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7/28/2019 Ezra Meeker - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
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Ezra Meeker
Meeker in 1921
1st Mayor of Puyallup, Washington
In off ice
August 1890 – January 1891
Preceded by new office
Succeeded by James Mason
In off ice
January 1892 – January 1893
Preceded by James Mason
Succeeded by L.W. Hill
1st Postmaster of Puyallup, Washington
Territory
In office
1877–1882
Preceded by new office
Succeeded by Marion Meeker
Personal details
Born December 29, 1830
Butler County, Ohio
Died December 3, 1928 (aged 97)
Seattle, Washington
Resting Woodbine Cemetery, Puyallup,
Ezra MeekerFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ezra Manning Meeker (December 29, 1830 – December
3, 1928) was an American pioneer who traveled the Oregon
Trail by ox-drawn wagon as a young man, migrating from
Iowa to the Pacific Coast. Late in life he worked to
memorialize the Trail, repeatedly retracing the trip of hisouth. Once known as the "Hop King of the World", he was
the first mayor of Puyallup, Washington.
Meeker was born in Butler County, Ohio, to Jacob and
Phoebe Meeker. His family relocated to Indiana when he
was a boy. He married Eliza Jane Sumner in 1851; the
following year the couple set out for the Oregon Territory,
where land could be claimed and settled on, with their
new born son. Although they endured hardships on the Trail in
the journey of nearly six months, the entire party survived thetrek. Meeker and his family briefly stayed near Portland, then
ourneyed north to live in the Puget Sound region. They
settled at what is now Puyallup in 1862, where Meeker grew
hops for use in brewing beer. By 1887, his business had
made him wealthy, and he then built a large mansion. In 1891
an infestation of hop aphids destroyed his crops and took
much of his fortune. He later tried his hand at a number of
ventures, and made four largely unsuccessful trips to the
Klondike, bringing groceries and hoping to profit from the
gold rush.
Meeker became convinced that the Oregon Trail was being
forgotten, and he determined to bring it publicity so it could
be marked and monuments erected. In 1906–1908, although
in his late 70s, he retraced his steps along the Oregon Trail
by wagon, seeking to build monuments in communities along
the way. His trek reached New York, and in Washington,
D.C., he met President Theodore Roosevelt. He traveled the
Trail again several times in the final two decades of this life,
including by oxcart in 1910–1912 and by airplane in 1924.Meeker wrote several books, and continued to promote the
Trail until his death in 1928 at age 97. His work has
continued through the activities of such groups as the
Oregon-California Trails Association.
Contents
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place Washington
47°10′14″N 122°18′8″W
Citizenship United States
Political
party
Republican
Spouse(s) Eliza Jane Sumner (m. 1851–w.
1909)
Children Marion Jasper Meeker (1852–
1929)
Ella Antoinette Meeker
Templeton (1854–1943)
Thomas A. Meeker (1857–
1858)
Caroline Meeker Osborne
(1859–1947)Fred Sumner Meeker (1862–
1901)
Olive Grace Meeker
McDonald (1869–1936)
Residence Meeker Mansion, Puyallup
Occupation Farmer
Religion Unitarian
Signature
Drawing of Meeker
delivering a newspaper to
Henry Ward Beecher
1 Early life
2 Migration to Oregon Territory (1852)
3 Territorial pioneer
3.1 Early days
3.2 "Hop King of the World"
4 Ruin and Klondike
5 Promoting the Trail
5.1 Preparation for 1906 trip5.2 Return to the Trail (1906–1908)
5.3 Advocate for the Oregon Trail (1909–
1925)
5.4 Meeker reaches the end of the trail
(1925–1928)
6 Aftermath and legacy
7 Books by Ezra Meeker
8 Notes and references
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Early life
Ezra Manning Meeker was
born in Butler County,
Ohio, near Huntsville, on
December 29, 1830,[1] the
son of Jacob (1804–1869)and Phoebe (Baker)
Meeker (1801–1854). His
paternal ancestors had been among the early settlers of Elizabeth, New Jersey,
where their ancestral home was located. In the American Revolutionary War,
about twenty Meekers fought for the new nation. Jacob and Phoebe had four
sons and a daughter together; Ezra was the third child, and had two older
brothers.[2][3]
Jacob was a miller and farmer. In 1839, the family moved from Ohio to Indiana,
close to Indianapolis—Ezra and his older brother Oliver walked behind the famiwagon for 200 miles (320 km). Ezra had little formal education; he later estimate
a total of six months. Phoebe, seeing that her son's mind was not well adapted to
formal learning, allowed him to earn money through odd jobs. He obtained work
as printer's devil at the Indianapolis Journal , where his duties involved deliverin
the newspaper to subscribers, among them local pastor Henry Ward Beecher. In 1845, Phoebe's father, a
Cincinnati merchant, gave his daughter $1,000, enough to buy the family a farm. As both Jacob and Ezra Meeker
realized the boy enjoyed the outdoor life more than inside work, Jacob placed Ezra in charge of the farm, allowing
the elder Meeker to work as a miller.[1][4]
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The eastern half of Meeker's
migration, as far as Fort Laramie
Migration to Oregon Territory (1852)
Ezra Meeker married his childhood sweetheart, Eliza Jane Sumner, in May 1851.[5] The Sumners lived about four
miles from Indianapolis, and like the Meekers were family farmers who did not hire help. When he asked her for
her hand, he told her he wanted to farm, which she accepted as long as it was on their own property. In October
1851, the couple set out for Eddyville, Iowa, where they rented a farm. They had heard that land in Eddyville
would be free, but this was not the case. Ezra, working in a surveyor's camp, decided that he did not like Iowa's
winters—a prejudice shared by his pregnant wife. Reports were circulating through the prairies about the OregonTerritory's free land and mild climate. Also influencing the decision was the urging of Oliver Meeker who, with
friends, had outfitted for the trip to Oregon near Indianapolis, and had come to Eddyville to recruit his brother. Ezr
and Eliza Jane Meeker vacillated on the decision, and it was not until early April 1852, more than a month after the
birth of their son Marion, that they decided to travel the Oregon Trail.[5][6][7][8][9]
That April, Ezra, Eliza Jane and Marion Meeker set out to journey to
Oregon, some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) in all.[10] With their wagon, they
had two yokes of oxen, one of cows and an extra cow, They were
accompanied by William Buck, who would remain with them much of the
way before separating from them to go to California.[8] Buck outfitted thewagon, Meeker selected the animals, and with his wife carefully prepared
food supplies.[11] The wagons of Meeker's grouping traveled together by
informal agreement; there was no wagon master in overall charge.[12]
A number of Oliver Meeker's friends from Indianapolis joined the group,
most likely before the party left Iowa.[9] They crossed the Missouri River
at the small Mormon settlement of Kanesville (today Council Bluffs,
Iowa). Meeker recounted that, as he stood on the far side of the
Missouri, he felt as if he had left the United States. As they journeyed westward along the Platte River in Nebrask
Territory, there were such large numbers traveling that they were never out of sight of the tens of thousands of othe pioneers journeying west that year.[13] Sometimes several wagons advanced side by side.[14] The Meekers chose
slow, steady pace, unlike many who sought to rush along as quickly as possible. Piles of abandoned possessions
lined the way, cast aside to lighten loads. As the party went further west, they passed some of those who had
hurried past them, and whose wagons had broken down or whose oxen had died as a result of failure to care for
