Jesse Quinn Thornton
[2][3] Thornton corresponded with newspaper editor Horace Greeley and was acquainted with senators Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri and Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.[10] On November 30, 1846, Thornton arrived at Salt Creek in Yamhill District and soon after wrote a letter to the editor of the Oregon Spectator pleading for the settlers to send relief parties to the Umpqua Valley to save the belated emigrants.[11] 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.[12] 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.[14] 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.