I have some papers on the Oregon Applegates, and some marriage license and some other things I got from the court house. Dan ----- Original Message ----- From: <APPLEGATERME@aol.com> To: <APPLEGATE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 10:49 AM Subject: Re: [APPLEGATE] Good Morning > Greetings, > Nice to hear from you and yes our mornings can start the day. > > I have not been researching but sure working to organize what I have. Looks > good to, and lets me know what I need. "WEVE COME A LONG WAY BABY". Since I > did not know my grandparents. I feel now I knew them. Genealogy is great. > > Happy Hunting > applegaterme@aol.com

This past August, my husband, son and I went on a vacation up to the Rogue River area of Oregon. We had a reunion with some 4th cousins whom I discovered through my genealogy research, and thought we should make the most of it since this reunion would be near the Applegate Trail. If any of you are like me, I post this because I only had a vague notion of what the Applegates did and had even less of an idea of how they were honored by naming some beautiful countryside after them. In a nutshell, three Applegate brothers blazed a safer trail to Oregon, after losing two sons crossing the Columbia River. �Applegate� is a distinguished name in southern Oregon and our Oregon cousins were anxious to know our connection to the famous pioneers: Charles, Lindsey and Jesse. Good thing I studied up on it before we went up as I was asked about 6 times what this connection was, so here it is: our branch of Applegates are SECOND COUSINS 4 or 5 generations removed to the famous trailblazers. They all seemed to pause� it wasn�t quite the answer that they had hoped for, and I said, �Look, it�s better than nothing,� and they laughed. If I counted the generations correctly, Jesse Applegate is second cousin to our ancestor, Vincent Applegate. I only married an Applegate but my husband and son are doing their bit to carry on the name. I wanted our vacation to bring to life some family (no matter how distant) and American history, and to just see what it feels like to drive through a town named Applegate. I bought several books on the Applegate Trail and could give a little narration as to the movement of the Applegates traveling through Oregon. Despite the raging fires, there were still enough trees and rivers to make you forget about traffic and city life. With some of the newly-read history still fresh in my mind, I could imagine that we were listening to the same river sounds, hearing the same birds calling, and smelling the same trees and shrubs. We visited two Applegate sites: The Applegate Trail Interpretive Center in Sunny Valley, OR, and the town of Applegate itself. The Interpretive Center is run by a Minnesotan woman named Betty, who was so moved by the history of the Trail that she opened a small museum in tribute to the pioneers. It turns out, as a little side note, that she is a former Mouseketeer and was the one before or after Annette Funicello in the �Mouseketeer roll-call-sound-off-now!� The museum brings to life the stories of many pioneer families, moving to Oregon in their covered wagons. There are artifacts to see and a filmed reenactment of some of the people who traveled there. Betty is not an Applegate, but you wouldn�t know it from the way she proudly tells her story about the trail. Aside from the historical displays, there were books, antiques and just a very few Applegate souvenirs for sale. Betty owns the Applegate Trail Caf�, down the road a little from the museum, and we chowed-down on some half-pound buffalo burgers. The other customers and the cook were friendly and chatty. After lunch, we headed south to visit the town of Applegate. Had it not been for the signs, you would never have known what the name of the town was for it is mostly rural farmland with many (looks like) 5 acre parcels. These small parcels had some home businesses like fresh eggs, a bakery, a llama farm, an alpaca farm. There are few junky souvenirs for the Applegate Trail � we bought a mug and a defective t-shirt, but I took a photo of every Applegate sign in sight and that was worth something. Our son, in his 9-year-old thinking, mused that the Applegates must have �had a lot of power to have everything named after them.� We saw the Applegate River, Applegate Lake, Applegate School, the Applegate Lodge, Applegate Store, Applegate Dam, plus all the road signs for the town and directions. I guess they didn�t have much imagination or they were determined to keep the Applegate name on the map, but pretty much everything had that name on it. A few defiant signs were around, like �Humbug Ranch.� To all of you who stuck with me so far, THIS is YOUR town. For those of you familiar with Hugh Voress�s work, you will find Jesse Applegate descended from Thomas (no. 5), and you can make your connection from there. We came home from this trip feeling quite satisfied that we saw something beautiful and learned something new. Hopefully, I am planting a worthwhile seed for one of you. Becky Applegate --------------------------------- Yahoo! - We Remember 9-11: A tribute to the more than 3,000 lives lost