 Meeker was given a truck chassis and money to modify it into a wagon-topped vehicle by Henry Ford in 1928 for yet another Trail trip. Ford offered to make the vehicle more comfortable for Meeker if he brought it to the Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan. Accordingly, when he left New York in August 1928 on another journey, planning to sell half dollars along the way, he headed directly for Michigan. He arrived ill, and was hospitalized, almost dying there. He was able to return home, disgruntled at having missed voting in the election (he supported the successful Republican candidate, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, for president) for the first time since 1853. At his home in Washington state, Meeker again became ill in November, and died December 3, 1928, three and a half weeks before his 98th birthday. He was buried in a cemetery in Puyallup, a place he had helped settle. Meeker's headstone bears a plaque reproducing the wagon side of the half dollar.
