His adventurous spirit led Joseph Meek to the far West as one of the first pioneers to settle in the once unknown region that is now Oregon. After years as a fur trapper, a tragedy and a special connection with President James Polk would lead Meek to play a key role in bringing statehood to the Oregon Territory in the 1800s.
Meek was born in Virginia’s Washington County in 1810, but little is known about his early days. He left home as a young man, due to his rowdy behavior and disagreements with his stepmother. He moved to St. Louis at 19, where he entered the fur trade. Meek then headed farther west to make a living by trapping in the Rocky Mountains as a mountain man.
Great Storyteller
According to Meek’s great granddaughter Judy Goldmann, not much would be known about Meek if it wasn’t for his stories. Author Frances Fuller Victor interviewed him to collect his stories and wrote his biography in 1870, “The River of the West: The Adventures of Joe Meek.”“Some of the other fellows who were very important to history didn’t have the gift of gab,” Ms. Goldmann told The Epoch Times. “That’s what he (Meek) possessed and was able to give to Mrs. Victor in interviews. I think he was a talker and storyteller, and maybe someone who embellished some of what he told.”
By 1840, the fur trapping industry had dwindled. Meek headed farther west along the Oregon Trail on one of the first wagon trains that made it to the Pacific Coast. He settled in Oregon and farmed wheat with his friend Robert Newell. There, Meek soon got involved in local politics.
Personal Tragedy
Meek helped organize a provisional government in 1843 that brought the U.S. law to the Oregon Territory for the first time. He served as sheriff of the territory and was a state legislator for several years.
As tensions rose between native tribes and the settlers from the East, Meek’s life took a tragic turn. He heard that Cayuse Native Americans at Whitman mission had murdered his good friends Marcus and Narcissa Whitman just west of Walla Walla, Washington. When Meek went to see what had happened, he learned that the Cayuse had kidnapped his own 10-year-old daughter. She later died in captivity.
These events prompted Meek to take action. He traveled to Washington in the late fall of 1847. Meek braved the harsh weather conditions to make the fastest trip yet from Oregon to the nation’s capital that anyone had done on foot or horseback.
A New State
Once at the nation’s capital, Meek quickly secured a meeting with President James Polk since Meek was a cousin of Polk’s wife, Sarah Childress. “He was instrumental in promoting the fact that the Oregon country should become a territory and be taken in as part of the United States rather than abandoned to Great Britain,” Ms. Goldmann said.Meek returned to Oregon with the position of U.S. Marshal for the Oregon Territory. As an official lawman, Meek delivered justice. He arrested five of the culprits who murdered his two friends and daughter.
Meek would spend the rest of his life farming and giving back to his community as a lawman and soldier. He organized a group of Oregon volunteers to fight in the Yakima Indian War from 1855 to 1858. The culmination of his efforts led to his ultimate dream coming true when Oregon became the 33rd U.S. state in 1859. He passed away in 1875 at his home on the land he settled just north of Hillsboro, Oregon. Ms. Goldmann still attends annual get-togethers with all of Meek’s living descendants.
