The Klamath Falls Evening Herald’s coverage of the Mexican Revolution reported in 1913 that Pancho Villa’s army was seizing foreign-owned farms and industries in Northern Mexico.
Capt. Ivan D. Applegate of Klamath County, a son of famed trailblazer Lindsay Applegate, shared a letter with the newspaper from his son in Mexico, Moray Applegate. Thirty-eight-year-old Moray, an army veteran and University of Oregon graduate born in Klamath County, was managing Pacific Fruit Company banana plantations in San Blas, Mexico.
Applegate said that Pancho Villa’s revolutionaries had seized the plantations, and he and his business partners were camping on an offshore island. He said the insurrectionists were sleeping in plantation beds, and had stolen 100 saddle horses. The USS Raleigh was anchored nearby to protect Americans, but Applegate said Villa had not threatened their lives, only warning they could not own property in Mexico.
Young Moray said he was staying in Mexico despite the revolution. He did live there for years, married Maria Pastora Pérez and had three children. He died in Mexico at age 80 in 1956. His grandson, also named Moray Applegate, is a realtor today in the resort town of Puerta Vallarta.
Sources: Guide to the Moray Lindsay Applegate Letters to Herbert C. Thompson and Other Correspondence 1924-1957. “Guide to the Moray Lindsay Applegate Letters to Herbert C. Thompson and Other Correspondence." Northwest Digital Archives (NWDA). University of Oregon Libraries, 2012. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. The Evening Herald 3 Jan. 1914 [Klamath Fall, Ore.] . Print; "Moray Lindsay Applegate." Find a Grave. 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
