Oliver Cromwell Applegate

Captain Oliver Cromwell Applegate (June 11, 1845 – October 11, 1938) was an American politician, newspaper editor, and Indian agent in the U.S. state of Oregon. A member of the Applegate family that helped open the Applegate Trail, he was raised in Southern Oregon where he later was in charge of the Klamath Indian Reservation. He worked as a scout during the Modoc War, was an Indian agent for all of Oregon, and was editor of the Ashland Tidings and the Klamath Republican.

Early years Oliver Applegate was born in a log cabin in Yamhill District, in what is now Polk County, Oregon, on June 11, 1845. At the time the area was part of the Oregon Country, but in 1848 became part of the Oregon Territory. He was the sixth son and seventh child of the well-known pioneer, Lindsay Applegate, a native of Kentucky, and his wife, Elizabeth (Miller) Applegate, who was born in Tennessee in 1816. Lindsay Applegate was one of the leaders of the Great Migration of 1843 which Americanized Oregon and was prominent in the early Indian wars, and as an explorer.

When Oliver Applegate was five years old, the family moved to the Yoncalla Valley in middle western Oregon; there were only three or four other families in that region at that time besides the Applegate contingent, which consisted of the brothers, Charles, Lindsay and Jesse, and their families.

In 1876, some of Applegate's friends asked to have him appointed general Indian agent for Oregon, assuming that in such a way his unusual experience in the management of Indian affairs could be used to good purpose in promoting progressive conditions to the several agencies in the state. Ex-Senator Nesmith, who was himself a Democrat, was an ardent advocate of the plan and wrote as follows, to Hon. Zach Chandler, Grant's Secretary of the Interior, with whom he had served in the U.S. Senate: "Mr. Applegate is a gentleman of culture and ability, and, unlike myself, he is a prominent Republican and is as honest as is possible for a man to be possessing his perverted political notions. You will pardon me, I know, for proposing appointments to an administration which I do not indorse, but I do so in order to promote the reforms which you have so happily inaugurated." In 1898, Applegate took charge of the Klamath Reservation as United States Indian agent, and served as such for five years. Congress then discontinued the position of agent and he was appointed bonded superintendent of the agency and training school, a position which he resigned after serving two years.

In 1878, Applegate was married to Miss Ella Anderson, a daughter of Rev. Jesse Marion Anderson, a pioneer Methodist minister, who was widely known in southern Oregon as a man of ability and worth. The bride, like the groom, was a native of Oregon, having been born in the territory in 1855. They had three sons and three daughters. Frank Lindsay, the oldest, was born October 10, 1879; Annie Elizabeth, September 13, 1881; Laroy Gilbert, August 19, 1885; Rachel Emma, November 23, 1887; Jennie Margaret, April 5, 1894; and Oliver C. Jr., July 5, 1896. As of 1912, Applegate resided at Klamath Falls, Klamath County, Oregon. In politics, he was a Republican and a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1892.