As a child in Missouri, Douglas County, Oregon pioneer Jesse A. Applegate (1835-1919) learned "The Rose Tree in Full Bearing" from an old American soldier named Alexander "Uncle Mack" McClellan. McClellan drowned while unsuccessfully attempting to save the life of two children, after their boat capsized at the Great Falls of the Columbia River, during the family's migration to Oregon in 1843.

-_A Day With The Cow Column_ by Jesse A. Applegate, Ye Galleon Press, Fairfield, WA (1934)