Home

Joe Meek - Mountain Man and Trapper

"Next year my father and Robert Newell and some of the other mountain men decided to come to the Willamette valley and become farmers. Father took up a claim on Tualatin plains."

Next year my uncle Robert Newell, brought the wagons on rafts down the Columbia to the Willamette Valley. He was a member of the provisional government and was speaker in 1847. He was one of the directors of the Oregon Spectator when it was first published at Oregon City.

My father said when word came by Indian courier that white men and women were coming westward he and some of the Nez Perce Indians went out to meet them. The met them on the Sweetwater. They were Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding with their husbands. These were the first two white women to come overland to the Pacific coast.

Howdy Pardner!

How about we show you how to get a
Free Oregon Trail Game Download?

In 1839 most of the trappers and mountain men had no way of making a living, for the beavers were scarce and the manufacturers had quit making hats out of beaver. Next year my father and Robert Newell and some of the other mountain men decided to come to the Willamette valley and become farmers. Father took up a claim on Tualatin plains.

My father and mother had 12 children. My oldest brother, was born in 1839 in Pierre's hole. My brother Stephen A. Douglas Meek lives at North Plains. Another brother and sister live in Idaho.

Previous Page - Next Page

"One of the officers, a young chap in a Naval uniform, began making fun of father. He said, "Old man, how long have you been here? By your looks you must have been here a long while."

The Story of Joe Meek - Start Page

Excerpted from Oregon Folks by Fred Lockley (1927) Knickerbocker Press, New York

Find it on your favorite, ubiquitous auction channel - ebay:
oregon trail game + oregon trail book + pioneer photo + old west photo

Clean Movies - Family Entertainment