Ezra Manning Meeker (December 29, 1830 - December 3, 1928) was an American pioneer who traveled the Oregon Trail with a bullock cart pulled as a youth, migrating from Iowa to the Pacific Coast. At the end of his life he worked to commemorate the Traces, repeatedly retracing his youthful journey. Once known as "Hop King of the World", he is the first mayor of Puyallup, Washington.
Meeker was born in Butler County, Ohio, to Jacob and Phoebe Meeker. His family moved to Indiana when he was a child. He married Eliza Jane Sumner in 1851; the following year the couple, with Ezra's brother and with their newborn son, traveled to the Oregon Territory, where the land could be claimed and completed. Although they had difficulty on the Path in nearly six months' journey, the whole party survived the journey. Meeker and his family briefly live near Portland, then travel north to stay in the Puget Sound area. They settled in what is now Puyallup in 1862, where Meeker grew a jump to use in brewing. By 1887, his business had made him rich, and his wife built a big house for the family. In 1891, the leaf aphids infestation destroyed his plants and took much of his wealth. He then tried his hand in a number of attempts, and made four unsuccessful trips to Klondike, picking up groceries and hoping to profit from the gold rush.
Meeker became convinced that the Oregon Trail was being forgotten, and he decided to bring publicity so it could be marked and a monument erected. In 1906-1908, though in the late 70s, he retraced his steps along the Oregon Trail with carts, trying to build monuments in communities along the way. His journey reached New York, and in Washington, D.C. he met President Theodore Roosevelt. He traveled again to the Trail several times in the last two decades of life, including by ox carts in 1910-1912 and by plane in 1924. During another trip, in 1928, Meeker fell ill but was backed by Henry Ford. Upon his return to the state of Washington, Meeker fell ill again and died there on December 3, 1928 at the age of 97. Meeker wrote several books; his work continues through the activities of groups such as the Oregon-California Trails Association.
Video Ezra Meeker
Kehidupan awal
Ezra Manning Meeker was born in Butler County, Ohio, near Huntsville, on December 29, 1830, son of Jacob (1804-1869) and Phoebe (Baker) Meeker (1801-1854). His father's ancestors were among the early settlers of Elizabeth, New Jersey, where their ancestral home was. In the American Revolutionary War, about twenty Meekers fought for a new country. Ezra is the fourth of six children owned by Jacob and Phoebe, with his older brother John, Manning (died at the age of one week) and Oliver, and Hannah's sister and Clark's brother.
Jacob is a miller and a farmer. In 1839, the family moved from Ohio to Indiana, close to Indianapolis - Ezra and his brother Oliver walked behind a family wagon as far as 200 miles (320 km). Ezra had little formal education; he then estimates a total of six months. Phoebe, seeing that his son's mind did not adapt well to formal learning, allowed him to earn money through a side job. He got a job as a printer creator at the Indianapolis Journal, where his job included sending newspapers to customers, among them local pastor Henry Ward Beecher. In 1845, Phoebe's father, a Cincinnati merchant, gave his daughter $ 1,000, enough to buy a family farm. Both Jacob and Ezra Meeker realized that the boy enjoyed outdoor life more than the work inside, Jacob put Ezra in charge of the farm, allowing the older Meeker to work as a mill. Migration to Oregon Territory (1852)
Ezra Meeker married his childhood sweetheart, Eliza Jane Sumner, in May 1851. The Sumerians live about four miles from Indianapolis, and like Meekers are family farmers who do not hire help. When he asks for his hand, he tells him that he wants to farm, which he receives while in his own land. In October 1851, the couple left for Eddyville, Iowa, where they rented a farm. They have heard that the land in Eddyville will be free, but this is not the case. Ezra, who worked at the surveyor camp, decided that he did not like the Iowa winter - the prejudices shared by his pregnant wife. Reports circulate through grasslands about Oregon's free land and mild climate. Also influencing that decision was the insistence of Oliver Meeker who, with friends, has been equipped for a trip to Oregon near Indianapolis, and has come to Eddyville to recruit his brother. Ezra and Eliza Jane Meeker were swayed at 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 to the Oregon Trail.
That April, Ezra, Eliza Jane, Oliver, and Marion Meeker depart for Oregon, about 2,000 miles (3,200 km). With their carts, they have two cow yams, one cow and one extra cow. They were accompanied by William Buck, who would stay with them long before separating them to go to California. Buck goes to the cart, Meeker chooses an animal, and with his wife prepares the food supply carefully. The Meeker grouping carts roam with unofficial agreement; there is no master wagon in charge overall.
