Jesse Applegate
In 1844, Jesse Applegate started a farm in present-day Polk County, and also built a mill and worked as a surveyor, including surveying the site of Oregon City.[6] Soon, he was appointed, along with David Hill and Robert Newell, to draft a revision of the Organic Laws, eventually being voted and adopted by the settler population.[7] The Provisional Government had tense relations with the Hudson's Bay Company centered on Fort Vancouver across the Columbia River, and Applegate led the way for a political settlement.[11] Due to the isolation of the settler communities in the Willamette Valley Joseph Meek and Applegate were appointed to request aid from other parts of the United States.Also known as the South Road, the Applegate Trail started at Fort Hall in present-day Idaho and followed the Humboldt River before crossing the Klamath Basin.[2] In an address in 1865, Applegate expressed a then-progressive position that "Every member of the commonwealth, no matter of which sex, what color or where born, if free from the tutelage imposed by the domestic relations should have the right to vote, if morally and mentally qualified to do so.