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CONNECTING DARRTOWN AND EZRA MEEKER

In October 2020, I discovered a book on Amazon titled "Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail"  which captured my interest and I downloaded it to my Kindle reader.

Much to my surprise, the first chapter in the book (which is written in the first person) began with this sentence: "I was born in Huntsville, Butler County, Ohio, on December 29, 1830."

Could it be, I wondered, that the author, Ezra Meeker, was in some way connected to persons associated with Darrtown?

Despite being a native of Butler County, Ohio, I had never heard of Huntsville. So, I checked a resource about Butler County place names and learned that Huntsville was located on the east side of the county, in Liberty Township.

Being familiar with the concept of "six degrees of separation," I decided to pursue Ezra Meeker's family story. I did it the old fashioned way (I asked for help). I turned to our website's genealogy guru, Mr. Kim Johnson.

Kim did it!  He connected Ezra Meeker to a Darrtown Pioneer!

The linking of  Ezra to Darrtown is explained in the video below.

...as an example of the "Six Degrees of Separation" concept

Until mid-October 2020, I had never heard of Ezra Meeker. Then ... several factors emerged and converged at approximately the same time and that convergence led to the creation of this page. Here's how it happened...

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Start with Ezra Meeker's birth in 1830 and follow the arrows.

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Ezra Manning Meeker (1830-1928)
Photo taken at age 91
Ezra Manning Meeker (1830-1928)
Photo taken at age 91

The content that appears in the above window was found at Wikipedia. To read the full account and see more images of Ezra Meeker, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Meeker

The Find a Grave website offers a concise summary of Ezra Meeker's life.

For additional information about, and photos of, Ezra Meeker, see Ezra Meeker at HistoryLink.org

EZRA MANNING MEEKER

Ezra Manning Meeker (December 29, 1830 – December 3, 1928) was an American pioneer who traveled the Oregon Trail by ox-drawn wagon as a young man, migrating from Iowa to the Pacific Coast. Late in life he worked to memorialize the Trail, repeatedly retracing the trip of his youth. Once known as the "Hop King of the World", he was the first mayor of Puyallup, Washington.

Meeker was born in Butler County, Ohio to Jacob and Phoebe Meeker. His family relocated to Indiana when he was a boy. He married Eliza Jane Sumner in 1851; the following year the couple, with Ezra's brother and with their newborn son, set out for the Oregon Trail, where land could be claimed and settled on. Although they endured hardships on the Trail inthe journey of nearly six months, the entire party survived the trek. Meeker and his family briefly stayed near Portland, then journeyed north to live in the Puget Sound region. They settled at what is now Puyallup in 1862, where Meeker grew hops for use in brewing beer. By 1887, his business had made him wealthy, and his wife built a large mansion for the family. In 1891 an infestation of hop aphids destroyed his crops and took much of his fortune. He later tried his hand at a number of ventures, and made four largely unsuccessful trips to the Klondike, taking groceries and hoping to profit from the gold rush.

Meeker became convinced that the Oregon Trail was being forgotten, and he determined to bring it publicity so it could be marked and monuments erected. In 1906–1908, although in his late 70s, he retraced his steps along the Oregon Trail by wagon, seeking to build monuments in communities along the way. His trek reached New York, and in Washington, D.C. he met President Theodore Roosevelt. He traveled the Trail again several times in the final two decades of this life, including by oxcart in 1910–1912 and by airplane in 1924. During another such trip, in 1928, Meeker fell ill but was succored by Henry Ford. On his return to Washington state, Meeker became ill again and died there on December 3, 1928 at age 97. Meeker wrote several books; his work has continued through the activities of such groups as the Oregon-California Trails Association.

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Here's some background on Ezra Meeker - famed Oregon Trail pioneer.

The following graphic illustrates how Ezra Meeker is connected to Darrtown

The following video explains how Ezra Meeker is connected to Darrtown