A number of Oliver Meeker's friends from Indianapolis joined the group before the party left Iowa. They crossed the Missouri River in a small Mormon settlement in Kanesville (now Council Bluffs, Iowa). Meeker recounts that, as he stood on the far side of Missouri, he felt as if he had left the United States. As they traveled west along the Platte River in the Nebraska Territory, there were a great number of trips so they never escaped the tens of thousands of other pioneers who traveled west that year. Sometimes some carts go side by side. The Meekers choose a slow, stable pace, unlike many who are trying to hurry as quickly as possible. Piles of abandoned goods lined the streets, removed to lighten the load. As the group went further west, they passed through several people who rushed past them, and whose wagons had been damaged or whose oxen had died as a result of failure to care for them properly. Illness is an ever-present risk; in the present place Kearney, Nebraska, Oliver Meeker hit by illness. This led to the division of the group when most of Oliver's friends, including later Idaho Governor David W. Ballard, refused to wait. Oliver recovered after four days, and one of the lucky ones - his brother then estimated that one in ten people who took the Trail perished during the trip. Ezra Meeker recalls meeting the wagon train, slowly moving east against the flow of traffic. The group has made it as far as Fort Laramie (today in Wyoming) before losing the last of his men, and the women and children are returning, hoping to regain their home in the East. He never learns if they succeed. According to local historian Bert and Margie Webber, "all these deaths make a great impression on the young man".
They met with Native Americans, who sometimes demanded provisions for travel, but nothing was given and no incidents ended in violence. The travelers' shop is equipped with a bison shoot, which explores Great Plains in bulk. Despite being a food source, bison is a danger because their stamp can damage property and kill irreplaceable stock. In southeastern Idaho, the California Trail is separated from Oregon, and Buck and some parts of the separate parties are there; they settled in California and remained friends with Meeker until their death.
Meeker found that the final stretch between Fort Boise (now Boise, Idaho) and The Dalles is the most difficult. This section is full of mountains and deserts, and there is little opportunity to add stores. Those entering this 350 mile (560 km) segment with teams that are exhausted or a minimal supply often die along it. Others release luggage carried across half the continent, storing only supplies. The parties who fear this part of the journey sometimes try to float Snake and Columbia Rivers; many are crushed in the rapids and die. At The Dalles, where a river lane is available to Portland, the Meeker party finds many emigrants. With the money earned on the ferry, they ordered the line downstream. Oliver Meeker took cattle ashore, and met Ezra and his family on their arrival in Portland on October 1, 1852, where they slept inside the house for the first time since leaving Iowa. Ezra Meeker has lost 20 pounds (9.1 kg) and has $ 2.75 in cash. All the party survived, though Jacob Davenport, one of Oliver Meeker's friends from Indiana, got sick at the end of the trip and died a few weeks after reaching Portland. All but one cattle completed the journey - a stray cow crossing the Missouri River. Ezra Meeker considers his travels over the Oregon Trail to have made him a man.
Maps Ezra Meeker
Teritorial Pioneer
Initial days
Meeker's first job in the Pacific Northwest unloaded a ship docked in Portland. He moved to nearby St. Helens, where the construction of a pier that competes with Portland is ongoing - Oliver hires a house to accommodate the workers, and Ezra goes to help his brother. At this time, Ezra Meeker and his wife were determined to fulfill their initial plan to farm, and when work was abandoned on the dock, he went to look for cultivable land.
Meeker first made a claim in January 1853 about 40 miles (64 km) downstream from Portland, at the current location of Kalama, Washington. There, he built a log cabin and started his first farm. He did not build close to the water, which proved fortunate because there was a huge flood in Columbia as soon as he claimed the land. Instead, he profited from the incident, sold the logs left by the river on his claim, along with the trees he fell, for timber.
In April 1853, Meeker heard that the land north of Columbia would be a separate area (called the Washington Territory), with its capital at Puget Sound, a small bay in the Pacific. He decided to travel north with his brother to find land to claim around the waterway. Until now there are only about 500 European inhabitants-down in the Puget Sound region, of which 100 are in the village of Olympia, which will be the territorial capital (and later the country). Although there were only a few settlers, there was a lot of activity in the area - Puget Sound wood sparked the booming San Francisco building. The Meekers' first view of Puget Sound is unprepossessing; the waves came out, showing the mud plains. Nevertheless, they kept pressing, building small boats to travel with water. They meet friendly Indians, who sell shells and teach them how to cook shellfish. Involving one of the Native Americans as a guide, they explored the area, looking for good farmland and located well. At one point, they entered the Puyallup River, in an area where no white people lived, and camped at the present location in Puyallup, but were blocked by large trees, which would make it difficult to open up land for farming. They decided to take a treaty on McNeil Island, not far from the thriving town of Steilacoom, where agricultural produce could be sold. Oliver remains on the island to build a cabin while his brother returns to take family and possessions, and sells their old claims in Kalama. He returned to the cabin where they installed a glass window looking over the water into the Steilacoom, with views of Mount Rainier. Meeker's claim then becomes the location of McNeil Island Corrections Center.
