Samuel Royal Thurston was born in 1816 in Monmouth, Maine. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1832, and was admitted to the Maine bar in 1844. He came to Oregon City in 1847, and opened a law office there. In 1848, he was elected to the Oregon provisional legislature, and then was appointed as the Oregon Territory's delegate to the U.S. Congress. As a delegate, Thurston helped pass the Oregon Donation Land Law in 1850. The law allowed white U.S. citizens to claim acreage in the Oregon Territory, the amount determined by whether they arrived before or after 1850. This attracted additional Euro-American emigrants to Oregon who displaced the region's Indigenous peoples.

While serving as a delegate, Thurston recruited Asahel Bush (1824-1913) to publish a newspaper, the Oregon Statesman, with the goal that the newspaper help to further Thurston's political career. Thurston also tasked Bush with organizing the Democratic Party in the Oregon Territory.

In 1845, Thurston married Elizabeth McLench (1816-1890, later Elizabeth Odell, and in some sources spelled as "Elisabeth"). The couple had two children: George Henry Thurston (1846-1927), and Elizabeth Blandina Thurston (1849-1904, later Elizabeth Blandina Stowell).

Thurston died on April 9, 1851, off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico, while traveling back to Oregon from Washington, D.C. Initially buried in Mexico, his body was brought to Oregon and reburied there in 1853.

Sources: Corning, Howard McKinley, editor, "Dictionary of Oregon History," 2nd edition, 1989; "Salem Clique," by Barbara Mahoney, Oregon Encyclopedia, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/salem-clique/#.Yp9xbqjMIuU; "Oregon Donation Land Law," by William G. Robbins, Oregon Encyclopedia, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/oregon_donation_land_act/#.Yp9zU6jMIuU.

Elizabeth Odell (1816-1890) was born as Elizabeth McLench (sometimes written as "McClench"). She married Samuel R. Thurston in 1845. After Thurston's death, she remarried to William H. Odell (1830-1922) in 1855. Although most sources spell her first name as "Elizabeth," her gravestone and obituary in the Salem Capital Journal spell it as "Elisabeth."

Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; obituary in the Salem Capital Journal, April 1, 1890.