Imperial Valley press., 1928-12-04
PIONEER TO THE END

Within three years of the century mark which he
wished so much to reach Ezra Meeker pioneer of the
Oregon Trail is called the Great Divide to join the
spirits of those who made the trek the country
with him three quarters of century ago.
Meeker was a splendid example of that fine type
of manhood and womanhood that brought the Great
West into the folds of civilization long before the great
ma jorty of us were born.
With his young bride he plunged away from the
and comfort of civilization 76 years ago. to play
his part in the building of empire and it his
good fortune to see what had been the home of the
savage and the wild beast, develop into important
part of the greatest nation man has yet produced.
Nor he content to submit to the advance of
Father Time. At age when most men retire to the
quiet corner of the home and let things take their
course he again took to the long trail with his oxen in
the hope of stimulating interest in great national
highway that would not only be monument to the
pioneers, but would make just little easier for the
and future generations to reach the land which
he first after many hardshipS.
Still later when he was past ninety, he once more
took the old trail, though this time he showed his
modernism by travelling in an arplane again giving
good example of pioneering and proving that old age
could not reegate him to the corner.
1t is far cry from the immigrant train of 1852,
making its difficult passage rackless country
infested with Indians and wild beasts to the whirrng
airplane cruising along like bird above the little
world that man has worked long and hard, in
his puny efforts to master it.
What marvellous history is encompassed in the
time between the two trips Ezra Meeker saw his
country hurled into gigantic few years after
he settled the farthermost of its wilderness.
He it grow from nation torn asunder by strife to
a great united family, differing in many things, yet
welded together forever nation and indvisibe
He the inventive genius of his feow-citizens
produce the telephone, the electric light the automo
bile, the airplane the talking machine radio = to
ton only a few of their accomplishments
In the single field of transportation alone he
the time for crossing the country cut down from toll
some journey of many months to quick and easy
trip of Is hours.
Nor was he the sort of man who discounts 'new
tangled contraptons, and figures that "old ways
best He adopted the improvements as fast they
were produced and used them his daily burden.
His was the true spirit of the pioneer which is ever
seeking something new, always cropping ahead and
never content to be halted.
This is the spirit that typifes the best in Ameri-
can manhood the manhood of any other nation. 1t
is the spirit that produces Lndbergh Byrd, Mar
conf, a Zeppelin, Shackleton Amundsen.
True pioneer that he was Ezra Meeker did not shy
at death when it came his way He the end of his
trail in sight and met it he would any incident on the
great trek of 1852, unafrad and bit of ad-
venture.
One can almost imagine him recounting to old
comrades in the Great Beyond, the fun he had on his
twentieth century oxcart trip and the thrills he
perienced in mans latest of conveyance on his
last trip eastward And still mbued with the pioneer
spirit see him trying out his great pearly wings
which he will doubtless find better than Lieuten-
ant Kelley's arplane