Then in 1853, Ezra and Oliver Meeker received a three-month letter from their father, stating that he and other family members wanted to emigrate, and would do so if Oliver Meeker could return to help them. They immediately replied that Oliver would return to Indiana at the beginning of the following year, and postpone their plans to prepare and finance his journey with steamers and trains. In August 1854, Ezra Meeker received word that his relatives were on the way, but delayed and lacked provisions. He immediately went to their aid, intending to guide them through the Naches Pass to the Puget Sound area. When he found his family 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 guides the survivors through his loopholes and claims on McNeil Island.
Jacob Meeker saw only limited prospects on the island, and his family took claims near Tacoma, where they operate a public shop in Steilacoom. On November 5, 1855, Ezra Meeker claimed 325.21 hectares (131.61 ha) of land called Swamp Place, near Fern Hill, southeast of Tacoma. He began to repair the soil, planting gardens and orchards.
In accordance with the Treaty of Medicine in 1854 Creek, the settlers bought land from the Indians. The agreement, signed under pressure, restricted Native Americans to inadequate reservations, and in 1855, the Puget Sound War broke out, bringing unrest into the region for the next two years. Ezra Meeker has maintained good relations with Native Americans, and has not fought in conflicts, even though he accompanied an expedition to recover the treasures seized by the Indians. The controversial aspect of the war was the trial and the hanging of Chief Leschi, who was held responsible for the killings during the conflict. Meeker sat on the jury in the first trial, which resulted in a hanging jury, with Meeker and another man hanging freely on the grounds that Leschi was a warrior. The second trial punished Leschi, and he was hanged. Meeker described the execution as a mistake, and in subsequent years wrote about the incident. In 1895, Meeker chartered a special train to bring white people to the Leschi reburials in tribal lands, and in 2004, the Senate of Washington State passed a resolution that Leschi was treated unfairly; a special historical tribunal consisting of past and present judges in the Supreme Court of Washington also liberated Leschi because he and the man he said he had killed were combatants.
"Hop King of the World"
Ezra Meeker's farm at Swamp Place was unsuccessful because the land was too poor to cultivate. The family continues to run the store in Steilacoom. On January 5, 1861, Oliver Meeker drowned on his return from a shopping trip to San Francisco, when his ship, Northerner, sank off the coast of California. The Meekers had borrowed to finance the trip, and the loss of this disaster reduced Ezra Meeker to near drought. He secured the claims of squatter Jerry Stilly on land in the Puyallup Valley, and transferred his wife and children there in 1862. When clearing his own ownership, he made money by helping to clear other peoples' lands. His father and his surviving brother, John Meeker, also have claims in the valley. John Meeker had come to the Washington Area by ship in 1859 and had settled in the Puyallup Valley. Ezra Meeker ran for the Washington Territorial Legislature in 1861, but was defeated. In 1869, Meeker ran for Pierce County Surveyor; he was defeated by James Gallagher, 138 votes to 116.
In 1865, Olympia brewer Isaac Wood imported some of the roots of hops from England, hoping that they would do well in the Pacific Northwest. As a hop, used to flavor beer, not then grown locally, transportation costs from the UK or New York make beer expensive, and he hopes Puget Sound regional farmers will grow to leap and supply it. She is a friend of Jacob Meeker, and gives her roots to grow. Jacob handed some of them to Ezra. Plants grow very well, and by the end of the season, the Meekers earned $ 185 from the sale of Wood's harvest. Such numbers were rarely seen in the Puyallup Valley at that time, and the rapid growth boom soon began. Ezra Meeker, with head start, able to repeatedly expand the operation, he eventually has 500 hectares (200 hectares) of hop-growing land. He also built one of the first drying kilns in the valley. For years Meeker supplied Portland brewer Henry Weinhard.
The lush landscape and temperate climate of the valley proved ideal for jumping. Not only are plants growing, farmers are able to obtain four or five times the usual results. Meeker, never missed a chance, formed his own hop hop hopper business. In 1870, he wrote an 80-page pamphlet, Western Territory of Washington from Cascades , to promote investment in the region. He took the ship to San Francisco, then traveled east with a new continental train, hoping to get the train tracks to expand into his territory. He met with editor of the newspaper Horace Greeley (known for his famous counsel, "Go West, young man") and by train Jay Cooke mogul as part of his promotional promo. Cooke, who built the North Pacific Railway to cross the country's northern tier, is not just buying Meeker pamphlets to give to potential investors, but hiring Meeker to revive interest in the railroad. While working from the Manhattan office, Meeker dressed as a city dweller, but did not completely lose his border habit, often stirring a lump of butter into his coffee.
In 1877, Meeker applied for a plate for townsite around his cabin. He named the town Puyallup, using local Indian words for generous people, according to Meeker. The local post office had previously been called "Franklin", a general term in the United States; Meeker, the city's first post office, stated that the new name is likely to remain unique. He later admitted that Puyallup's pronunciation caused confusion when he visited the UK - still remains difficult for non-locals.
