Replies

Out on the plains in the middle of May, the grass was luxuriant and the wildflowers out in force. The spring storms were often startling in their power. The thunderstorms of eastern Kansas, wrote one traveler, "rolled the whole circle of the firmament with a peculiar and awful vibration." Another diarist reported a gale that covered the ground with a foot of water, drove rain through the wagon covers "like as though they had been paper," and scattered cattle "to the ends of the earth."

The first miles were a hubbub. Ill-broken oxen and reluctant mules either bolted or sulked in harness, entangled themselves in picket ropes or escaped entirely and sped back to the starting point. When not busy rounding up livestock, the exuberant males of the party quarreled over firewood and water holes and raced for preferred positions in line.

Still, for the most part, the travelers had it relatively easy during the first few weeks on the trail as they headed northwest toward Nebraska and the Platte River. Despite the occasional thunderstorm, the weather was usually pleasant. It was a good time to learn to handle a prairie schooner. Jesse Applegate wrote about the workings of a typical day on the trail: "Sentinels fired their rifles at four o'clock in the morning to wake the camp. Fires were lighted and the herders drove the oxen into the circle of wagons to be yoked for the day's journey. This corral of the plains was made the night before by parking the wagons in a circle. The rear wagon was connected with the wagon in front by its tongue and ox chains. It was strong enough to keep the oxen from breaking out, and also served as a barricade in case of Indian attack.

Women were responsible for cooking, cleaning, and looking after children.
Oregon Historical Society, Or

"Five to seven o'clock were busy hours, with breakfast to be eaten, teams yoked, tents folded and wagons loaded. Promptly at seven the bugle sounded, and the wagon train was on its way. Women and children often walked beside the trail, gathering wild flowers and odd-looking stones. Boys and young men on horseback kept the loose stock from straying too far, as they trailed along behind the wagons.

"At noon we stopped to eat. Oxen were turned loose with their yokes on, so they might graze and rest. Sometimes the officers of the train got together at noon to consider the case of someone who had violated the rules or had committed a crime. He was given a fair trial and, if found guilty, was sentenced according to the nature of his offense.

Chimney Rock

"At one o'clock the bugle sounded, and the wagons were once more on their way. All through the afternoon the oxen plodded, and when the wagons arrived at the spot chosen by the guide as a camping place, preparations were made to spend the night. Livestock were driven out to pasture, tents were pitched, fires built, and supper was on its way. Perhaps hunters came in with choice parts of buffalo or antelope, and everyone enjoyed a feast.

"After supper, the children played their favorite games, the elders gathered in groups and talked, perhaps making plans for the new homes to be built at the end of the Oregon Trail. Some of the young folk danced to the music of the fiddle or accordion, while those more serious minded sang their favorite songs, some religious, some sentimental. 'Old Hundredth' was a favorite, and as the music and words of the grand old hymn floated on the evening breeze, many paused to listen and ponder. But youth was not to be denied, the trek was a great adventure, and life stretched far ahead. Many a troth was plighted at the impromptu gatherings along the trail, beside a dim campfire.

Independence Rock

"Guard duty commenced at eight o'clock at night and continued until four o'clock in the morning. Various companies took turns at guard duty, one night out of three. Fires were dimmed at an early hour, and everyone retired to rest for tomorrow's march. Some slept in tents, some in wagons, some on the ground, under the stars. Usually their sleep was undisturbed save perhaps by the sharp yelp of a coyote on a nearby hill, and the challenging bark of the camp dogs."

The prairie schooners crossed the Big Blue, a tributary of the Kansas River, about two weeks out of Independence. The trail then swung up into Nebraska, where it ran along the south bank of the Platte River. The silty Platte was so flat and broad that a woman named Martha Missouri Moore commented, "The river ran near the top of the ground." It often was said that the Platte was "a mile wide and an inch deep."

