Papers of Samuel Applegate, 1892-1925

Collection

Identifier: MS 3

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The files contain correspondence relative to business activity, salmon cannery development and other topics. There are major files of letters regarding Applegate's concerns about several government employees: H.G. Seller, a sanitary officer and teacher for the U.S. Bureau of Education at Atka; N.E. Bolshanin, deputy collector of customs, Unalaska. For additional material on Harry G. Sellers and wife, Kathryn D. Sellers, who served as U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs teachers at Atka, see microfilm Ar 37, Roll 2 (general correspondence, Atka).

The collection includes material on trade with the Aleuts and Box 2, Folder 12 includes several letters from the Dr. A.W. Newhall family at Unalaska. It also includes an account of a trip from Unalaska to Barrow in 1925 on the vessel CHAS. BROWER and an account of the revenue cutter TAHOMA shipwreck on Sept. 20, 1914.

The Applegates lived at Unalaska and their sons were born there.

Dates

1892-1925

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is unrestricted, however the volumes are very fragile and the bindings have deteriorated.

Conditions Governing Use

Request for permission to publish or reproduce material from the collection should be discussed with the Librarian.

Historical

Samuel Applegate arrived in Alaska in 1881 where he was stationed at Unalaska as a weather observer for the U.S. Weather Bureau. Later he entered the fur trade and was the first to use some of the small Aleutian Islands as fox farms. Records of the fur trade operation are included in the papers. He did extensive trading and exploring of the Aleutians. His papers include hand-drawn maps and charts of the Herendeen Bay area where he and some partners attempted to explore a coal deposit; also sulphur mining activity on Unalaska Island. He had a trading post at Nikolski on Umnak Island. The collection includes various account books and records of the store and the schooner EVERETT HAYS.

Extent

3 boxes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

In 1968 Jess and Meidel Applegate donated various artifacts and personal papers of their father Samuel Applegate to the Alaska State Museum. The papers and some photos were transferred to the library.