Meeker seeks to improve lives in the region, and donates land and money to city buildings and parks, theaters and hotels while financing the initial costs of the wooden products factory. The Ezra Meeker Historical Society, in their 1972 pamphlet of his life, wrote of his activities:
During those years, Mr. Meeker became a dynamic force within the community, and had a share in almost everything that happened in the valley. Anxious, strong, natural leader, he became the prime mover, galvanizing Puyallup residents into action on important issues like roads, roads, homes, schools, and businesses and turning the forest into one of the most progressive communities in the state. If he does not lead a business, he will definitely be a busy member of some of the committees working on it.
Hop makes many rich farmers, including Meeker, who at one point claimed he had earned half a million dollars for his harvest. In 1880, he wrote his first book, Hop Culture in the United States , and soon after it became known as "Hop King of the World". In the 1880s, he was the richest man in the region, and had formed a branch of his hop branch in London. He served as Washington Region representative in 1885-1886 North Central & amp; South American exhibition in New Orleans; he also took an exhibition for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London after the New Orleans fair was closed. In 1886, Meeker sought a Republican nomination for a territorial delegation to Congress, but was defeated after many ballot papers at the party convention. She became a supporter of women's suffrage, which was the subject of long-term political battles in the Washington Territory, a dispute that went well after the state in 1889.
Eliza Jane felt that the family had to stay in a better home than their original cabin, and between 1887 and 1890 built what is known as Meeker Mansion in Puyallup. It costs $ 26,000, a very large amount at the time. An Italian artist lived with the Meekers for a year, painting careful details on the ceiling. The Meekers moved in 1890, the same year Puyallup was formally established under state law - they donated their old house to the city for a garden. In 1890, Meeker served as the first mayor of Puyallup. He was elected to a second, non-consecutive term for 1892.
Destructive and Klondike
In 1891, aphids disease hit the rapidly growing West Coast from British Columbia to California. Although various fluid sprays are used in an attempt to defeat insects, the use of such pesticides destroys jumps. In 1892, yields decreased by half of what occurred before infestation. Meeker has a down payment to many farmers, who can not pay him back. The problem in the valley was exacerbated by Panic of 1893, a severe worldwide depression. Business after business where Meeker has invested failed, such as Puyallup Light Electric Company. He is too much, and loses much of his wealth, and finally his land for foreclosure.
Meeker spent part of the winter of 1895-1896 in London, returning what he could from his interests there. In 1896, gold was found in Alaska and in Canada, and when Meeker returned from England, he found his sons, Marion and Fred, preparing to leave for Cook Inlet, Alaska. They find all the valuable claims have been taken. However, the Meeker family saw the findings as a possible path to financial recovery, and established companies to buy and sell mining claims, even though they did not know much about trading. In 1897, Meeker and his sons traveled to Kootenay country in southeast British Columbia, where gold was discovered. Despite the fact 66-year-old Meeker, he takes full part of the work. Both sons of Meeker filed claims in Canada, but the mine required additional investments. Meeker raises money to travel to New York to talk to his old contacts, where he receives more promises than cash. In the second leg he failed to raise money on visits in Illinois and Minneapolis and in July 1897, he returned to Kootenays, working on the claim. When the discovery of gold at Klondike in northwestern Canada was published that year, Meeker saw it as a better opportunity, and sent his son Fred to investigate. Fred Meeker returned with a report in November; Meekers sought to finance a mining expedition to Klondike, but failed to raise enough money from investors.
Despite his inability to raise funds for mining, Meeker believes there are ways to make money from the gold rush. He and Eliza Jane spent most of the winter of 1897-1898 drying vegetables, and Ezra Meeker left for Skagway, Alaska, on March 20, 1898 with 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg) of dried produce - Fred Meeker and his wife Clara had crossed the border in the will soon be designated as the Yukon Territory. Meeker, 67, with a business partner, boarded the steep Chilkoot Pass. With thousands of others on a boat and on a raft, he floated on the Yukon River as soon as the ice broke out in late May, and sold his vegetables in two weeks in Dawson City. He returned to Puyallup in July, only to leave again with more supplies the following month. This time, he and his son-in-law, Roderick McDonald, opened shop, Log Cabin Grocery, in Dawson City, and stayed on for the winter.
Meeker returned to Yukon two more times, in 1899 and 1900. Much of the money earned through groceries was invested in gold mining, and lost. When he left Klondike for the last time in April 1901, he left the body of his son Fred, died of pneumonia in Dawson City on January 30, 1901. In his writings, Meeker mentions his sudden departure from the Yukon in 1901 for mining losses and rework the forthcoming 50th wedding anniversary. Student Meeker Dennis M. Larsen in his book on the pioneering Klondike adventure shows that the more likely reason was the effort by those who had lost money at the Meeker company in the 1890s to get the main asset of the remaining family, Meeker Mansion. The property was sold by Eliza Jane Meeker to her daughter Caroline and her son-in-law Eben Osborne for $ 10,000 in mid-1901 and later that year both Ezra and Eliza Jane executed a document stating that the house was a separate property, paid for with no funds derived from Ezra. Sales to Osbornes include the provision that Ezra and Eliza Jane have a lifetime of residence and $ 50 per month. Ezra Meeker did not live there after his wife's death in 1909, and Osbornes sold the house in 1915. Eben Osborne died in 1922, survived by his 91-year-old father-in-law.