Fort Laramie

The emigrants marveled at the Great Plains. Sarah Cummins described them as being "like the wild regions of Africa." They marveled, too, at the prairie wildlife--antelope, black bears, grizzlies, coyotes, buffalo and, of course, prairie dogs. Buffalo were so plentiful that one traveler wrote, "Some are grazing quietly and others are marching, moving and bellowing, and the great herds making a roaring noise as they trample along." Cows would sometimes stray off with a buffalo herd, and the buffalo could befoul a stream. Still, few travelers found reason to complain about the buffalo. The animals were a source of meat, and buffalo chips were a valuable source of fuel on the treeless plains.

Trouble with the Indians was rare, especially in the 1840s, when Indians usually provided information about the trail ahead and were sometimes even hired as guides. Indians on their pinto ponies, some of these dragging laden travois, trailed by, gazing curiously at the ox-drawn wagons. They often stopped to swap buffalo robes and buckskin moccasins, fringed shirts and leggings for tobacco, ironware and worn-out clothing. Precautions were still taken. At each stop, the wagons were drawn up into a corral. This also served as an enclosure for the livestock. Almost never did an Indian war party descend upon a circle of wagons. Such a strategy would have assured heavy casualties among the Indians.

Stragglers or small groups, however, were attacked on occasion by Indians, who were mostly interested in the horses and supplies. It is estimated that prior to the 1849 California gold rush, only 34 whites and 25 Indians were killed in fighting on the Oregon Trail. Relations between white travelers and Indians did sour in the 1850s. In September 1860, the small Utter wagon train was attacked by Bannock Indians and only 14 of 44 travelers made it to Oregon. Indian danger would be such a problem in the summer of 1867 that the U.S. Army would forbid travel by single wagons in western Kansas.

But far more prevalent on the trail than Indian attacks were the everyday trail hazards of accident and disease. Little was known about health and sanitation, and no vaccines were available. The sick lay on pallets in the hot, debilitating confines of their wagons, with only the wagon cover to protect them from the direct rays of the sun. The emigrants were prone to dose themselves with great quantities of medicine at the first sign of illness--the theory being that the larger the dose, the quicker the recovery. Many died of overdoses, especially of laudanum. However, the most frequent epitaph was, "Died: Of Cholera." Because there was no wood for coffins, bodies were wrapped in cloths and buried under mounds of earth and rocks. One of the first deaths in the Applegate train was that of 6-year-old Joel Hembree. "A very bad road," wrote William Newby. "Joel Hembree sone [son] Joel fell off the waggeon tung and both wheels run over him."

After a month on the road, the emigrants arrived at the confluence of the Platte's north and south forks. They were now 460 miles west of the Missouri River. Marcus Whitman and his nephew Perrin Whitman proved to be excellent guides as the wagons crossed into more challenging terrain. Dr. Whitman's first practical counsel was: "Keep traveling! If it is only a few miles a day. Keep moving." Dr. Whitman's medical skill, freely given, was also of vital worth to the men, women and children who fell ill. Death was inevitable for some, but babies were born, bringing new courage to the travelers. The trail followed the north fork, but first the travelers had to cross the south fork. It was at least a half-mile wide and the water was high. The wagon wheels were taken off, and the wagon bodies, by then long bereft of their caulking, were covered with buffalo skins to waterproof them. The prairie schooners thus lived up to their nicknames. William Newby noted in his diary: "Hunted buffalo and killed 2. We wonted thare hides for to make bots to craws the river."

The flat Platte River valley had been left behind. After traversing a 22-mile tableland, the emigrants had to lower their wagons down a dangerously steep drop to what seemed an oasis to them--Ash Hollow, a woodsy glen that provided sweet spring water and shade. After leaving Ash Hollow, the wagon train continued on up the sandy banks of the North Platte. The snow-crested Laramie Mountains rose in the distance. Closer by, a series of strange rock formations captured the pioneers' attention. The first of these were the multi-tiered, 400-foot-high mound of volcanic ash and clay that became known as the Courthouse and its smaller rock companion, the Jail House--so dubbed because of their resemblance to municipal buildings in St. Louis.

