He attended the public schools and graduated from Wayland University in Beaver Dam, where he studied law.

[2][3][4] He was appointed assistant attorney of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1877 and general solicitor in 1888.

In 1893, Thurston was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for United States Senator; he was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate two years later and served from March 4, 1895, to March 3, 1901.

[2] During his term, Thurston served as the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (Fifty-sixth Congress).

He moved to Washington, D.C., and resumed the practice of law; then in 1915, Thurston returned to Omaha and joined Edwin T. Morrison and Joseph Crow in the law firm of Thurston, Crow & Morrison.