Dive into the extraordinary life of Ezra Meeker, a true American pioneer whose journey spanned from the challenging early days of westward expansion to a passionate quest to preserve its memory. From traversing the Oregon Trail by ox-wagon as a young man to retracing its path decades later, Meeker’s unwavering dedication ensured that the legacy of those who braved the frontier would not be forgotten.
As Howard R. Driggs profoundly stated in Covered Wagon Centennial, “Then an old man, almost eighty, clambered into a prairie schooner… and the Oregon Trail was retraced and marked with monuments that a people and a nation may not forget.” This sentiment perfectly encapsulates the monumental contribution of Ezra Meeker.
The Early Years and the Call of the West
Ezra Manning Meeker was born on December 29, 1830, near Huntsville, Ohio, the fourth of six children to Jacob and Phoebe Meeker. His early life was shaped by his father’s work as a farmer and miller, and the family’s move to near Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1839. Despite receiving limited formal schooling, young Ezra engaged in various odd jobs, including working as a printer’s devil and delivering newspapers for the Indianapolis Journal, experiences that likely honed his resourcefulness and independent spirit.
In May 1851, Meeker married his childhood sweetheart, Eliza Jane Sumner. The couple would eventually have six children. The allure of the frontier soon called to them, and in 1852, with their seven-week-old son and Ezra’s brother, Oliver, they joined a wagon train bound for the Oregon Territory. Their modest outfit included a wagon, two yokes of oxen, one of cows, and an extra cow. The journey along the Oregon Trail was an informal collective endeavor, undertaken without a designated wagon master, relying on mutual aid and sheer determination.
Building a New Life in the Pacific Northwest
After five arduous months, the entire party successfully completed the perilous journey and arrived in Oregon. Ezra Meeker initially found work unloading ships in Portland before moving to St. Helens, where he and Oliver helped construct a wharf. In January 1853, Ezra made his first land claim for a farm approximately 40 miles downriver from Portland, near the present-day site of Kalama, Washington. This venture was short-lived, as news that lands north of the Columbia River would become Washington Territory, centered on the Puget Sound, prompted the brothers to relocate. They settled first on McNeil Island, near the burgeoning town of Steilacoom, with Oliver building a cabin while Ezra returned to sell their Kalama claims and retrieve the family.
The following year brought both joy and sorrow. In 1853, the Meeker brothers received a letter from their father, Jacob, expressing his and other family members’ desire to emigrate. Oliver returned to Indiana in 1854 to assist their move. However, tragedy struck the emigrant party. In August 1854, Ezra received word that his relatives were delayed and low on provisions. Rushing to their aid near the first Fort Walla Walla, he learned that his mother and a younger brother had tragically succumbed along the Trail. He then guided the grieving survivors the rest of the way. Jacob Meeker, finding limited prospects on McNeil Island, claimed land near Tacoma and managed a general store in Steilacoom. Further heartbreak followed on January 5, 1861, when Oliver Meeker drowned in a shipwreck off the California coast while returning from a buying trip to San Francisco.
The “Hop King” of Puyallup Valley
The Meekers, having borrowed heavily to finance Oliver’s final trip, lost their money and land in 1862. Resilient, they secured squatter’s claims in the fertile Puyallup Valley. There, they ventured into growing hops, a crucial ingredient for beer brewing. The valley’s rich soil and temperate climate proved ideal, yielding four to five times the usual amount, leading to widespread prosperity for local farmers. Over the next few decades, Ezra Meeker emerged as a dominant force in the hop market, amassing a considerable fortune and expanding his influence as a merchant, bank president, promoter of the Northwest, lecturer, and advocate for infrastructure like roads and railroads.
In 1877, Meeker platted a townsite, naming it Puyallup – derived from local Indian words meaning generous people. He became its first postmaster and generously donated land and funds for municipal buildings, parks, a theater, a hotel, and subsidized a wood products factory. His dynamic leadership was keenly observed, with the Ezra Meeker Historical Society noting in 1972: “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, and a natural leader, he became a prime mover, galvanizing the citizens of Puyallup into action on vital problems… transforming the forest into one of the most progressive small communities in the state.” By 1887, he and Eliza had begun constructing their grand Puyallup mansion, a lavish home costing $26,000, completed in 1890, the same year Puyallup was formally incorporated. Ezra Meeker served as its first mayor and was re-elected in 1892.
From Prosperity to Preservation
Meeker’s prosperity was not without its challenges. In 1891, a devastating infestation of hop aphids destroyed his crops and those of other regional farmers. Many growers to whom Meeker had lent money were unable to repay him. The severe worldwide depression known as the Panic of 1893 exacerbated the problems, causing many of Meeker’s investments, such as the Puyallup Electric Light Company, to fail. He consequently lost much of his fortune and eventually his lands to foreclosure. Unbowed, Meeker pivoted his entrepreneurial spirit towards supplying vegetables to miners during the Yukon and Klondike gold rushes, even founding a company to buy and sell mining claims. In 1897, he and his sons ventured to British Columbia’s Kootenay region to work their claims, later opening the Log Cabin Grocery in Dawson City during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush.
In the early 1900s, Ezra Meeker embarked on what would become his life’s defining mission: the marking and preservation of the Old Oregon Trail. He dedicated the remainder of his life to this monumental goal, tirelessly lobbying Congress and meeting with Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge to garner support. To ignite national interest and secure funding, he undertook incredible journeys, retracing the Trail by ox team in 1906 and again in 1910. Remarkably, in 1924, he traversed portions of it by airplane, and at the time of his death in 1928, at 97, he was planning another trip in a Ford automobile equipped with a covered wagon on the back.
His historic Puyallup mansion, put up for sale in 1903, remained in family hands for several years. During Meeker’s 1906 Oregon Trail expedition, rooms were rented to boarders. After Eliza’s death in 1909, Ezra left the mansion to a daughter and son-in-law, eventually leased as a hospital in 1912 and sold in 1915 to the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic for use as a home for widows and orphans. Today, the majestic Meeker Mansion at 312 Spring Street stands as a museum, a testament to its builder’s legacy.
Throughout his later life, Meeker was also a founding member and president of the Washington Historical Association. At his passing, he was the founder and president of the Oregon Trail Monument Association, the precursor to today’s Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA). He was also a prolific writer, chronicling the events of his day in books, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and agricultural journals, ensuring his experiences and the history of the frontier were documented for future generations.
A Lasting Legacy
Ezra Meeker died of pneumonia on December 3, 1928, in Seattle, Washington, just a month shy of his 98th birthday. His remains were interred beside his wife, Eliza Jane, in Woodbine Cemetery in Puyallup. Their shared gravestone bears a simple yet powerful inscription: “They came this way to win and hold the West.” This epitaph perfectly encapsulates the spirit of Ezra Meeker, a man who not only lived the American frontier experience but dedicated his later life to ensuring its memory would endure. His tireless efforts helped preserve a vital piece of American heritage, making him an unforgettable figure in Western history and a true guardian of the Oregon Trail.