Just 14 miles to the west came the more stunning Chimney Rock. Surrounded at its base by mounds of debris, the 500-foot-high slim stone shaft was likened not only to a chimney but also to a minaret, a church steeple and a tunnel turned upside down. It was in the emigrants' view for days, and their fascination with it was so great they even went so far as to measure its dimensions. One vigorous fellow took 10,040 steps to walk around its base.

Scotts Bluff, a weathered contortion of towers and parapets that someone called a Nebraska Gibraltar, was another 20 miles down the trail. If on schedule, a wagon train reached the bluff in late June. From there, it was another two days to Fort Laramie, a frontier outpost in present-day southeast Wyoming. Women turned to washing clothes, the men to refitting iron tires to wheels shrunken by the dry air. Sore-footed oxen were thrown onto their backs in trenches and shod while their hooves waved helplessly. Though the emigrants were 640 miles from Independence, they were only one-third of the way to Oregon.

More than a third of the emigrants' supplies was likely to have been used up by this time. The oxen and mules would be exhausted--as would the patience of their owners. Even worse, the road beyond Fort Laramie began the climb into the Rocky Mountains, which meant extra hardships for both man and beast. To keep the animals moving, it often became necessary to lighten their loads. The road beyond Fort Laramie became littered with castoffs--sheet-iron stoves, clothes trunks, tools, claw-footed tables, massive oak bureaus, cooking pots and even food. Things that had seemed like treasures in Missouri were now often impossible to keep.

The land ahead was challenging. From a distance, the mountainsides looked like green meadows, but up close they revealed mostly dry sand and rock. By the time travelers reached the Sweetwater River--named, it was said, in relief from the bitter and occasionally poisonous springs that mocked their thirst-- alkali dust had stung their eyelids and rasped their throats, and alkali water had griped their bowels.

The most popular campsite along the Sweetwater was next to Independence Rock, so called because the schedules of many wagon trains brought them to the granite monument around the Fourth of July. Few emigrants passed by the rock without leaving their names or initials chiseled into its surface. In 1841, Father Pierre DeSmet, a Jesuit missionary, had spotted some names carved there by fur traders and called it "The Great Record of the Desert."

Even in July in this part of the country, emigrants shivered in early morning and night. At the Ice Slough, not quite 80 miles west of Independence Rock, a bed of ice lay about a foot beneath the sod even in the heat of the day. Travelers would chop out big chunks for their water casks, and some even made ice cream. The presence of ice in midsummer indicated that they had reached the highest point on the trail--the Continental Divide at South Pass.

Crossing the Snake River Ferry

The emigrants were sometimes disappointed with South Pass, for this passageway in the Wind River mountains was nothing like the deep gorge they had envisioned. Instead, the trail arched over a wide grassy meadow before dipping toward the Pacific Ocean. They celebrated their arrival in Oregon Territory with cheers and gunfire at nearby Pacific Springs, but most had no idea that hundreds of miles lay between them and their final goal.

After a night's rest at Pacific Springs the traveling parties would move on to Fort Bridger, a primitive trading post set up in 1843 by mountain man Jim Bridger, commonly known as Old Gabe. Since the fur trade was dwindling, he had built his fort to settle down and make a dollar or two selling fresh supplies and fresh oxen to emigrants. Many emigrants elected not to visit the fort, however, because it was shorter to follow a path across a grassless tableland--Sublette's Cutoff. On this barren 50-mile stretch, there was no water available until the Green River, on the far western side. Where the cutoff rejoined the main trail, the travelers headed northwest.

After traveling 70 miles in seven days, they would arrive at Soda Springs, where the naturally carbonated water was a treat for the travelers. Some said it tasted like beer. Others mixed it with sugar and citrus syrup to make lemonade. It was at Soda Springs in 1843 that young Jesse A. Applegate and the others met a group led by famed western explorer and cartographer John Charles Fremont. "There was a soda spring or pool between the camps, and Fremont's men were having a high time drinking soda water," recalled Jess. "They were so noisy that I suspected they had liquor mixed with the water."