them properly. Disease was an ever-present risk; at the present site of Kearney, Nebraska, Oliver Meeker was
stricken with illness. This led to a division of the group when most of Oliver's friends, including later Idaho Territor
governor David W. Ballard, refused to wait. Oliver recovered after four days, and was one of the lucky ones—his
brother later estimated that one in ten of those who took the Trail perished during the journey. Ezra Meeker
remembered meeting one wagon train, slowly moving east against the flow of traffic. That group had made it as far
as Fort Laramie (today in Wyoming) before losing the last of its menfolk, and the women and children turned back
hoping to regain their homes in the East. He never learned if they made it.[9][13] According to local historians Bert
and Margie Webber, "all of these deaths made a great impression on the young man".[14]
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The western half of Meeker's
migration
They encountered Native Americans, who would sometimes demand money for passage, but no funds were paid
(until Meeker earned some cash by briefly running a ferry across the Snake River in present-day Idaho, they did
not have any) and none of the incidents ended with violence. The travelers' stores were supplemented by shooting
bison, which roamed the Great Plains in huge numbers. Despite being a source of food, the bison were a danger a
their stampedes could destroy property and kill irreplaceable stock. In southeastern Idaho, the California Trail
separated from the Oregon, and Buck and some of the rest of the party
split off there; they settled in California and remained friends with Meek
until their deaths.[15]
Meeker found that the final stretch between Fort Boise (now Boise,
Idaho) and The Dalles was the most difficult. The section is filled with
mountains and deserts, and there was little chance of supplementing
stores. Those who entered this 350 miles (560 km) segment with
exhausted teams or minimal supplies often died along it. Others shed
baggage brought across half a continent, saving only provisions. Parties
who feared this part of the journey sometimes tried to float down the
Snake and Columbia Rivers; many were wrecked in the rapids and died
At The Dalles, where river passage was available to Portland, the
Meeker party found a motley crowd of emigrants. With the moneyearned at the ferry, they booked passage downriver. Oliver Meeker
brought the livestock ahead overland, and met Ezra and his family on their arrival in Portland on October 1, 1852
where they slept inside a house for the first time since leaving Iowa.[16] Ezra Meeker had lost 20 pounds (9.1 kg)
and possessed $2.75 in cash.[17] All of the party survived, although Jacob Davenport, one of Oliver Meeker's
friends from Indiana, became ill on the final part of the trip and died some weeks after reaching Portland. All but
one of the livestock completed the trip—a cow was lost while crossing the Missouri River.[18] Ezra Meeker
considered his journey over the Oregon Trail to have been the making of him as a man.[19]
Territorial pioneer
Early days
Meeker's first employment in the Pacific Northwest was unloading a ship which had docked at Portland. He move
to the nearby town of St. Helens, where construction of a wharf in competition with Portland's was under way—
Oliver rented a house to lodge workers in, and Ezra went to help his brother. By this time, Ezra Meeker and his
wife were determined to fulfill their original plan to farm, and when work was abandoned on the wharf, he went to
find land which could be cultivated.[20]
Meeker first made a claim in January 1853 about 40 miles (64 km) downriver from Portland, on the current site oKalama, Washington. There, he built a log cabin and began his first farm. He did not build close to the water, whic
proved fortunate as there was a major flood on the Columbia soon after he claimed the land. Instead, he profited
from the incident, selling logs the river left on his claim, together with trees he chopped down, for lumber.[21]
In April 1853, Meeker heard that the lands north of the Columbia would become a separate territory (named
Washington Territory), with its capital on Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific. He decided to travel north with his
brother to scout for lands to claim around the waterway. There were as yet only about 500 European-descended
inhabitants in the Puget Sound region, of which 100 were in the village of Olympia, which would become the
territorial (and later state) capital. Despite there only being a few settlers, there was considerable activity in the are
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Meeker's cabin at Kalama
Meeker at age 23 in 1854
—the lumber of Puget Sound fueled San Francisco's building boom.[22]
The Meekers' first view of Puget Sound was unprepossessing; the tide
was out, exposing mud flats. Nevertheless, they pressed on, building a
skiff to travel by water. They were met by friendly Indians, who sold
them clams and taught them how to cook the shellfish. Engaging one of
the Native Americans as guide, they explored the area, looking for good,
well-located farmland. At one point, they entered the Puyallup River, in a
region where no white settlers lived, and camped on the present site of
Puyallup, but were deterred by the large number of huge trees, which
would make it difficult to clear land for farming. They decided on tracts
on McNeil Island, not far from the thriving town of Steilacoom, where
the farm's produce could be sold. Oliver remained on the island to build a
cabin while his brother went back to fetch family and possessions, and
sell their old claims at Kalama. He returned to a cabin in which they
installed a glass window that looked over the water to Steilacoom, with a
view of Mount Rainier.[23][24] The Meeker claim was later the site of
McNeil Island Corrections Center.[6]
Later in 1853, Ezra and Oliver Meeker received a three-month-old letter from
their father, stating that he and other family members wanted to emigrate, and
would do so if Oliver Meeker could return to assist them. They immediately
responded that Oliver would return to Indiana by early the following year, and p
their plans on hold to prepare for and finance his journey by steamship and rail. I
August 1854, Ezra Meeker received word that his relatives were en route, but
were delayed and short on provisions. He quickly went to their aid, intending to
guide them through the Naches Pass into the Puget Sound area. When he found
his family's party close to the first Fort Walla Walla (near Richland, Washington)
he learned that his mother and a younger brother had died along the Trail. He
guided the survivors through the pass and to his claim on McNeil Island.[25][26]
Jacob Meeker saw only limited prospects on the island, and the family took
claims near Tacoma, where they operated a general store in Steilacoom.[27] On
November 5, 1855, Ezra Meeker claimed 325.21 acres (131.61 ha) of land
called Swamp Place, near Fern Hill, southeast of Tacoma. He began to improve
the land, planting a garden and an orchard.[28]
Pursuant to the 1854 Treaty of Medicine Creek, settlers purchased lands from the Indians. The agreement, signed
under duress, restricted the Native Americans to inadequate reservations, and in 1855, the Puget Sound War
broke out, bringing unrest to the region over the following two years. Ezra Meeker had maintained good relations
with the Native Americans, and did not fight in the conflict, though he accompanied one expedition to recover
possessions captured by the Indians. A controversial aspect of the war was the trials and hanging of Chief Leschi,
deemed responsible for killing during the conflict. Meeker sat on the jury in the first trial, which resulted in a hung
ury, with Meeker and another man holding out for acquittal on the grounds that Leschi was a combatant in
wartime. A second trial convicted Leschi, and he was hanged. Meeker described the execution as wrongful, and in
