Jesse Burgess Thomas (1777 - May 2, 1853) was born in Shepherdstown, Virginia. He served as a delegate from the Indiana Territory to the tenth Congress and later served as one of Illinois's first two Senators. Thomas studied law in Mason County, Kentucky and served as the county clerk until 1803. He then moved north of the Ohio River to Lawrenceburg in Indiana Territory, where he continued to practice law and became the territorial deputy attorney general in 1805. in the same year, he began serving as a delegate to the Territorial house of representatives, and was the body's speaker from 1805-1808. When Benjamin Parke resigned as the territorial delegate to Congress, Thomas was appointed to fill the vacancy from October 22, 1808 until he moved to Kaskaskia, Illinois on March 3, 1809.
When Illinois became a territory in 1809, Thomas was appointed judge of the United States court for the northwestern judicial district, a position he held from 1809 until 1818. In 1818, he presided over the Illinois State Constitutional Convention and upon admittance to the Union, he served as Senator for two terms (1818-1929). In 1820, Thomas proposed the Missouri Compromise to limit slavery above the southern border of Missouri. He refused the nomination for a third term and moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio, where he lived until he committed suicide. He is buried in Mound View Cemetery.
