In 1860 Lindsay Applegate removed to the Siskiyou Moun-
tains, near the California boundary, and two years later to
the village of Ashland. Here Oliver spent one winter in school
and was promoted to the teacher's place, and the next year
conducted the school for four successive winters. In 1863 a
military company was organized in Southern Oregon under
the militia law of the State, with headquarters at Ashland.
Ivan D. Applegate was captain for two years in succession.
In this company Oliver served a year as a private, under detail
as company clerk, a year as sergeant and the third year as
captain, receiving his commission from Addison C. Gibbs, the
old war Governor of Oregon, before he had reached his twen-
tieth birthday. The treaty having been made in 1864 with
the Klamaths and Modocs, Lindsay Applegate was at their
request appointed U. S. Indian Agent, and in the fall of 1865
went to Fort Klamath and took charge of them. The fort
was the only place east of the Cascades where there were at
that time any white people, and the agent made that for
several months the seat of his operations. The treaty was
not ratified by the Senate for two years and the incidental
funds that the Oregon superintendency could provide for
agency operations and improvements were very meager. Only
one employe could be allowed as an assistant to the agent, at
first and to this place Oliver was appointed, October 12, 1865,
and that was the beginning of service that lasted for several
years and under various agency administrations, during which
period Capt. O. C. Applegate gained an almost phenomenal
influence over the tribes of Southeastern Oregon that was
used to good advantage when the Modoc outbreak of 1872
occurred and perhaps more than any other agency has resulted
in the conversion of the most turbulent of the Indian tribes of
Southeastern Oregon into quiet farmers and stock men, and
made many of them our allies during the Paiute and Modoc
Wars.
The first farming operations worthy of mention in the rich Klamath Basin were begun at the Klamath agency in the spring of 1866, and it was conclusively shown there that wheat, oats, barley, garden vegetables, timothy and other grasses