later years wrote of the incident. In 1895, Meeker chartered a special train to bring whites to Leschi's reburial on
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Meeker, circa 1880
tribal land, and in 2004 the Washington State Senate passed a resolution that Leschi had been unjustly treated; a
special historical tribunal made up of past and present justices of the Washington Supreme Court also exonerated
Leschi as both he and the man he was said to have killed were combatants.[28][29][30]
"Hop King of the World"
Ezra Meeker's farm at Swamp Place was not a success as the land was too poor to grow crops.[31] The family
continued to run the store in Steilacoom. On January 5, 1861, Oliver Meeker drowned while returning from a buying trip to San Francisco, when his ship, the Northerner , sank off the California coast. The Meekers had
borrowed to finance the trip, and the losses from this disaster reduced Ezra Meeker to near penury. He secured th
squatter's claim of Jerry Stilly on land in the Puyallup Valley, and moved his wife and children there in 1862. While
clearing his own holdings, he earned money by helping to clear the land of others.[6][32][27] His father and surviving
brother, John Meeker, also had claims in the valley.[33] John Meeker had come to Washington Territory by ship in
1859 and had settled in the Puyallup Valley.[34] Ezra Meeker ran for the Washington Territorial Legislature in
1861, but was defeated.[35] In 1869, Meeker ran for Pierce County Surveyor; he was defeated by James
Gallagher, 138 votes to 116.[36]
In 1865, Olympia brewer Isaac Wood imported some hop roots from the United Kingdom, hopeful that theywould do well in the Pacific Northwest. As hops, used to flavor beer, were not then grown locally, the cost of
transport from Britain or New York made his beer expensive, and he hoped Puget Sound-area farmers would
grow hops and supply him. He was a friend of Jacob Meeker, and gave him the roots to grow. Jacob passed som
of them on to Ezra. The plants grew extremely well, and at the end of the season, the Meekers earned $185 from
selling Wood the crop. Such a sum was rarely seen in the Puyallup Valley at that time, and a hop-growing boom
promptly began. Ezra Meeker, with his head start, was able to repeatedly expand operations, he eventually had
500 acres (200 ha) of hop-growing lands. He also built one of the first hop-drying kilns in the valley. [33] For years
Meeker supplied Portland brewer Henry Weinhard.[37]
The fertile soil and temperate climate of the valley proved ideal for hops. Not ondid the plants thrive, farmers were able to obtain four or five times the usual yield
Meeker, never one to miss an opportunity, formed his own hop brokerage
business.[33] In 1870, he penned an 80-page pamphlet, Washington Territory
West of the Cascades, to promote investment in the region. He took ship for Sa
Francisco, then journeyed east by the new transcontinental railroad, hoping to ge
the railroads to expand to his region. He met with newspaper editor Horace
Greeley (known for his famous advice, "Go West, young man") and with railroad
mogul Jay Cooke as part of his promotional blitz. Cooke, who was building the
Northern Pacific Railway to cross the northern tier of the country, not only boug
up Meeker's pamphlets to give away to potential investors, but hired Meeker todrum up interest in his railroad. While working from a Manhattan office, Meeker
dressed like city dwellers, but did not entirely lose his frontier habits, often stirrin
a lump of butter into his coffee.[31][38]
In 1877, Meeker filed a plat for a townsite to surround his cabin. He named the
town Puyallup, using the local Indian words for generous people, according to Meeker. The local post office had
previously been called "Franklin", a common designation in the United States; Meeker, the town's first postmaster
stated that the new name was likely to remain unique. He later admitted that the pronunciation of Puyallup caused
confusion when he visited England—it still remains difficult for non-locals.[a][39][40]
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The domain of the Hop King
Meeker strove to improve life in the region, and donated land and money towards town buildings and parks, a
theatre and a hotel while defraying the start-up costs of a wood products factory.[41] The Ezra Meeker Historical
Society, in their 1972 pamphlet on his life, wrote of his activities:
During those years, Mr. Meeker became a dynamic force in the community, and had a part in almost
everything that happened in the valley. Restless, forceful, a natural leader, he became a prime mover,
galvanizing the citizens of Puyallup into action on such vital problems as the building of streets, roads,
homes, schools, and businesses and transforming the forest into one of the most progressive small
communities in the state. If he was not leading an undertaking, he was sure to be a busy member of
some committee working on it.[42]
Hops made many farmers wealthy, including Meeker, who at one point
claimed he had earned a half million dollars for his crop. In 1880, he
wrote his first book, Hop Culture in the United States,[41] and soon
after became known as the "Hop King of the World". [33] By the 1880s,
he was the wealthiest man in the territory,[27] and had formed a London
branch of his hop brokerage. He served as Washington Territory's
representative at the 1885–1886 North Central & South AmericanExposition in New Orleans; he also took exhibits to London's Colonial
and Indian Exposition after the New Orleans fair closed.[31] In 1886,
Meeker sought the Republican nomination for territorial delegate to
Congress, but was defeated after many ballots at the party convention.[43] He became a supporter of women's
suffrage, which was the subject of a long-running political battle in Washington Territory, a dispute which lasted we
after statehood in 1889.[44][45]
Eliza Jane felt that the family should live in a better house than their original cabin,[31] and between 1887 and 1890
they built what became known as the Meeker Mansion in Puyallup. The cost was $26,000, a very large sum at the
time. An Italian artist lived with the Meekers for a year, painting careful details on the ceilings. The Meekers movein during 1890, the same year Puyallup was formally incorporated under state law—they donated their old homesi
to the town for a park. In 1890, Meeker served as first mayor of Puyallup.[32][46] He was elected to a second,
non-consecutive term for 1892.[47]
Ruin and Klondike
In 1891, a blight of hop aphids struck the hop-growing West Coast from British Columbia to California.[47]
Although sprays of various liquids were used in an attempt to defeat the insects, use of such pesticides damaged th
hops.[33] In 1892, the crop decreased to half of what it had been before the infestation. Meeker had advancedmoney to many growers, who were unable to repay him. The problems in the valley were made worse by the Pani
of 1893, a severe worldwide depression. Business after business in which Meeker had invested failed, such as the
Puyallup Electric Light Company. He was overextended, and lost much of his fortune, and eventually his lands to
foreclosure.[48][49]
Meeker spent part of the winter of 1895–1896 in London, recouping what he could from his interests there.[50] In
1896, gold was discovered both in Alaska and in Canada, and when Meeker returned from the United Kingdom,
he found his sons, Marion and Fred, preparing to leave for Cook Inlet, Alaska. They found all the worthwhile
claims had already been taken. Nevertheless, the Meeker family saw the finds as a possible road to financial
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Ezra and Eliza Jane Meeker stand
before their onetime cabin, Puyallup
(c. 1890s)
Meeker (far right) stands before his
first Klondike grocery store, Dawson
City, Yukon, November 19, 1898
