Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/408

 remarkable intelligence and energy. He looks like a backwoodsman, but thinks like the most cultivated. He has nearly confirmed my partially formed intention of settling in this country.

In further confirmation of those outstanding traits, J. W. Nesmith said of him in 1875, when he was 64 years old:

"As a frontiersman, in courage, sagacity, and natural intelligence he is the equal of Daniel Boone. In culture and experience, he is the superior of half the living statesmen of our land."

He was born in Kentucky in 1811, the youngest of the three famous Applegate brothers, of whom the other two were Charles and Lindsay. At the age of 17 he spent a year in the Rock Springs Academy at Shiloh, Illinois, studying mathematics and surveying. He taught school but continued the studies he had started and later became a surveyor by profession, reaching the position of deputy surveyor-general of Missouri. In 1832, at the age of 21, he married Cynthia Parker. They lived for a while on a farm, and then in 1843 started to Oregon in the emigration of that year. He had one of the largest herds and was elected captain of the "cow-column".

He settled first in Yamhill County with his brothers, surveying at Oregon City and Salem. He was active in many ways in public service, the record of which is well known. He removed to the Umpqua Valley, accompanied by Charles, in 1849, and became the "Sage of Yoncalla". On old tax rolls he is shown as one of the heavy taxpayers of the territory. Of him in his affluent days Mrs. Eva Emery Dye has written: "At great expense even in the days of gold had been built the first mansion in southern Oregon, high pillared with stately columns shining afar like Arlington or Monticello against the Calapooia foothills." . . . The old-timers at Yoncalla still tell about it. It burned down in the early 80's.

In his later days he had "crushing reverses" brought about in part "by endorsing notes for friends, which caused the loss of his home and other property." According to H. L. Davis, he lost all that he had and all that his wife had,