The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-10-21
PRAIRIE BOAT
HERE FROM
PACIFIC
Heeker, DesCendent Of
Local Family, Makes
Long Trip

An old-style prairie schooner a wagon
with a canvas top, such as were used
by the pioneer settlers of the far West
more than 70 years ago, with two patient
brown oxen attached, attracted the atten-
ton of many people at the head of Mill
tary Park this morning. In the wagon
was Mrs. Bruce Mardon. wife Of the
driver Of the oxen. They met at Glovers-
Vile. New York., six weeks ago and were
married there. 1t was a case of love at
first sight. She sold small books, written
by the venerable Ezra Meeker, n years
old. who is on his way to Washington,
ID. c., to interest President Roosevelt and
the Congress in the building Of a concrete
road on the old Oregon trail, which ran
from the Missouri River to the Oregon
shore of the Pacific Ocean, a distance of
lisa miles.
When the outfit started from Puyallup,
in the State of Washington, on January
20, 1906, the oxen were Dane and Twist.
The latter died at Omaha, and an OK that
has been named Dandy was purchased
in the stock yards there. Dane weighs
1,730 pounds after having travelled about
3 500 miles to Newark. Dandy weighs
/ $50 pounds. The sale Of Mr.. Meeker's
little book helps to pay the expenses of
his novel trip.
The ancestors of Ezra Meeker, the
owner of the oxen and prairie schooner
Il man with flowing white hair aud beard,
came from England In 1876, and settled
between Elizabeth and Newark, where
they built a stone home, which is yet
standing and Is called The Old Meeker
Mansion The father of Ezra Meeker was
born In the home. Mr.. Meeker said today
that he will try TO get a reunion of all
the Meekers before he continues his trip
TO Washington, D.. c. His mothers
maiden name was Phoebe Baker. Ezra
Meeker was born at Huntsville, Ohio, on
December rs, 1880. He has been married
ffty-five years. When his father moved
to Indiana the boy Ezra drove four yoke
of oxen for twenty-five cents u day and
boarded Mt home. When he was born
there We're only thirty miles Of railroad In
the United States.
In 1874 the maternal grandfather gave
Mrs. Meeker 81. 900 to buy a farm, and she
and her husband, who was a miller, car
ried the money, all silver dollars. in a box
in a covered wagon, down from Ohio to
indianapolis, and a farm was purchased
five miles from that place. Ezra was for
a time printers devil" on the Indian
apolis Journal of that day, and he deliv-
cred papers. One of his customers was the
late Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the
famous preacher. When he was IA years
old Ezra sam campaign songs ut a great
Wing political meeting on Tippecanoe bat
tlefield and he made S1 by the sale of
copies Of his songs.
In 1852, when he was % years old, Meeker
and his young wife started from Oregon.
over the old Oregon trail, in a covered
wagon drawn by oxen to make their home
in Oregon Territory, where he has lived
as Il farmer ever since. A few years ago
he conceived the idea of preserving the
old ira. from the Missouri River to the
Pacific Ocean by getting the national gov
ernment to make II u great concrete road.
United States Senator Pyles gave him a
letter 10 President Roosevelt, and Con-
gressmen Cushman, johnson and Hum
phries. all of Oregon gave hin letters
also. Secretary Loeb wrote him that Pres
ident Roosevelt would receive him and
hear his plea for a great national highway
on the old, historic trail. He then decided
to go back over the trail with a yoke of
oxen aud "A covered wagon, as he had gone
to Oregon forty-iye years ago, and he
started with his grandson and Jim, u faith
full dog.
On the ride along the trail Mr.. Meeker
made speeches to people at the various
towns and settlements, urging them to
work 10 preserve the old trail. Between
Wash, formerly a part of
Oregon, and Omaha nineteen monuments
of stone, u huge stone boulder in one
place a - of stone In another place,
and signboaids or posts to mark the old
trail.
The Oregon trail began, as did the Santa
Fe trail. leading to the Southwest, at the
town If Independence, on the Missouri
River. Practically, ST. Louis was the
Eastern terminus. men and goods going up
the Missouri River to Independence, and
there taking wagon and setting out either
for the Northwest or the Southwest.
The two trails were the same for fotry-
ore miles. wehu, as the historian Chitten-
den remarks. u simple sienboard was seen
which carried the words. Road to Ore
gon." That |signboard today, with its lack
OF ostentation and its epigrammatic clear
meas. would be worth more than its pro-
verbal weight in gold TO any State his
tprical society.
There were branch trails that came into
the road from L~eavenworth and st. Joseph, |
striking it above the point Of departure
from the Santa Re trail, but the Oregon
trail proper swung off from this fork, run
ming steadily to the northwest, part Of the
time along tho Little Blu River, until at
length it struck the valley Of the Platte.
so essential to It's welfare.
In 1S43 nearly a thousand men. women
and children crossed the Missouri River,
the Platte valleys. crossed the
Rocky Mountains through the South Pass,
thence to and down Snake River TO the
Columbia, and 20 tidewater in the old
Oregon country; the first wagon train
ever reached the Pacific Slope. Like
a gathering storm Of a summer day. these
people had come together on the eastern
borner OF tho indian country from widely
districts of the United States
and pitched their tents near the buffalo
herds on the western border OF civilization.
The Oregon question was unsettled, but
hung in the lance The Lynn bill grant
Ing SO acres OF lane TO each family had
passed the Senate. Whitman, the intrepid
missionary, had returned overland the
previous winter to save his mission, and