The Meeker Mansion (seen in 2008)
recovery, and founded a company to buy and sell mining claims, thoughthey knew little about the trade. In 1897, Meeker and his sons journeye
to the Kootenay country of southeastern British Columbia, where gold
had been found. Despite the fact Meeker was aged 66, he undertook a
full share of the labor. Both Meeker sons filed claims in Canada, but the
mines required additional investment. Meeker raised money to travel to
New York to speak with his old contacts, where he received more
promises than cash. On the return leg he failed to raise money in visits in
Illinois and Minneapolis and by July 1897, he was back in the
Kootenays, working the claim. When the gold discovery in the Klondik
in northwestern Canada was publicized that year, Meeker saw that as a
better opportunity, and sent his son Fred to investigate. Fred Meeker
returned with a report in November; the Meekers sought to finance a
mining expedition to the Klondike, but failed to raise adequate money
from investors.[51]
Despite his inability to raise
funds for mining, Meeker was certain there was a way to make money
from the gold rush. He and Eliza Jane spent much of the winter of 1897– 1898 drying vegetables, and Ezra Meeker departed for Skagway,
Alaska, on March 20, 1898 with 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg) of dried
produce and 500 live chickens—Fred Meeker and his wife Clara were
already across the border in what would soon be designated as the
Yukon Territory. The 67-year-old Meeker, with one business associate,
climbed the steep Chilkoot Pass. With thousands of others in boats and
on rafts, he floated down the Yukon River once the ice broke up in late
May, and sold his vegetables in two weeks in Dawson City. He returned
to Puyallup in July, only to set out again with more supplies the following
month. This time, he and his son-in-law, Roderick McDonald, opened astore, the Log Cabin Grocery, in Dawson City, and remained through the
winter.[52][53]
Meeker returned to the Yukon twice more, in 1899 and 1900. Most of
the money earned through groceries was invested in gold mining, and w
lost. When he left the Klondike for the last time in April 1901, he left
behind him the body of his son Fred, dead of pneumonia in Dawson Cit
on January 30, 1901. [54] In his writings, Meeker ascribed his sudden
departure from the Yukon in 1901 to mining losses and his upcoming
50th wedding anniversary. Meeker scholar Dennis M. Larsen in his booon the pioneer's Klondike adventure suggests that a more likely reason
was attempts by those who had lost money in Meeker's enterprises in th
1890s to gain the family's remaining major asset, the Meeker
Mansion.[54] That property was sold by Eliza Jane Meeker to her
daughter Caroline and son-in-law Eben Osborne for $10,000 in mid-
1901 and later that year both Ezra and Eliza Jane executed documents stating that the house had been her separat
property, paid for with funds not deriving from Ezra. The sale to the Osbornes included provisions that Ezra and
Eliza Jane were to have lifetime residence and $50 per month. Ezra Meeker did not live there after his wife's death
in 1909, and the Osbornes sold the house in 1915. Eben Osborne died in 1922, survived by his 91-year-old fathe
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Meeker's wagon (seen in 2012)
in law.[55]
Promoting the Trail
Preparation for 1906 trip
Meeker spent the years after the Klondike in Puyallup, where he wrote and served as president of the Washington
State Historical Society,[53] which he had helped to found in 1891.[31] The Ezra Meeker Historical Society
described their namesake's situation after the Klondike expeditions:
He was 71 years old. He had been an adventurer, laborer, surveyor, longshoreman, farmer, merchant,
community leader, civic builder, richest man in the state, world traveler, miner and writer. He had
made and lost millions. He had made money, not so much to hoard, but to do things with—to
develop, control forces, build and promote. But his money was gone. It was generally assumed that he
had finally come home to stay and live out his days in peace and quiet in his beautiful valley. Not so.
He still had dreams.[56]
Meeker had long contemplated the idea of marking the Oregon Trail, over which he had traveled in 1852, withgranite monuments.[53] By the early 20th century, he was convinced that the Trail was in danger of being
forgotten.[57] Farmers were plowing up the Trail bit by bit, and as towns and cities grew along it, the Trail vanishe
under streets and buildings. Meeker viewed its preservation as an urgent matter because of this slow
disappearance. He wanted the Trail properly marked, and monuments erected to honor the dead.[58]
Meeker came up with a scheme to travel along the Trail again by ox-drawn wagon, raising public awareness for hi
cause. He believed that public interest would provide enough money both to build markers and maintain himself
along the way. Though many hucksters traveled by wagon, selling patent nostrums, Meeker felt that he would stan
out, as an authentic pioneer able to tell real stories of the Trail—especially if he used authentic gear. He felt that it
was likely that once newspapers got wind of his travels, they would give him ample coverage.[59]
Meeker did not have much money, so he raised it from friends. Ox-
drawn wagons were not a common sight in the Puyallup of 1906;
Meeker was unable to find an authentic complete wagon, and eventually
used metal parts from the remains of three different ones. The
construction was done by Cline & McCoy of Puyallup. Meeker found a
pair of oxen; even though one proved unsuitable, the owner insisted on
him purchasing both. The one Meeker kept, named Twist, was lodged a
the stockyards in Tacoma as he sought another. Meeker fixed on a herd
of steers which had been brought in from Montana. He decided on onewhich was particularly heavy, which he named Dave. Although Dave
gave Meeker much difficulty, beginning with the 8 miles (13 km) drive
home to Puyallup after the purchase, the animal eventually helped pull the wagon over 8,000 miles
(13,000 km).[60][61]
Although Meeker had not had a dog in his wagon in 1852, he knew that people liked them, and sought to add one
to his crew.[62] Jim, a large, friendly collie who became an expedition member and Meeker's companion for the
next six years, had belonged to one of Meeker's neighbors, a Mr. James. Meeker was impressed by the way Jim
drove James' chickens out of the area where the family grew berries, by moving slowly. Five dollars to one of
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Meeker's dog Jim
First monument erected by Ezra
Meeker on his trek, Tenino,
Washington (seen in 2013)
James' children secured the purchase.[63] Some of Meeker's friends tried to talk him out of the trip; one localminister warned against this "impracticable project", stating that it was "cruel to let this aged man start on this
ourney only to perish by exposure in the mountains".[64]
Meeker had taken an ox team and wagon to Portland's Lewis and Clark
Exposition in 1905; en route he had kept his eyes open for places to set
up suitable monuments on the Cowlitz Trail, on which pioneers had
ourneyed from the Columbia River to Puget Sound. He made
arrangements with locals in towns along that trail to raise money to build
monuments there. He gave lectures as a fundraiser, but raised little
money. He took his team and wagon for daylong shakedown trips,
despite the mocking of some who remembered him as Hop King. After
several days camped on his lawn as practice for the trip, and then in
other nearby locales, Meeker set out from Olympia on February 19,
1906.[65][66]
Return to the Trail (1906–1908)
According to Larsen in his book on Meeker's journey east,
It's easy to assume Ezra Meeker's remarkable 1906–08
expedition over the Oregon Trail was a well-oiled machine that
worked as planned ... But it wasn't always an easy journey. ...
