Ezra Meeker And The Oregon Trail
As so often happens when doing research for this blog, I begin with one idea in mind and in the course of researching what I think will be the blog for the day, I find something even more fascinating.
This week marks the anniversary of the first mass emigration of Americans along the Oregon Trail. On May 22, 1843, 1,000 hardy souls, along with 1,000 head of cattle, left Independence, Missouri in search of a better life in Oregon and California.
A few smaller, more modest, parties had begun to carve the route in earlier years, but this wagon train launched the huge tidal wave of people making their way west from the crowded eastern shores of America. The trail was 2,000 miles long and ran through the states of what are now Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon.
If the group was lucky, the journey could be completed in five months. Most used wagons pulled by oxen, and traveled an average of fifteen miles per day. The wagons carried personal possessions, 1,000 pounds of food, spare wagon parts and a toolbox. More than 400,000 men, women and children used the Trail during its peak years and were plagued by weather delays, faulty equipment and disease. Travel along this trail by wagon continued until the late 1860s, when railroads finally spanned across the entire continent.
One of the persons to trek across the country by wagon was Ezra Meeker,
Ezra Meeker in 1921.
an Ohio native, who made the journey with his wife in 1852, when he was 22 years of age. It took nearly six months for Ezra, his wife, Eliza Jane, their infant son, and Ezra’s brother, to make the journey, but they settled in what is now Puyallup, WA where Ezra became a wealthy man, growing hops for beer and served as the town’s first mayor. He and Eliza Jane built a huge mansion in Puyallup, which still exists today.
Meeker Mansion
Ezra became obsessed with the idea the Oregon Trail was becoming forgotten, so he took it upon himself to travel the trail again while in his 70s, to convince people in the towns along the way to erect monuments relating to the Trail, making several trips back and forth.
Oregon Trail marker
He became an outspoken advocate of the preservation of the Trail and its legacy and even met with President Theodore Roosevelt in his effort to campaign to preserve this colorful part of America’s past.
Meeker in Omaha, Nebraska, campaigning for a monument marker
He traveled the Trail again, by oxcart, a decade later, and then followed the course by airplane in 1924, when he was 94. He died at age 97. Possibly, he was the only person to complete the journey by wagon, railroad train, automobile and airplane. Due to his efforts, the Oregon Trail, the ruts of which can still be seen today in each state, will remain firmly entrenched as a part of America’s history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Meeker
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-oregon-trail
http://www.frontiertrails.com/oldwest/oregontrail.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/great-emigration-departs-for-oregon
Thanks. I so enjoyed this post and accompanying photos. I have a recurring dream that I was part of a wagon train in those years. Quite a weird dream for a city girl whose grandparents came through Ellis Island.
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When everyone is so busy making banners to Make America Great AGAIN, they need to study these people that worked and remembered how hard it was to get where they were. The people who wanted everyone to know through monuments that if we persevered we could have a dream. America was great when Americans were great. Simple as that. We need to spend more time studying how these people lived and succeeded instead of worrying about whether Brad Pitt stays married or not. Thanks for sharing this article.
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| | | This article is very interesting.
However, when I clicked on the like icon it said your page could not be found. I tried the comment icon and got the same message. I think the links are broken. Sue NucklesAuthor ofThe Toughest Gang in Five Points |
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Hi Sue, and thanks for commenting. This post wasn’t supposed to go live until Friday, May 26, but I pushed the wrong button, so had to delete the post until Friday. Sorry for the confusion. Someday I hope to learn what I’m doing.
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A band I used to be in wrote a song about the Oregon Trail 😊. See what you think!
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Great post on a man who left his mark, quite literally, on American history! I have some really good photos of the ruts you mention. It is amazing to see how deep they still are after all this time.
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Pingback: Ezra Meeker And The Oregon Trail | beckylowerauthor
Interesting. A man who didn’t want history to be forgotten.
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I’m so glad there are men like him. I traveled the trail a few years ago, and all the markers along the way helped. Now, after having done this story, I know who helped put them there.
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Hello Becky! Greetings from here in Reading, PA. I enjoyed your Post about the Oregon Trail. There is so much History on that trail, I wish I could see it for myself being a lover of History around my area. Those Pioneers of the early day’s must have endured many Life changing things while trying to start a new Life walking & riding those covered wagons. If you have more on the Oregon Trail, I would love to see it. Thank you! I am following.
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Greetings from Reading, PA. Enjoyed your Post on the Oregon Trail. Would love to see what remains of the old Trail, but probably never will. The covered wagon rutts are one of them. My area over here is just full of History. It’s what my Blog is mostly about. If you have anymore about the Trail, I’d like to see it. Thanks. I am following.
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I don’t think we’ve written anything else on this blog about the Oregon Trail, but there’s a ton of stuff out there about it. If you ever get to St. Louis, go to the bookstore at the Arch. They’ve got just about everything.
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It would be nice.
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