Fifty-five miles beyond Soda Springs, at Fort Hall, another supply depot operated by the Hudson's Bay Company, the wagon trains split up, one part going to California and the other to Oregon. Those who took the California Trail veered southwest through an arid, rocky landscape and eventually, after 525 miles and a month's travel time, reached the Sierra Nevada. But first they had to get through the Great Basin around the Great Salt Lake. In the stark, arid land west of the Humboldt River, more than one traveler was "obliged to swallow dust all day in place of water," as one woman put it.

The Hudson's Bay Company agents at Fort Hall encouraged the emigrants to take the California route. Being of British descent and still trying to protect the fur business, they wanted to forestall the influx of settlers into Oregon country for as many more years as possible. Even so, their warnings about the road to Oregon--described as a deplorable succession of dangerous rivers, hostile Indians, famine and winter storms--were not far from reality.

The trail stretched out loosely for 300 miles along the south rims of the black lava canyons of the Snake River. The wagons struggled along paths strewn with boulders and knotted sage. Twice they risked deep crossings of the Snake River, fatal to some. The more dangerous of the two was the Three Island ford near the present-day town of Glenns Ferry, Idaho. William Newby wrote: "First we drove over a part of the river one hundred yards wide on to a island, then over a northern branch 75 yards wide on a second island; then we tide a string of waggons to gether by a chance in the ring of the lead carrles yoak and made fast to the waggon of all a horse & before & himn led. We carried as many as fifteen waggeons at one time. We had to up stream. The water was ten inches up the waggeon beds in the deep plaices. It was about 900 yards acraws."

Eventually, the wagons would be dragged up Burnt Canyon into present-day Oregon, skirt the treacherous swamps of the lovely Grande Ronde River valley, and finally climb slowly among the cold evergreens of the Blue Mountains. Far ahead, glinting in the sunlight, the weary travelers saw the curving sweep of the Columbia River, breaking a gateway through the tawny mesas that guarded the approach to the Cascade Range. Once past the Blue Mountains, the emigrants still faced a tough haul either by land (250 miles over the Cascades to the Willamette Valley) or by water (230 miles down the Columbia River).

Crossing the Blue Mountains in 1843 was particularly slow-going for the Oregon emigrants because of the forests and poor weather. Jesse A. Applegate recalled: "The timber had to be cut and removed to make way for the wagons. The trees were cut just near enough to the ground to allow the wagons to pass over the stumps, and the road through the forest was only cleared out wide enough for a wagon to pass along....We were overtaken by a snowstorm which made the passage very dismal. I remember wading through mud and snow and suffering from the cold and wet." Once out of the Blue Mountains, Jesse's spirits picked up briefly when he reached a stream lined with black hawthorns. "They were black and near the size of buckshot with a single seed, very sweet and otherwise pleasant to the taste...," he later wrote. "Our party ate large quantities of this fruit. It was told for a fact in camp that a woman died during the night we stayed there from the effects of a gorge of black haws. I ate about all I could get my hands on but experienced no bad results--they were ripe and mellow."

In late October, the Applegate train finally reached Fort Walla Walla. The Cascades still lay between the emigrants and their destination, the Willamette Valley. For the most part, the range rose a mile above sea level, with its most prominent peak, the white-capped Mount Hood, standing nearly a mile higher. Since they were unable to drive wagons through the Columbia's steep-walled, heavily timbered gorge, the men in the Applegate party spent aboout two weeks at Fort Walla Walla sawing lumber and building skiffs. Wagons, cattle and horses had to be left behind. By early November, a small fleet of boats was heading down the Columbia River toward the Willamette Valley. "I well remember our start down the river, and how I enjoyed riding in the boat, the movement of which was like a grapevine swing," recalled Jesse.

