Donation Land Claim Act
The law, a forerunner of the later Homestead Act, brought thousands of settlers into the new territory, swelling their ranks along the Oregon Trail.[4] The passage of the law was largely due to the efforts of Samuel R. Thurston, the Oregon territorial delegate to Congress.[5] The new law voided the previous statutes but essentially continued the same policy and was worded in such a way as to legitimize existing claims.His claim became famous for Abernethy Green, where new emigrants camped at the end of the Oregon Trail while seeking a piece of land for themselves.In 1862, Congress passed the first of the "Homestead Acts", which were largely designed to encourage settlement of the Great Plains states but applied to Oregon as well.