston Logue, a teacher.
It was in pro-slavery Missouri that Thornton, an abolitionist, ran into big trouble.
He readily commented on the 1837 shooting death of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy in Alton, Ill.
His comments provoked the hostility of pro-slavery supporters who surrounded his newspaper office planning to demolish it and lynch the editor.
Thornton armed himself and barricaded his office. He then stepped onto the porch with a loaded musket, threatening to kill the first person that attempted to go inside the building.
He spoke to the crowd about the slavery question and the right of free speech, which mollified the mob enough that they left Thornton alone.
Recognizing the danger of having anti-slavery opinions, he moved across the Mississippi River to Quincy, Ill.
In 1846, the Thorntons decided to move to Oregon to improve their health.
They joined a wagon train bound for both Oregon and California. The company included pioneers that became known as the Donner Party.
On June 1, Thornton and his partner, John B. Goode, got into a dispute and arbitrators requested that the Oregon-bound wagons leave the train.
At Fort Hall near the present-day Pocatello, Idaho, the Thorntons joined Jesse Applegate on what became known as the Southern Route into Oregon to avoid the treacherous Columbia River.
The rugged trail was not conducive to wagon travel so many of the emigrants, including the Thorntons, were forced to abandon their wagons.
On Nov. 30, 1846, the Thorntons arrived at Salt Creek in the Yamhill District.
Less than a year later, Thornton began his meteoric rise to position and fame.
On Feb. 20, 1847, Gov. George Abernethy of the Provisional Government appointed Thornton the sixth supreme judge of the Provisional Government, where he served until Nov. 9, 1847, when Abernethy then asked him to go to Washington, D.C., as a delegate from the Provisional Government to present Oregon’s bill to Congress requesting territorial status.
Oregon became a territory on Aug. 14, 1848.
From 1864-65, Thornton served in the Oregon House, representing Benton County as a Republican.
From 1872-88, he was on the Board of Trustees for Willamette University in Salem.
For the last 16 years of his life, the Thorntons lived in Salem.
Before moving to the capital, the couple owned a considerable amount of property, which he later lost. He was so poverty stricken that he had to sell part of his library piecemeal to stay afloat, and he relied on friends to help support him.
Thornton died on Feb. 5,1888, from old age and a bronchial affliction. He was buried in the historic Lee Cemetery in Salem. His wife died a year later. They had an adopted daughter but no children of their own.
The museum at 136 Lyon St. S is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. The building is closed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
To reach the museum, call 541-967-7122 or use info@armuseum.com.