Promoting Tracks
Preparation for 1906 trips
Meeker spent many years after Klondike in Puyallup, where he wrote and served as president of the Washington State Historical Society, which he helped to discover in 1891. Ezra Meeker Historical Society described their namesake situation after the Klondike expedition:
He is 71 years old. He is an adventurer, laborer, surveyor, port worker, farmer, merchant, community leader, civil builder, richest man in the state, world explorer, miner and writer. He has made and lost millions. He has made money, not so much hoarding, but doing something with - to develop, control the power, build and promote. But the money is gone. It is generally assumed that he finally came home to live and live his days in peace and quiet in his beautiful valley. Not like that. He's still dreaming.
Meeker has long contemplated the idea of ​​marking the Oregon Trail, where he traveled in 1852, with granite monuments. At the beginning of the 20th century, he was convinced that the trail was in danger of being forgotten. The farmers were hijacking the Trail little by little, and as cities and towns grew around it, the Trail vanished under the road and buildings. Meeker sees its preservation as a matter of urgency because of its slow disappearance. He wanted the trail to be marked correctly, and the monument was erected in honor of the dead.
Meeker came up with a scheme to travel along the Trail again with ox-drawn carts, raising public awareness for his purposes. He believes that the public interest will provide enough money both to build a marker and defend itself along the way. Although many hucksters travel by cart, selling nostrum patents, Meeker feels that he will stand out, as an authentic pioneer who can tell the true story of the Trail - especially if he uses the original equipment. He feels that maybe once the newspaper gets wind of his journey, they will give him extensive coverage.
Meeker does not have much money, so he raises it from friends. Ox carts were not a common sight in Puyallup in 1906; Meeker could not find an authentic full cart, and ended up using metal parts from the remains of three different ones. The construction is done by Cline & amp; McCoy from Puyallup. Meeker found a pair of oxen; Although one proved to be unsuitable, the owner insisted on buying both. The one kept by Meeker, named Twist, lodged in a reservoir in Tacoma when he searched for another. Meeker fix a group of bulls brought from Montana. He decides which is very heavy, which he named Dave. Although Dave gave Meeker many difficulties, starting with an 8 mile (13 km) drive back to Puyallup after purchase, the animal finally helped pull the train over 8,000 miles (13,000 km).
Although Meeker did not have a dog in his wagon in 1852, he knew that people liked them, and tried to add one to his crew. Jim, a great friendly collie who was a member of Meeker's expedition and associate for the next six years, was one of Meeker's neighbors, Mr. James. Meeker was impressed by the way Jim pushed James's chickens out of the area where the family planted berries, moving slowly. Five dollars for one child James secured his purchase. Some of Meeker's friends tried to get him out of the way; a local minister warned against this "cumbersome project," stating that "it is cruel to let this old man start this journey just to die of exposure to the mountains".
Meeker had brought the team and ox carts to Portland's Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905; On his journey he continued to open his eyes to places to set up suitable monuments on the Cowlitz Line, where the pioneers had traveled from the Columbia River to Puget Sound. He made arrangements with locals in towns along the way to raise money to build monuments there. He lectured as a fundraiser, but collected little money. He took his team and his wagon for a searching journey all day, though some people remember him as a Hop King. After a few days of camping in his yard as an exercise for the trip, and then in another nearby area, Meeker departed from Olympia on 19 February 1906.
Return to Traces (1906-1908)
According to Larsen in his book on Meeker's journey to the east,
It's easy to consider Ezra Meeker's remarkable 1906-08 expedition as long as the Oregon Trail is a well-oiled machine that works according to plan... But it's not always easy. â € <â € <... Faith throughout the company, let alone encouragement, in rather short supply. His own daughter tells him that people will laugh at him if he goes out on the street with the old oxen's yoke...
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 does not have a driver, and a train pulled to Tenino by a horse, with a cow left behind. He appealed to a local mine for a suitable stone, carved and dedicated to Tenino at a ceremony on the 21st. He was less successful as he traveled south to Portland; none of the rest of Washington's stops is an established monument, and although Meeker places the wooden poles on which the monument has to go, most of the designated cities do not follow through. The lack of enthusiasm about Meeker's mission continues in Portland, where the Unitarian elders voted against allowing Meeker the use of the building to lend a fundraiser, promising to do nothing to "encourage the old man to go out on the Plains to die".
