Peter Hardeman Burnett (1807-1895) was determined to go to Oregon from Missouri in 1843. He would later write of his experience in a book entitled Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer, published in 1880. Burnett spent his early years in Tennessee and Missouri, serving as a district attorney in the latter state. In 1843 he joined an emigrant party bound for Oregon, where he became a prominent and controversial lawyer, judge, and politician in the new territory. In 1848, he went to California in search of gold and soon became a business and political leader of that territory and would serve as the first California governor.
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In the fall of 1842 I moved to Weston, Missouri, in Platte County, having purchased an interest in the place. During the winter of 1842-43 the Congressional report of Senator Appleton in reference to Oregon fell into my hands, and I read it with great care. This report contained a very accurate description of that country. At the same time, there was a bill pending in Congress, introduced in the Senate by Dr. Linn, one of the Senators from Missouri, which proposed to donate to each immigrant 640 acres of land for himself, and 160 acres for each child. I had a wife and six children, and would, therefore, be entitled to 1,600. There was a fair prospect of the ultimate passage of the bill.
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