Faith in the whole enterprise, let alone encouragement, was in
rather short supply. His own daughter told him that people would
laugh at him if he went out on the trail with an old yoke of
oxen ...[67]
The first stop after Olympia for "The Old Oregon Trail Monument
Expedition" was Tenino, Washington, where Meeker went ahead by train
on February 20, 1906 to make arrangements for the first monument of
the trip. He still had no driver, and had his wagon pulled to Tenino by
horses, with the oxen trailing behind. He appealed to a local quarry for a
suitable stone, which was carved and was dedicated in Tenino at a
ceremony on the 21st.[68][69] He had less success as he journeyed south towards Portland; at none of the remainin
Washington stops was a monument erected, and although Meeker placed wooden posts where monuments should
go, most of the designated towns did not follow through. The lack of enthusiasm about Meeker's mission continue
in Portland, where the Unitarian church elders voted against allowing Meeker the use of the building to give a
fundraising lecture, pledging to do nothing to "encourage that old man to go out on the Plains to die".[70]
In Portland, Meeker lost his remaining helpers (one refused to take a pay cut, the others for personal reasons). On
stayed on for the boat voyage up the Columbia before leaving at The Dalles, where Meeker hired a driver/cook,
William Mardon, at $30 per month. He remained with Meeker for the next three years. Meeker also installed an
odometer on his wagon, calling The Dalles "Mile Zero" of his expedition. In The Dalles, Meeker engaged in
activities which would set the pattern for his progress along the Trail: He showed off himself, his wagon and animal
to the public, and sold tickets for a lecture (fifty cents for adults, half that for children) he would give about the
Oregon Trail, including images shown with a stereopticon. He also met with members of civic committees to raise
money for a local monument. Often these monuments were erected after Meeker passed: he would position a post
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Meeker in Omaha
to designate its location.[71] According to reporter James Aldredge in his 1975 article on Meeker's trip, "for a
septuagenarian he must have been blessed with remarkable health and endurance ... When the curious procession
got underway, not the least impressive part of it was Meeker himself, with his face framed by his flowing white hai
and his patriarchal beard."[72] According to reporter Bart Ripp in his 1993 article on Meeker, "the first expedition
east in 1906 was supposed to be a speaking tour, but people were more interested in seeing the old coot in a
covered wagon. It was the 20th century, and Americans wanted a show."[73]
As he journeyed east from The Dalles, Meeker met with more enthusiasm than in his home state as he slowly passed through Oregon and Idaho. As word began to spread, he sometimes found the townsfolk prepared for him
or with a stone ordered or even ready. The monument in Boise, dedicated by Meeker on April 30, 1906, stands o
the grounds of the Idaho State Capitol. On the road, he camped as he had a half century before, but in towns mos
often took a hotel room, though who paid for this is uncertain. Near Pacific Springs, Wyoming at South Pass,
Meeker had a stone inscribed to mark where the Trail passes through the Continental Divide. [74]
Meeker remembered in a memoir,
The sight of Sweetwater River, twenty miles [32 km] out from South Pass, revived many pleasant
memories and some that were sad.[b] I could remember the sparkling, clear water, the green skirt of
undergrowth along the banks, and the restful camps, as we trudged up the stream so many years ago.
And now I saw the same channel, the same hills, and apparently the same waters swiftly passing. But
where were the camp fires? Where was the herd of gaunt cattle? Where the sound of the din of bells?
the hallooing for lost children? Or the little groups off on the hillside to bury the dead? All were
gone.[75]
Nebraska proved resistant to Meeker's sales pitch, and near Brady, the
ox Twist died, possibly after eating a poisonous plant. Meeker had to
wire home to supporters for money. He hired teams of horses to pull the
wagon on a temporary basis, and an attempt with two cows was not
successful. He was able to temporarily yoke Dave with a cow which
proved more suitable. [76][77] At the Omaha Stockyards, Meeker found
another ox, which he named Dandy, and broke him in on the way to
Indianapolis, near where Meeker had once lived and 2,600 miles
(4,200 km) by road from Puyallup.[78] Beginning in Nebraska, Meeker
began to sell postcards from photos taken on the way—there was then
craze for postcards in the United States. He also arranged for the printin
of a book about his 1852 trip, much of which he wrote during noontime
halts on his 1906 trip. The funds from the sales of these items allowed
him to meet expenses on the road.
[79]
Meeker's exploits were closelyfollowed in newspapers on the West Coast as eastern and midwestern
stories about him were reprinted there—when westerners perceived any slights towards Meeker, indignant
editorials followed.[64]
After a visit to Eddyville, Iowa, from where he had set out in 1852, Meeker spent several weeks in Indianapolis,
leaving on March 1, 1907 when his permit to sell on the streets there expired. With the Oregon Trail run
completed, he proceeded east through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York State, seeking to both raise public
awareness and earn some money for himself through sales of his merchandise. He often spent several days in a
location, so long as sales of postcards and books flourished.[80] When the expedition reached New York City,
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Meeker in Wall Street
Meeker shows his wagon to President
Theodore Roosevelt
Meeker with his wagon, team, and
restaurant at Seattle's 1909 Alaska-
Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr. was absent but the acting mayor told Meeker that, although he could not grant
him a permit, he would instruct the police not to molest him. The message was apparently not well-communicated,
as at 161st and Amsterdam Avenue a policeman arrested Meeker's helper, Mardon, for driving cattle upon the
streets of New York in violation of a local ordinance. A stalemate followed as Meeker refused to move his oxen
and the police had no means of doing so. The situation was resolved when higher authority ordered Mardon's
release. Meeker wanted to drive the length of Broadway; it took a month
to get the legal problems resolved. It took him six hours to drive the
length of Manhattan. He had arranged with the press for photographers,
who took shots of him at the New York Stock Exchange and Federal
Hall. Later in his stay, he drove across the Brooklyn Bridge. [81]
After a small family reunion at
the old Meeker homestead
near Elizabeth, New Jersey,
Meeker headed south towards
Washington, D.C. He had
hoped to meet President Theodore Roosevelt at his summer home in
Oyster Bay, New York, but Roosevelt's staff declined, offering a meetin
in Washington instead. Members of the Washington State congressionaldelegation cleared the way, and Meeker met Roosevelt on November
29, 1907. The President went outside the White House to view
Meeker's wagon and team, and expressed support for Meeker's
activities, and for a Meeker proposal for a cross-country highway (there were then none) in honor of the pioneers.
