THURSTON, John Mellen, lawyer, born in Montpelier, Vermont, 21 August, 1847. In 1854 his family removed to Madison, and two years later to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin He was graduated at Wayland university in 1867, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1869, and in the same year removed to Omaha, Nebraska. He was appointed city attorney in 1874, and, while holding that office, was elected in 1875 to the legislature, in which he acted as chairman of the judiciary committee. He resigned the attorneyship in 1877 to become assistant attorney of the Union Pacific railroad company, of which he became general attorney in 1888. In 1875 he was defeated as a candidate for the district judgeship. He was a presidential elector in 1880, and in 1884 chairman of the delegation to the National Republican convention. He was again at the head of the delegation in 1888, and was selected by the convention at Chicago for temporary chairman. His address in calling that body to order won him a national reputation as an orator.