In Portland, Meeker lost his remaining helpers (the one refusing to cut salaries, others for personal reasons). One lives aboard a cruise to Columbia before leaving in The Dalles, where Meeker hires driver/cook, William Mardon, $ 30 per month. He stays with Meeker for the next three years. Meeker also put an odometer on his wagon, calling The Dalles "Mile Zero" from his expedition. In The Dalles, Meeker engages in activities that will set the pattern for his progress along the Path: He flaunts himself, his carts and animals, goes public, and sells tickets for lectures (fifty cents for adults, half for children) he will provide about the Oregon Trail, including images displayed with stereoptics. He also met with members of the civil committee to raise funds for local monuments. Often these monuments are established after Meeker passes: he will position the post to point to his location. According to reporter James Aldredge in his 1975 article on Meeker's journey, "for a seven-year-old boy, he must be blessed with tremendous health and endurance... When the curious procession takes place, not the most memorable part of it is Meeker himself , with his face framed by his flowing white hair and his patriarchal beard. "According to reporter Bart Ripp in his 1993 article on Meeker," the first expedition to the east in 1906 should have been a talking tour, but people were more interested in seeing the old bird in closed trains.That is the 20th century, and Americans want a show. "
As he traveled east from The Dalles, Meeker met more enthusiastically than in his native country as he slowly passed through Oregon and Idaho. As the word begins to spread, it sometimes finds the townspeople prepared for it, or with stone ordered or even ready. The monument in Boise, presented by Meeker on April 30, 1906, stands on the land of the Idaho State Capitol. On the road, he camped as he did half a century earlier, but in the cities most often take hotel rooms, although the pay for this is uncertain. Near Pacific Springs, on the South Pass in Wyoming, Meeker has written stones to mark where the Trail passes the Continental Divide.
Meeker recalls in a memoir,
Sweetwater River views, 32 kilometers from the South Pass, revive many wonderful memories and some are sad. I can remember the crystal clear water, the green skirts from the bushes along the shore, and the quiet camps, as we climbed the river years ago. And now I see the same channel, the same hills, and it seems that the same water passes quickly. But where is the camp fire? Where's the skinny cattle herd? Where's the noise of the bells? hallooing for lost children? Or small groups on the hillside to bury the dead? Everything's gone.
Nebraska proved resilient to the sale of Meeper pitch, and near Brady, the Cow Twist died, probably after eating poisonous plants. Meeker must send money to the supporters' homes. He hired a horse team to pull the train temporarily, and the effort with two cows did not work. He was able to temporarily carry Dave with a cow that proved to be more suitable. At Omaha Stockyards, Meeker finds another cow, which he names Dandy, and destroys him on his way to Indianapolis, near where Meeker lived and as far as 2,600 miles (4,200 km) via the road from Puyallup. Beginning in Nebraska, Meeker began selling postcards from photos taken on the way - then there was insanity for postcards in the United States. He also arranged to print a book on the 1852 journey, much of which he wrote during the noon stop on a 1906 trip. Funds from the sale of these items enabled him to meet the cost on the road. Meeker's exploits were closely followed in a newspaper on the West Coast because of the east and west stories about him being reprinted there - when the westerners regarded any insult to Meeker, an angry editorial followed.
After a visit to Eddyville, Iowa, where he left in 1852, Meeker spent several weeks in Indianapolis, leaving on 1 March 1907, when his permission to sell on the streets there ended. With the trail of the Oregon Trail completed, it continues east through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York State, seeking to raise public awareness and earn some money for itself through the sale of its merchandise. He often spends a few days in a location, as long as the sales of postcards and books grows. When the expedition arrived in New York City, Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. was not present but the mayor acted to tell Meeker that, although he could not give her permission, he would order the police not to molest her. The message was not communicated well, because on 161 and Amsterdam Avenue a policeman arrested Mekhon's maid Meeker to drive cattle on the streets of New York in violation of local regulations. An impasse followed when Meeker refused to move his ox and the police had no means to do so. The situation was resolved when the higher authorities ordered Mardon's release. Meeker wants to drive along Broadway; it took a month to resolve a legal issue. It took six hours to drive Manhattan. He has arranged with the press for photographers, who took a photo of him on the New York Stock Exchange and a sub-Treasury building on Wall Street. Later in his stay, he drove across the Brooklyn Bridge.
After a small family reunion at Meeker's old house near Elizabeth, New Jersey, Meeker heading south toward Washington, DC He hopes to meet President Theodore Roosevelt at his summer home in Oyster Bay, New York, but Roosevelt's staff refuse, offering a meeting in Washington instead. Members of the Washington State congress delegation cleared the way, and Meeker met Roosevelt on 29 November 1907. The president went outside the White House to see the wagon and the Meeker team, and expressed support for Meeker's activities, and for Meeker's proposal for cross country highways (back then none) to honor the pioneers. After Washington, the tour ended: Meeker returns to Puyallup from Pittsburgh by train to see his ill wife. Upon returning to the East, he arranges transportation by river and rail boats, traveling through Missouri by train. The expedition was descended from a train in Portland, and Meeker moved north across Washington State (received warmer reception) on a slow route, ending in Seattle on July 18, 1908.