After Washington, the tour wound down: Meeker went home to Puyallup from Pittsburgh by train to see his ailing
wife. On his return to the East, he arranged for transport by riverboat and train, with a journey across Missouri by
wagon. The expedition was offloaded from the train in Portland, and Meeker proceeded north across Washington
State (receiving a much warmer reception) on a slow route, finishing in Seattle on July 18, 1908. [82]
Advocate for the Oregon Trail (1909–1925)
Meeker ran a large pioneer exhibit and restaurant at the 1909 Alaska-
Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle; he later ruefully stated the
Exposition had cost him his earnings from the book and card sales during
his wagon tour. Later that year, he spent time in California, journeying
with his wagon and team.[83] Eliza Jane Meeker died in 1909 in
Seattle[84] —she had been in poor health for some years. Ezra Meeker
was in San Francisco, peddling his wares, when his wife died—it took
three days to locate him, after which he journeyed north for the funeral before returning to his work.[85] On New Year's Day 1910, Meeker and
his wagon and team participated in the Tournament of Roses Parade in
Pasadena.[86]
In 1910, the Humphrey Bill, to appropriate money for monuments to
mark the Trail, passed the House of Representatives and was introduced in the Senate, with a proviso that no
money would be spent unless the Secretary of War could certify that the work would not require any further
appropriations. Ezra Meeker set out that year on another two-year-long expedition, with the emphasis this time on
locating and marking where the Trail had been, rather than on building monuments. Sometimes the ruts in the
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The ox-team pioneer tries an airplane,
1921
ground from the emigrants' wagons still existed and made it obvious, but other times he had to rely on the memorie
of old settlers. He journeyed to Texas, but had no success in interesting people in his project there.[83][87][88] His
tour was ended in 1912 in Denver when a flood struck the city, resulting in damage to his books. [89] Nevertheless
according to Green, Meeker's two trips resulted in the placement of 150 monuments.[88] A version of the
Humphrey Bill passed the Senate in 1913, but died when the House of Representatives took no action. [83] Despit
this failure, groups began marking western trails: the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution put up
plaques along the Cowlitz Trail in 1916.[90]
Beginning in 1913, Meeker began to plan his role in the 1915 Panama-
Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. He had donated his wagon and oxe
to a park in Tacoma: when officials there expressed concern about the
cost of building a proper pavilion for them, Meeker reclaimed them and
set off with them to California. Deeming Dandy unfit for the road,
Meeker had him slaughtered in Portland in June 1914 and had the hide
shipped back to Tacoma for taxidermy; in November, the same fate me
Dave in California. Meeker's wagon was exhibited at the exposition in
San Francisco. His tales of the Oregon Trail became one of the star
attractions of the Exposition. Nevertheless, he quarreled with theadministrators of the Washington State Building, feeling that it should be
open on Sundays, when the largest crowds came to the grounds. On his
return, the oxen and wagon were mounted as an exhibit at the Washington State History Museum until it closed fo
a move to new premises in 1995. The wagon was then deemed too fragile for display.[91][92][93]
In 1916, the 85-year-old Meeker made another trip, this time by Pathfinder automobile. The Pathfinder Company
of Indianapolis, lent Meeker a car with a covered-wagon-style top and a driver as a publicity stunt. Meeker also
received a small stipend, and journeyed in the vehicle from Washington, D.C. to Olympia. [83][94] Meeker saw the
use of a motor vehicle as publicizing the need for a transcontinental highway. [88] During this trip, he lectured on the
need for a national highway; before he left he met with President Woodrow Wilson and discussed the topic withhim.[89]
Bernard Sun, whose grandparents were Oregon Trail pioneers in Wyoming, remembered another side of Meeker
He'd camp down on Rush Creek with a covered wagon. The old bum was riding a grub line. He'd
grub meals from all the ranchers around here. My grandmother hated the sight of him. He'd comb that
long hair at the dinner table. Put his [false] teeth in to eat and take them out to talk.[95]
Although World War I distracted public attention from Meeker and his activities, he used the time to plan for the
future.
[96]
On December 29, 1919, his 89th birthday, he began work on another book, Seventy Years of Progrein Washington, which was published to favorable reviews. In association with Dr. Howard R. Driggs, a professor
of English at the University of Utah and later at New York University, he published a revised version of his
memoirs, Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail . In 1922, he fell ill for one of the few times in his life. Newspapers
reported that he refused to stay in bed, and his grandson, a physician, stated that he was going to put Meeker bac
to bed and "I am going to keep him there—if I can. If I can."[97]
Recovered, the nonagenarian Meeker began making fresh travel plans.[98] In 1923, he was master of ceremonies
the dedication of a monument to the pioneers at Emigrant Gap, California; it was dedicated by President Warren G
Harding, a week before his sudden death in San Francisco.[99] With the International Air Races to be held at
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Meeker with President Calvi
Coolidge, 1924
One side of the Oregon Trail
Memorial half dollar
Meeker (lower right) at the
dedication of the statue to
himself, September 14, 1926
Dayton, Ohio, in 1924, Meeker tried to get the War Department to allow him to fly there. He was successful, and
flew with the Army pilot, Oakley G. Kelly. At a stop in Boise, Meeker quipped they were making better time than
with his ox team, and in Dayton met aviation pioneer Orville Wright, to whom he commented, "You'd be surprised
at the difference between riding in a Prairie Schooner and in an airplane."[100][101] The publicity was so favorable
that the Army had Kelly fly Meeker the rest of the way to Washington, D.C., where the onetime pioneer met
President Calvin Coolidge in October 1924. Meeker returned to Seattle by train.[100][102] Wanting the governmen
to build a road over Naches Pass, where he had guided his father's party seventy years before, Meeker ran for the
Washington House of Representatives in 1924 from the 47th district but was defeated in the Republican primary b35 votes.[42][103] In 1925, Meeker drove an ox team for several months while touring in J.C. Miller's Wild West
Show.[104]
Meeker reaches the end of the trail (1925–1928)
Further information: Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar
By 1925, Congress had still not passed an appropriation to mark the Trail. One
means of federally-sponsored fundraising at that time was to get Congress to
authorize a commemorative coin (usually a half dollar) and designate a sponsoringorganization to buy the issue at face value from the government and sell it to the
public at a premium. Meeker got the idea from a group of Idahoans seeking a
coin to further their preservation work at Fort Hall; he arranged a merger of
efforts. Beginning in 1925, Meeker pressed for such a half dollar to honor the
pioneers and provide money for his efforts, and in April 1926 he appeared before
a Senate committee, urging the passage of legislation. Congress obliged, and
Coolidge signed the bill on May 17, 1926 at a ceremony which Meeker
attended.[105][106]
Meeker had founded the Old OregonTrail Association in 1922. In early
1926, it was incorporated in New
York as the Oregon Trail Memorial
Association (OTMA), and was given
office space there by the National
Highways Association. The legislation
authorizing the new coin designated the
OMTA as the organization which could
purchase Oregon Trail Memorial half
dollars from the government. The piecewas designed by Laura Gardin Fraser
and her husband, James Earle Fraser
(who had designed the Buffalo nickel).
Six million coins were authorized, and a
beginning was made by the striking of
48,000 for the Association at the Philadelphia Mint; when those ran low,
100,000 more were coined at the San Francisco Mint. Meeker was less
successful with the later issue, and many remained unsold. Although the Bureau
the Mint struck more in 1928, these remained impounded until after Meeker's death, with tens of thousands of the
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Ezra Meeker's grave,
Puyallup, Washington
Dave and Dandy, on exhibit
in 2013 at the Washington
State Historical Society
Museum in Tacoma
earlier issues unsold.[107]
Seattle had been Meeker's home since moving out of the mansion, but in the mid-1920s the citizens of Puyallup
sought to honor him by the erection of a statue in Pioneer Park, the site of Meeker's one-time homestead. They
also sought to preserve the home site, over which Eliza Jane Meeker had planted ivy a half-century before, buildin
a pergola to support the plant. With the statue and pergola completed, Meeker returned to Puyallup for the
dedication ceremony in 1926. The same year, at age 95, Meeker published his first and only novel, Kate Mulhall
a Romance of the Oregon Trail .[108]
Meeker was again advocating better roads, and gained the support of Henry
Ford,[109] who built him a Model A car with a covered wagon-style top, dubbed
the Oxmobile, to be used in another expedition over the Trail to publicize
Meeker's highway proposals. In October 1928, Meeker was hospitalized with
pneumonia in Detroit. Determined to die in his beloved Northwest, he was
discharged and sent home to Seattle in Ford's private railroad car. He was taken
to a room in the Frye Hotel, where he told his daughter Ella Meeker Templeton,
"I can't go. I have not yet finished my work."[72][108][109] Ezra Meeker died there
on December 3, 1928, just under a month short of his 98th birthday. His body
was taken in procession back to Puyallup, where he was interred beside his wife
Eliza Jane in Woodbine Cemetery. Under a plaque based on the Oregon Trail
Memorial coin Ezra Meeker had inspired, their gravestone, erected by the
OTMA in 1939, reads, "They came this way to win and hold the
West".[108][110][111]
Aftermath and legacy
Howard Driggs succeeded Meeker as president of the OTMA, and remained in
that capacity at the association and its successor, the American Pioneer TrailsAssociation (APTA), until his own death at age 89 in 1963. The year 1930,
marking 100 years since both Meeker's birth and the first wagon train leaving St
Louis for the Oregon Country, was proclaimed the Covered Wagon Centennial.
The largest event was at one of the landmarks along the Oregon Trail, Wyoming
Independence Rock, on July 3–5, 1930. This event included the dedication of a
plaque depicting Meeker, embedded in the rock. For many years, the OTMA
made it a practice to go out each summer and dedicate monuments along the
Oregon Trail. Although the APTA no longer exists, that mission has been
continued by state historical societies and organizations which share its purpose,
such as the Oregon-California Trails Association.[112][113]
The commemorative half dollars were struck in small numbers in most years of
the 1930s; after collectors complained about the lengthy series and high prices,
Congress forbade further strikings in 1939.[114] The first route across America,
the Lincoln Highway, was completed in the 1920s, and others soon followed.
Although Meeker's highway along the Trail was not built, U.S. 30 generally
parallels the route of the Oregon Trail. [115] A number of sites relating to Meeker remain in Puyallup. In addition to
his gravesite, and the Meeker Mansion (now owned by and being restored by the Ezra Meeker Historical Society
there is Pioneer Park, where the ivy-covered pergola and the statue of Meeker may be found.[46][116][117]
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The Oregon Trail
Local historian Lori Price noted, "Throughout his long life of nearly 98 years, the word for Meeker was action."[6]
Historian David Dary, in his book on the Oregon Trail, deems Meeker primarily responsible for re-awakening
public interest in it.[96] According to Bert Webber, "There would be no 'Oregon Trail' to enjoy today if Ezra
Meeker had not set out, by himself, and without government subsidy, to preserve it."[118] Driggs stated of Meeker
after his death:
So the Oregon Trail was blazed and tramped—traders, trappers,
gold-seekers, missionaries, colonists—until the highway stretchedfrom the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. Years passed and
railroads supplanted the old Oregon Trail; its very location was
forgotten; disputes arose. Then an old man, almost eighty,
clambered into a prairie schooner, made in part of some in which
the pioneers had journeyed westward, and the Oregon Trail was
retraced and marked with monuments, that a people and a nation
may not forget.[119]
Books by Ezra Meeker
Hop Culture in the United States (1880)
Pioneer Reminiscences of Puget Sound, the Tragedy of Leschi (1905)
Ox Team; or, The Old Oregon Trail, 1852–1906 (1906)
Ventures and Adventures of Ezra Meeker (1908)
Uncle Ezra's Pioneer Short Stories for Children (undated, c. 1915)
The Busy Life of Eighty-Five Years of Ezra Meeker (1915)
Seventy Years of Progress in Washington (1921)
Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail (revised and edited by Howard R. Driggs, 1922)
Kate Mulhall, a Romance of the Oregon Trail (1926)[120]
Notes and references
Explanatory notes
a. ^ The Franklin post office was moved several miles in 1877 and its name changed in 1883 to Sumner.
b. ^ His younger brother Clark had drowned in 1854 at Devil's Gate on the Sweetwater. Webber 1992, p. 50
Citations
1. ^ a b Green, p. 9.
2. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 1–2.
3. ^ "Jacob Redding Meeker" (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=63242292).
findagrave.com. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
4. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 2–13.
5. ^ a b Price, Lori (July 6, 1982). "He would have loved it: Energetic Ezra liked excitement". Pierce County Herald .
p. C3.
6. ^ a b c d Price, Lori (July 3, 1984). "Ezra Meeker had little rest in life". Pierce County Herald . pp. D3, D20, D21.
7. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 15–20.
^a
b
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. , . .
9. ^ a b c Larsen, Dennis (Spring 2013). "The Ballard Family on the Oregon Trail in 1852". Northwest Trails (Oregon
California Trails Association, Northwest Chapter) 28 (1): 7–9.
10. ^ Webber 1992, p. 14.
11. ^ Meeker 1922, p. 22.
12. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 15–16.
13. ^ a b Meeker 1922, pp. 33–34.
14. ^ a b Webber 1992, p. 15.
15. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 43–55.
16. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 55–69.
17. ^ EMHS, p. 6.
18. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 22, 50.
19. ^ Price, Lori (July 3, 1984). "'Hop King' marked Oregon Trail line". Pierce County Herald . pp. D3, D9.
20. ^ Webber 1992, p. 18.
21. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 19–20.
22. ^ "Ezra Meeker is lively at 91 years". Tacoma News-Tribune. January 4, 1922. (clipping in Ezra Meeker file at
Tacoma Public Library; does not have a page number)
23. ^ Webber 1992, p. 20.
24. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 78–105.
25. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 108–134.26. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 20–21.
27. ^ a b c Webber 1992, p. 21.
28. ^ a b EMHS, p. 9.
29. ^ "Nisqually Chief Leschi is hanged on February 19, 1858" (http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?
DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=5145). Historylink.org. January 29, 2003. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
30. ^ "Leschi's first trial" (http://stories.washingtonhistory.org/leschi/leschitrial/firsttrial.htm). Washington State
Historical Society. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
31. ^ a b c d e Becker, Paula. "Meeker, Ezra (1830–1928)" (http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?
DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7737). Washington State Historical Society. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
32. ^ a b Price, Lori (August 25, 1990). "Puyallup founder's life symbolized by hard work". Pierce County Herald .
p. 25 (Puyallup Centennial special section).
33. ^ a b c d e Price, Lori (August 25, 1990). "Hops blossomed into economic boom, bust". Pierce County Herald .
pp. 36–37, 43 (Puyallup Centennial special section).
34. ^ Price, Lori (January 15, 2004). "John, Ezra's older brother, was the beloved Meeker". Puyallup Herald . p. 4B.
35. ^ "The Election". Puget Sound Herald . July 11, 1869. p. 2.
36. ^ "Official Vote of Pierce County". Vancouver (Washington) Register . July 3, 1869. p. 1.
37. ^ Webber 1986, p. 21.
38. ^ Price & Anderson 2002, p. 46.
39. ^ Price, Lori (August 25, 1990). "New Yorker helped establish first post office". Pierce County Herald . pp. 16,32
(Puyallup Centennial special section).
40. ^ Price, Lori (August 25, 1990). "Meeker puts Puyallup on map". Pierce County Herald . p. 3 (Puyallup Centenniaspecial section).
41. ^ a b EMHS, p. 13.
42. ^ a b EMHS, p. 11.
43. ^ "Republican Convention". Seattle Post-Intelligencer . September 9, 1886. p. 1.
44. ^ Meeker, Ezra (August 9, 1896). "Farm Field and Fireside". Tacoma Daily Ledger . p. 12.