But the Columbia could be turbulent, and this final leg of the journey proved to be the worst ordeal of all. By the time the 1843 party started the river run they had been on the trail nearly five months. Four more weeks of travel, no less challenging for being on water, still remained. After they had been floating downstream for several days, the Applegates encountered approached the first set of rapids. Jesse rode in one boat with his parents, his Uncle Jesse, Aunt Cynthia and an Indian pilot. Another boat held Jesse's brothers Elisha and Warren and a cousin, Edward Applegate, all under 12, as well as two men in their early 20s, and 70-year-old Alexander McClellan. As the two boats approached a river bend, young Jesse heard "the sound of rapids, and presently the boat began to rise and fall and rock from side to side....I could see breakers ahead extending in broken lines across the river, and the boat began to sweep along at a rapid rate."

Jesse saw the other boat across the river and "presently there was a wail of anguish, a shriek, and scene of confusion in our boat that no language can describe. The boat we were watching disappeared and we saw the men and boys struggling in the water." Jesse's father and uncle wanted to leap into the water and try to save their drowning children, but they went back to manning the oars at the urging of Jesse's mother and aunt. "The men returned to the oars just in time to avoid, by great exertion, a rock against which the current dashed with such fury that the foam and froth upon its apex was as white as milk," Jesse later wrote.

The other boat was swept to the bottom by a whirlpool. Jesse's brother Elisha and the two men in their 20s made it safely to shore. Old McClellan had placed 9-year-old Edward on a pair of oars and tried to swim the boy to shore. But McClellan's strength soon gave out, and they both disappeared under the water. "The brave old soldier could have saved himself by abandoning the boy," wrote Jesse, "but this he would not do." The other person who had been on the skiff that capsized, Jesse's brother Warren, also drowned.

Jesse, who would turn 8 on November 14, and the other battered survivors regrouped and continued downriver. They were able to negotiate the other rapids without mishap. In late November 1843, they reached trail's end, Fort Vancouver, which had been built by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1825. The food and rest they found there was welcome, but soon it was time to face new tasks and challenges--building homes and dreams in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

The Applegates spent their first winter in log cabins at the "Old Mission" (where the small town of Gervais, Ore., now stands). Jesse A. Applegate, who would die at age 88 in 1919, wrote: "Oh, how we could have enjoyed our hospitable shelter if we could have looked around the family circle and beheld all the bright faces that had accompanied us on our toilsome journey almost to the end. Alas, they were not there!"

In 1844, there were 1,475 Oregon-bound emigrants; in 1845, 2,500 emigrants. Starting with the gold rush in 1849, more of the overland travelers chose California as their final destination, but Oregon still got its share. Between 1841 and 1866 about 350,000 people used what had become the most famous wagon route across America. It was no wonder that, in places, ruts along the Oregon Trail are still visible today.

Additional Sources:

www.isu.edu
www.univie.ac.at
www.thefurtrapper.com
www.artistnina.com
www.shebbyleetours.com
www.aspencountry.com
www.exploretheoldwest.org
hex.oucs.ox.ac.uk
www.beavton.k12.or.us
www.sam.math.ethz.ch
home.att.net/ ~carlsfriends
www.superkids.com
www.bobbrooke.com
www.ci.tumwater.wa.us
gladstone.uoregon.edu
darkwing.uoregon.edu

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on September 07:
1533 Queen Elizabeth I England, (1558-1603) daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
1829 August Kekule von Stradonitz discovered structure of benzene ring
1829 Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden US, geologist (Geograph Survey 1859-86)
1860 Grandma (Anna Maria) Moses NY, primitive painter (Old Oaken Bucket)
1908 Dr Michael E DeBakey artificial heart pioneer
1908 Paul Brown Norwalk Ohio, NFL hall of famer (Browns, Bengals)
1909 Elia Kazan Canstaninople Turkey, director (Streetcar Named Desire)
1913 Anthony Quayle England, actor (Anne of 1000 Days, Lawrence of Arabia)
1914 James Van Allen discovered Van Allen radiation belts
1922 Art Ferrante pianist (Ferrante & Tachere-Exodus)
1923 Peter Lawford London England, actor/rat pack member (Mrs Miniver, The Thin Man)
1924 Daniel Inouye (Sen-D-Hi), chair of Iran-Contra hearings
1924 Leonard Rosenman Bkln NY, TV composer (Marcus Welby MD)
1930 Sonny Rollins NYC, jazz saxophonist (Blue Room)
1934 Bill Giles Rochester NY, baseball owner (Phila Phillies)
1936 Buddy Holly singer (Peggy Sue, That'll Be the Day)
1939 S David Griggs Portland Oregon, astronaut (STS 51D, STS 33)
1942 Garrison Keillor humorist(or so it's said) (Praire Home Companion)
1942 Richard Roundtree actor (Shaft, Earthquake)
1949 Gloria Gaynor Newark NJ, disco singer (I Will Survive)
1950 Peggy Noonan author (What I Saw at the Revolution)
1954 Corbin Bernsen North Hollywood Calif, actor (Arnie Becker-LA Law)
1957 Melvin Edward Mays one of FBI's most wanted
1985 Tatia Jayne Starkey Ringo's 1st grandchild