Advocacy for the Oregon Trail (1909-1925)
Meeker manages large pioneer fairs and restaurants at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exhibition in Seattle; he then sadly stated that Exposition had sacrificed his income from the sale of books and cards during his wagon tour. Later that year, he spent time in California, traveling with his wagon and his team. Eliza Jane Meeker died in 1909 in Seattle - she has been in poor health for several years. Ezra Meeker was in San Francisco, hawking his wares, when his wife died - it took him three days to find him, after which he traveled north for the funeral before returning to his work. On New Year's Day 1910, Meeker and his cart and his team participated in the Rosary Parade Tournament in Pasadena.
In 1910, Humphrey Bill, earned suitable money for the monument to mark the Trail, passed the House of Representatives and introduced to the Senate, on condition that no money would be spent unless the War Secretary could declare that the work would not require further allocation. Ezra Meeker set that year on another two-year expedition, with the emphasis this time on placing and marking where the Trail had been, rather than building a monument. Sometimes the marks on the ground from the emigrant carts are still there and make them clear, but at other times they have to rely on the memories of the old settlers. He traveled to Texas, but was unsuccessful in attracting people in his project there. His tour ended in 1912 in Denver when floods hit the city, resulting in damage to his books. However, according to Green, two Meeker trips resulted in the placement of 150 monuments. Humphrey Bill's version passed the Senate in 1913, but died when the House of Representatives took no action. Despite these failures, the group began marking the western path: Children and Daughters of the American Revolution installed plaques along the Cowlitz Line in 1916.
Beginning in 1913, Meeker began planning his role in the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915 in San Francisco. He had donated his cart and his ox to a park in Tacoma: when officials there expressed concern about the cost of building the right pavilion for them, Meeker reclaimed them and set out with them to California. Deeming Dandy is not fit for the road, Meeker told him to be massacred in Portland in June 1914 and hide it back to Tacoma for taxidermy; in November, the same fate met Dave in California. The Meeker carts are on display at the Exhibition in San Francisco. His stories about the Oregon Trail became one of the star attractions of the Exhibition. Nevertheless, he quarreled with the administrators of Washington State Building, feeling that it had to be opened on Sunday, when the biggest crowd came into the yard. Upon returning, the ox and wagon were installed as exhibits at the Washington State History Museum until it was closed to move to a new place in 1995. The cart was then considered too fragile to exhibit.
In 1916, the 85-year-old Meeker made another trip, this time with a Pathfinder. The Pathfinder company, in Indianapolis, borrowed a Meeker car with a wagon-style cart and driver as a publicity stunt. Meeker also receives a small salary, and travels in a vehicle from Washington, D.C. to Olympia. Meeker sees the use of motor vehicles as publicizing the need for transcontinental highways. During this trip, he lectured on the need for a national highway; before he left he met President Woodrow Wilson and discussed the topic with him.
Bernard Sun, whose grandparents are pioneers of the Oregon Trail in Wyoming, remembers the other side of Meeker:
He camped in Rush Creek with a closed carriage. The old bum was driving a grub line. He eats food from all the breeders here. My grandmother hates to see it. She combed the long hair at the dinner table. Put the teeth [fake] to eat and take them out to talk.
Although World War I distracted the public from Meeker and his activities, he used the time to plan for the future. On December 29, 1919, his 89th birthday, he began working on another book, Seventy Years of Progress in Washington , published for favorable reviews. In cooperation with Dr. Howard R. Driggs, a professor of English education at the University of Utah and later at New York University, he published a revised version of his memoir, Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail. In 1922, he fell ill from one of several times in his life. The newspaper reported that he refused to stay in bed, and his granddaughter, a doctor, stated that he would return Meeker to bed and "I'll keep him there - if I can.
Restored, the unbelieving Meeker started making new travel plans. With the International Air Races to be held in Dayton, Ohio, in 1924, Meeker tried to get the War Department to allow him to fly there. He was successful, and flew with an Army pilot, Oakley G. Kelly. At a stopover in Boise, Meeker said that they made time better than with his team, and in Dayton met the pioneer of Orville Wright's flight, to whom he commented, "You will be surprised by the difference between riding in Prairie Schooner and on An airplane." The publicity was so favorable that the Army ordered Kelly to fly Meeker for the rest of the trip to Washington, D.C., where a pioneer who once met President Calvin Coolidge in October 1924. Meeker returned to Seattle by train. Wanting the government to build a road over the Naches Pass, where he had guided his father's party seventy years earlier, Meeker ran for Washington's Representative Council in 1924 from the 47th district but lost the Republicans with 35 votes. In 1925, Meeker steered the bull team for several months while on tour at J.C. Miller Wild West Show.
