Jesse A. Applegate Collection, 1861-1934

Jesse Applegate Applegate (often referred to as "Jesse A." to differentiate him from his famous pioneer uncle), was born in 1836 in St. Clair County, Missouri. In 1843, his father, Lindsay Applegate, and his uncles, Jesse and Charles Applegate, migrated with their families to the Oregon Country. During the journey, three members of the Applegate family, including Jesse's brother, Warren, drowned on the Columbia River. This tragedy was the catalyst for the founding of the Applegate Trail, a route from Idaho to southern Oregon through Nevada and northeastern California, bypassing the dangerous Columbia River.

After reaching Oregon, the Applegates settled temporarily in the Willamette Valley before relocating to the Umpqua Valley in southern Oregon. In 1853, the settlement was attacked by Rogue River Indians and Jesse joined a volunteer regiment led by his father to protect the white settlers in the area. Jesse went on to marry Virginia Watson and fathered two children, Warren and Arthur. Jesse died in Jacksonville, Oregon in 1919.