Deaths which occurred on September 07:
1151 Geoffrey Plantagenet conquered Normandy, dies at 38
1909 Eugene Lefebvre dies test piloting a Wright A aircraft
1966 Al Kelly double talk comedian (Ernie Kovacs Show), dies at 67
1969 Everett McKinley Dirksen ("The Wizard of Ooze")(Sen-IL.R), dies at 73
1971 Spring Byington actress (Lily Ruskin-December Bride), dies at 84
1978 Keith Moon, rock drummer (Who), dies of drug OD at 31
1990 Alan J.P. Taylor, British historian (Origins of WW II), died.
1997 Mobuto Sese Seko (66), former dictator of Zaire dies in exile (Born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu changed it to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, which means “The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”).
2003 Warren Zevon (56), singer/songwriter, dies ("Werewolves of London.", "Lawyers, Guns and Money"

Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties

Iraq
07-Sep-2003 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Jarrett B. Thompson Walter Reed Medical Ctr. Non-hostile - vehicle accident

07-Sep-2004 4 | US: 4 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Chad H. Drake Baghdad (eastern part) Hostile - hostile fire
US 1st Lieutenant Timothy E. Price Baghdad (western part) Hostile - hostile fire
US Specialist Yoe M. Aneiros Baghdad (Sadr City) Hostile - hostile fire - RPG attack
US Specialist Clarence Adams III Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack

Afghanistan
A GOOD DAY

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php

On this day...
3114 BC Presumed origin of Mayan "long count" calendar system
0070 Roman army under Titus occupies & plunders Jerusalem

1571 At the Battle of Lepanto in the Mediterranean Sea, the Christian galley fleet destroys the Turkish galley fleet.

1630 The town of Trimontaine, in Massachusetts, is renamed Boston, and becomes the state capital.
1664 Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Amsterdam to English fleet
1714 Treaty of Baden-French retain Alsace, Austria gets right bank of Rhine
1800 Zion AME Church dedicated (NYC)
1812 Battle of Borodino. Napoleon defeast Russians under Kutuzov. Greatest mass slaughter in the history of warfare until the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Casualties
French: 28,000 to 58,000, including 12 (or 43) generals and 110 colonels; Russians: 44,000 to 60,000, including Prince Bagration.
1813 "Uncle Sam" 1st used to refer to US (Troy Post of NY)
1822 Brazil declares independence from Portugal (National Day)
1825 The Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution, bade farewell to President John Quincy Adams at the White House.
1864 Union General Phil Sheridan's troops skirmish with the Confederates under Jubal Early outside Winchester, Virginia
1876 The James-Younger gang botches an attempt to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota.
1880 Geo Ligowsky patents device to throw clay pigeons for trapshooters
1892 James J Corbett kayos John L Sullivan in round 21 at New Orleans
1896 1st closed-circuit auto race, at Cranston, RI
1896 A. H. Whiting won 1st closed-circuit auto race held
1903 Federation of American Motorcyclists organized in NY
1914 New York Post Office Building opens to the public
1916 Workmen's Compensation Act passed by Congress
1923 Boston Red Sox Howard Ehmke no-hits Phila A's, 4-0
1927 Philo Farnsworth demonstrates 1st use of TV in SF
1934 Luxury liner "Morro Castle" burns off NJ, killing 134
1936 Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) begins operation
1940 German Air Force blitz London for 1st of 57 consecutive nights
1947 Hindus and Muslims battle in New Delhi
1948 1st use of synthetic rubber in asphaltic concrete, Akron Oh
1952 Outfielder Don Grate throws a baseball a record 434'1" (Tenn)
1954 Integration begins in Wash DC & Balt MD public schools
1956 Bell X-2 sets Unofficial manned aircraft altitude record 126,000'+
1963 1st US TV appearance of the Beatles (Big Night Out-ABC)
1963 Pro Football Hall of Fame dedicated in Canton Ohio
1970 Donald Boyles sets record for highest paracute jump from a bridge, by leaping off of the 1,053' Royal George Bridge in Colorado
1976 US courts find George Harrison guilty of plagarism (He's So Fine/My Sweet Lord)
1977 Convicted Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy was released from prison after more than four years.
1978 1st game of the Boston Massacre, Yanks beat Red Sox 15-3
1979 The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) made its cable television debut.
1980 Earnest Gray becomes 2nd NY Giant to score 4 TDs (vs St Louis)
1981 Judge Wapner & the People's Court premier on TV
1983 Drury Gallagher sets fastest swim around Manhattan (6h41m35s)
1986 Desmond Tutu installed to lead south African Anglican Church
1988 Guy Lafleur, Tony Esposito & Brad Park inducted in NHL Hall of Fame
1988 Security & Exchange Comm accuses Drexel of violating security laws
1993 President Clinton and VP Gore announced a broad program to streamline the government.(ROTFLMAO)
1995 Sen Bob Packwoord (R-Ore) resigns rather than face expulsion.
2000 A jury in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, awarded $6.3 million to a woman and her son who were attacked by Aryan Nations guards outside the white supremacist group's north Idaho headquarters.
2001 The final “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” TV show aired as Fred Rogers (72) retired.

2001 US State Dept. issues a memo that warned Americans “may be the target of a terrorist threat.”

2001 UN Conference on Racism meeting in South Africa goes into overtime and agreed on a deal. The conference acknowledged that slavery and the salve trade were crimes against humanity, expressed an apology and offered a package of economic assistance to Africa.
2003 President Bush spoke on national TV and said he would ask Congress for $87 billion to fight terrorism. He cautioned that the struggle "will take time and require sacrifice."
2003 The top American commander in Afghanistan said Taliban fighters, paid and trained by al-Qaida, were pouring into Afghanistan from Pakistan....to die
2004 Cairn Energy, finds oil in India, Mangala field is estimated to reach one billion barrels, with recoverable reserves of 100-320 million barrels.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Brazil : Independence Day (1822)
Andorra : National Day
US : National Grandparents' Day (Sunday)
Wall-to-Wall Sports Television Day
Kiss a Bald Head Week (Day 4)
Fall Hat Week Begins
Neither Rain Nor Snow Day
National Bourbon Month

Religious Observances
Feast of St. Regina, virgin and martyr.

Religious History
1724 The first American congregation of Dunkards (German Baptists) gathered in Philadelphia, PA.
1785 The Sunday School Society was formed in London, under the leadership of Robert Raikes. It provided weekly Christian tutoring for the poor. Eventually 3,730 schools were formed, and their success ultimately inspired the founding in 1824 of the American Sunday School Union.
1807 Protestant Christianity first came to China when English missionary Robert Morrison, 25, arrived on this date. (Catholic missions had first penetrated China in the 16th century with the arrival of Jesuit Matteo Ricci in 1582.)
1845 St. Louis, Missouri, became the site of the first Hebrew synagogue to be built in the Mississippi Valley.
1958 The first cathedral of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the U.S. and Canada was dedicated in Hackensack, NJ. The American archdiocese for this branch of Orthodoxy was created the previous year by Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Yacoub III.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Almost 100 and Still Driving, Bowling

Associated Press

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Rolla Zuck still drives a car and bowls in the 150s. Not bad for a 99-year-old.
The Waterford resident turns 100 on Sept. 20 and will celebrate at three parties - one given by his family, one given by neighbors and another at Century Bowl, a local bowling alley.

Zuck bowls in a senior league there each week, averaging around 155. In May, he bowled two 200s, followed by a 170.
He says he also eats right and rides a stationary bike in his apartment.
The Missouri native still drives his own car. He bought his first, a 1918 Model T, for $80.

As for reaching the 100 mark, Zuck says it isn't such a novelty.
"When I was young, there was a man who was 112, and we had a neighbor who was 104," he says. "I guess they just raise them like that in Missouri."

Thought for the day :
"A billion here, a billion there—pretty soon it adds up to real money."
Everett Dirksen

Great post - We're reproducing a nearly disintegrated text, and came across this Applegate info. -Tony Larson, Oregon Republican League :

Oregon Republican League's "Republican League Register of Oregon", The Register Publishing Company, 1896, page 174-175.

APPLEGATE, E. ROY, of Drain, was born at Yoncalla, Oregon, in 1873, and is a son of D. W. Applegate and a grandson of Jesse Applegate. He was a delegate to the league in 1895 and 1896, and the Douglas County convention in 1896, and is secretary of the club at Drain.

APPLEGATE, HON. JESSE A., of Salem, was born in Missouri in 1835, and came to Oregon in 1843. He was admitted to the far in 1864 at Salem. He was elected Superintendent of Schools in Polk County, and to the legislature in 1864.

APPLEGATE, HON. ELISHA L., of Ashland, is the oldest son of Hon. Lindsay Applegate, and came to Oregon with his parents in 1843. He was one of the founders of the Republican party in Oregon, and was nominated for State Treasurer on the first Republican state ticket, in 1858. He has been a member of the legislature, was a member of the first state central committee, a Presidential Elector in 1880, and frequently a member of state conventions, and for years was an effective campaign speaker.

APPLEGATE, CAPTAIN O. C., of Klamath Falls, is a son of Hon. Lindsay Applegate and native of Oregon. He was captain of a volunteer company during the Modoc war. He has been a Republican all his life, and has continuously been a member of state and county conventions and central committees and delegate to the league conventions. In 1892 he was a delegate to the national convention, and in 1894 a prominent candidate for nomination for the office of Secretary of State. Captain Applegate is now the Republican nominee for Joint Senator for Klamath, lake and Crook Counties.

APPLEGATE, CHARLES, was born in Henry County, Kentucky, January 24, 1806, and died in Yoncalla, Oregon, August 9, 1879. In 1820 he moved with the family to Missouri, and in 1843 came to Oregon. In 1850 he settled in Douglas County, where he resided until the time of his death. He was one of the organizers of the Republican party in Oregon.

APPLEGATE, LINDSAY, was born in Henry County, Kentucky, September 18, 1808. In 1820 the family moved to near St. Louis. At the age of fifteen years he went with General Ashley on a trapping expedition to the Rocky mountains. He also served as a volunteer in the Black Hawk war. In 1843 he crossed the plains to Oregon and settled in Polk County. In 1844 he was a member of the first volunteer company organized to protect settlers from Indians. In 1846 he was one of the fifteen who explored the southern emigrant route through the Modoc country to Fort Hall. In 1848 he raised a company and went with General Joe Lane to capture the deserting regulars. The same year he moved to the Umpqua and served as Indian Agent under General Palmer. In 1853 he raised a company of mounted volunteers and was mastered into the United States service to fight the Rogue river Indians. He was present when the famous Table Rock treaty was made. In 1861 he was captain of a company that guarded the emigrant trail. For quite a number of years he was Special Indian Agent and Sub-Agent at Klamath. In 1869 a military agent was appointed, and three years later the Modoc was broke out. Mr. Applegate was one of the leading pioneer Republicans of Oregon, and helped organize the party in the state. In 1862 he was a member of the legislature from Jackson County.