Meeker reached the end of the trail (1925-1928)
In 1925, Congress still did not pass the designation to mark the Path. One of the federally sponsored fundraising ways at the time was to ask Congress to certify warning coins (usually half a dollar) and appoint a sponsoring organization to buy the issue at face value from the government and sell it to the public at a premium price. Meeker got an idea from a group of Idaho guys looking for coins to continue their conservation work at Fort Hall; he arranged the merger effort. Beginning in 1925, Meeker pressed half a dollar in honor of the pioneers and gave money for his efforts, and in April 1926 he appeared before the Senate committee, urging the passage of the law. Congress was obliged, and Coolidge signed the bill on May 17, 1926 at a ceremony attended by Meeker.
Meeker had founded the Old Oregon Trail Association in 1922. In early 1926, he was founded in New York as the Oregon Trail Memorial Association (OTMA), and was given office space there by the National Highways Association. The law authorizing the new coin sets OTMA as the organization that can buy the Oregon Trail Memorial for half a dollar from the government. The piece was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser and her husband, James Earle Fraser (who has designed Buffalo nickel). Six million coins were authorized, and starters were made by striking 48,000 for the Association at Philadelphia Mint; when they run out, 100,000 more are created in San Francisco Mint. Meeker is less successful with further problems, and many are unsold. Although the Bureau of Mint struck more in 1928, it remained confiscated until after Meeker's death, with tens of thousands of previously unsold problems.
Seattle has been home to Meeker since moving out of the mansion, but in the mid-1920s, Puyallup residents sought to honor him with the statue at Pioneer Park, Meeker's one-time restaurant site. They also sought to preserve the home site, where Eliza Jane Meeker had planted ivy half a century earlier, building a pergola to support the factory. With the statue and pergola finished, Meeker returned to Puyallup for a devotional ceremony in 1926. That same year, at the age of 95, Meeker published his first and only novel, Kate Mulhall, a Romantic Story from Oregon .
Meeker again advocated a better path, and gained support from Henry Ford, who built it Model A with the top of a closed wagon, dubbed Oxmobile, to be used in another expedition on the Trail to publicize the proposed Meeker highway. In October 1928, Meeker was hospitalized with pneumonia in Detroit. He returned to Seattle, where he fell ill again. Meeker was taken to a room at the Frye Hotel, where she told her daughter Ella Meeker Templeton, "I can not go, I have not finished my job." Ezra Meeker died there on December 3, 1928, just under a month after his 98th birthday. His body was brought in a procession back to Puyallup, where he was buried beside his wife Eliza Jane at Woodbine Cemetery. Under a plaque based on Oregon Trail Memorial coins Ezra Meeker has been inspired, their tombstone, founded by OTMA in 1939, reads, "They came this way to win and defend the West".
Legacy
Howard Driggs replaced Meeker as president of the OTMA, and remained in that capacity at his association and successor, the American Pioneer Trails Association (APTA), until his own death at the age of 89 in 1963. In 1930, marked 100 years since both Birth Meeker and the first wagon who left St. Louis for Oregon State, proclaimed as a Protected Centennial Wagon. The biggest event was on one of the landmarks along the Oregon Trail, Wyoming's Independence Rock, on July 3-5, 1930. This event included the dedication of a plaque depicting Meeker, which is embedded in a rock. Over the years, OTMA makes it a practice to go out every summer and dedicate a monument along the Oregon Trail. Although APTA no longer exists, the mission has been continued by community and history organizations of the country that share its goals, such as the Oregon-California Line Association.
A small half-dollar celebration in most of the 1930s; after collectors complained about long series and high prices, Congress banned further strikes in 1939. The first US route, Lincoln Highway, was completed in 1920, and others soon followed. Although the Meeker highway along the Path is not built, 30 AS is generally parallel to the Oregon Trail route. A number of sites related to Meeker remain in Puyallup. In addition to its grave, and Meeker Mansion (now owned by and restored by the Ezra Meeker Historical Society) there is Pioneer Park, where pergola covered ivy and Meeker statues can be found.
The local historian Lori Price noted, "Throughout his long life of nearly 98 years, the word for Meeker is action." Historian David Dary, in his book on the Oregon Trail, considers Meeker primarily responsible for reviving public interest in it. According to Bert Webber, "There will be no 'Oregon Trail' to enjoy today if Ezra Meeker does not depart, alone, and without government subsidies, to preserve it." Driggs states Meeker after his death:
Explanation notes
Kutipan
Bibliografi
Bacaan lebih lanjut
- Larsen, Dennis M. (2016). Hop King: Usia Ledakan Ezra Meeker . Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press. ISBN: 978-0-87422-342-2. Â
Tautan eksternal
- Meeker Mansion Situs web
- Panduan untuk Foto-foto Ezra Meeker ca. 1880-1928, dari situs web Universitas Washington
- Karya Ezra Meeker di Project Gutenberg
- Karya oleh atau tentang Ezra Meeker di Internet Archive
- Karya Ezra Meeker di LibriVox (audiobook domain publik)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments