01Biography
Captain of the 'cow column', the slower, livestock-heavy half of the Great Migration of 1843. His later essay 'A Day with the Cow Column in 1843' is considered the finest first-person account of the trail. With his brothers Lindsay and Charles he opened the Applegate Trail in 1846, a southern route into Oregon that swung through northern California to avoid the dangerous Columbia rafting.
02Why they matter
Wrote the trail's classic memoir, and opened the southern Applegate route into Oregon.
03How they died
Died on 22 April 1888, aged 76, near Drain, Oregon. He had spent his last years in declining health and deepening financial trouble after a string of bad business deals, and by all accounts he was broke and embittered at the end.
04Legacy
His essay is reprinted in nearly every anthology of Oregon Trail writing, and the Applegate Trail is signposted today across southern Oregon and northern California.