45. ^ Harper, Ida Husted (1898). The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony: Including Public Addresses, Her Own
Letters and many From Her Contemporaries Over Fif ty Years
(http://archive.org/details/lifeandworksusa01harpgoog) II. Indianapolis: The Hallenbeck Press. p. 676. Retrieved
April 17, 2013.
46. ^ a b Price, Lori (August 25, 1990). "Mansion maintained to preserve history". Pierce County Herald . p. 26
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.
47. ^ a b EMHS, p. 14.
48. ^ Larsen 2009, pp. 1–2.
49. ^ Price & Anderson 2002, p. 71.
50. ^ Larsen 2009, p. 5.
51. ^ Larsen 2009, pp. 4–7.
52. ^ Larsen 2009, pp. 9–11.
53. ^ a b c Webber 1992, p. 22.
54. ^
a
b
Larsen 2009, pp. 8–9, 103.55. ^ Larsen 2009, pp. 3, 9, 120–121.
56. ^ EMHS, pp. 12–13.
57. ^ Dary, p. 311.
58. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 22–23.
59. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 23–27.
60. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 24–26.
61. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 8–9.
62. ^ Webber 1992, p. 26.
63. ^ Larsen 2006, p. 10.
64. ^ a b EMHS, p. 16.
65. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 29–30.66. ^ Larsen 2006, p. 15.
67. ^ Larsen 2006, p. 8.
68. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 173–174.
69. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 6, 16.
70. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 8, 17–20.
71. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 22–27.
72. ^ a b Aldredge, James (January 26, 1975). "From Puyallup to Oyster Bay". Seattle Post-Intelligencer . pp. 3–5
(Northwest section).
73. ^ Ripp, Bart (June 23, 1993). "Ezra Meeker's pioneer daze". Tacoma News-Tribune. pp. 3–4.
74. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 33–49.
75. ^ Meeker 1922, p. 195.
76. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 51–55.
77. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 59–60.
78. ^ Meeker 1922, p. 211.
79. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 61–68.
80. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 56–61, 68–77.
81. ^ Meeker 1922, pp. 214–218.
82. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 86–114.
83. ^ a b c d Larsen 2006, p. 117.
84. ^ Webber 1992, p. 92.
85. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 97–98.86. ^ Green, p. 28.
87. ^ Webber 1992, p. 65.
88. ^ a b c Green, p. 30.
89. ^ a b Green, p. 33.
90. ^ Larsen 2006, pp. 20–21.
91. ^ Becker, Paula. "Ezra Meeker's oxen Dave and Dandy arrive at the Washington State Historical Museum in
Tacoma for permanent display on January 14, 1916" (http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?
DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7760). Washington State Historical Society. Retrieved April 15, 2013.
92. ^ Green, pp. 20, 22.
93. ^ Larsen 2006, p. 116.
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94. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 65–68.
95. ^ Ripp, Bart (June 4, 1993). "Meeker's markers". Tacoma News-Tribune. pp. A1, A24.
96. ^ a b Dary, p. 322.
97. ^ EMHS, p. 17.
98. ^ EMHS, p. 19.
99. ^ Dary, pp. 322–323.
100. ^ a b EMHS, pp. 19–20.
101. ^ Webber 1992, p. 68–69.
102. ^ Webber 1992, pp. 68–71.103. ^ "Ezra Meeker, at 94, will run for office" (http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?
res=F60615FF395D1A728DDDA80994DF405B848EF1D3). The New York Times. July 11, 1924. Retrieved April
10, 2013.(subscription required)
104. ^ "Ezra Meeker in Wild West Show". Tacoma News-Tribune. February 19, 1925. (clipping in Ezra Meeker file at
the Tacoma Public Library; lacks a page number)
105. ^ Webber 1986, pp. 14–21.
106. ^ Driggs & Meeker, p. 13.
107. ^ Dary, pp. 323–326.
108. ^ a b c Price & Anderson 2002, p. 73.
109. ^ a b Dary, p. 325.
110. ^ EMHS, pp. 20–21.111. ^ Webber 1992, p. 71.
112. ^ Webber 1986, pp. 23–25.
113. ^ Dary, pp. 325–330.
114. ^ Webber 1986, p. 24.
115. ^ Larsen 2006, p. 118.
116. ^ Price, Lori (August 25, 1990). "Pioneer Park truly a Puyallup park pioneer". Pierce County Herald . pp. 20–22
(Puyallup Centennial special section).
117. ^ Webber 1992, p. 35.
118. ^ Webber 1992, p. 7.
119. ^ Driggs & Meeker, pp. 7–8.
120. ^ Green, p. 12.
Bibliography
Dary, David (2004). The Oregon Trail: An American Saga. New York City: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-375-
41399-5.
Driggs, Howard R.; Meeker, Ezra (1932). Covered Wagon Centennial and Ox-Team Days (Oregon Trail Memoria
ed.). Yonkers, NY: The World Book Company.
Ezra Meeker Historical Society (1972). Ezra Meeker . Puyallup, WA: Ezra Meeker Historical Society.
ASIN B000KSAAV6 (//www.amazon.com/dp/B000KSAAV6).Green, Frank S. (1969). Ezra Meeker—Pioneer: A Guide to the Ezra Meeker Papers in the Library of the
Washington State Historical Society. Tacoma, WA: Washington State Historical Society. ASIN B0007FKFVW
(//www.amazon.com/dp/B0007FKFVW). ISBN 978-0-375-41399-5.
Larsen, Dennis M. (2006). The Missing Chapters: The Untold Story of Ezra Meeker's Old Oregon Trail Monume
Expedition January 1906 to July 1908. Puyallup, WA: Ezra Meeker Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-9674164-2-7.
Larsen, Dennis M. (2009). Slick as a Mitten: Ezra Meeker's Klondike Enterprise. Pullman, WA: Washington Stat
University Press. ISBN 978-0-87422-302-6.
Meeker, Ezra (1922). Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail (revised ed.). Yonkers, NY: The World Book Company
ASIN B003OKG6SI (//www.amazon.com/dp/B003OKG6SI).
Price, Lori; Anderson, Ruth (2002). Puyallup: A Pioneer Paradise. The Making of America. Charleston, SC:
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6/21/13 Ezra Meeker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-2374-3.
Webber, Bert (1986). The Oregon Trail Memorial Half-Dollar . Medford, OR: Webb Research Group. ISBN 0-
936738-16-2.
Webber, Bert; Webber, Margie (1992). Ezra Meeker; Champion of the Oregon Trail . Medford, OR: Webb
Research Group. ISBN 0-936738-19-7.
External links
Meeker Mansion Website (http://www.meekermansion.org/)
Guide to the Photographs of Ezra Meeker ca. 1880–1928
(http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/findaids/docs/photosgraphics/MeekerEzraPHColl596.xml), from
a University of Washington website
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ezra_Meeker&oldid=560841442"
Categories: 1830 births 1928 deaths American farmers American lobbyists American pioneers
History of Washington (state) Mayors of places in Washington (state) Oregon pioneers Oregon Trail
People from Butler County, Ohio People from Puyallup, Washington People of the Klondike Gold Rush
Writers from Ohio Writers from Oregon Writers from Washington (state)
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