Oliver Perry Meeker

A brutal Iowa winter and the lure of free land enticed Ezra and Eliza Jane to make the journey to Oregon in 1852. They were accompanied by Ezra's older unmarried brother Oliver Perry Meeker. The 1850 census shows the family of Walter and Melinda Clement living in Eddyville, the very town the Meekers departed from in 1852. One young daughter, Amanda, was just thirteen years old that spring, too young to marry even by the standards of that time. But it seems Oliver took notice. Ezra, Eliza Jane, their infant son Marion and Oliver eventually reached Puget Sound in the spring of 1853 and built a cabin on McNeil Island just across the sound from the village of Steilacoom. Here they received a letter from their father, Jacob Meeker, stating, "Boys, if Oliver will come back to cross with us, we will go to Oregon next year." Oliver jumped at the opportunity. A journey west would go very near Eddyville. Unmarried Oliver no doubt thought of Amanda Clement. She would be two years older by the time he got to Iowa and of marriageable age. Perhaps a letter was sent discussing the subject. Later events suggest that this was likely. Oliver's grandson chronicles what happened next. "Oliver took the steamer down the coast to Panama, walked across the Isthmus of Panama & from the Atlantic side took a steamer to New York, thence by train west to where the old folks lived. It was then that Oliver's & Amanda's romance took place. On their way to the "jumping off spot" [on the Missouri River], where the wagons and ox teams were outfitted and the wagon trains organized for the trip, over night stops were made at farm houses, and where there had been some prior acquaintance, this was utilized where possible. At any rate, the Meekers stopped over night at the home of the Clements and Oliver and Amanda, the 15 year-old daughter of the Clements fell in love in the one evening they had. In the morning Oliver went to the girl's parents and proposed that they be married and he offered to leave her at the altar and make the trip west & when he had a suitable home established for her, he would then come back for her. The Parents asked Amanda if she was willing to be married & then wait for him & she said "yes". Then the parents decided that the best thing would be for them to marry, but for Amanda to go west with Oliver & help with establishing that home." Oliver and Amanda settled in Steilacoom, WA where they had one child, Frank. A general store was started in Steilacoom in conjunction with his brother Ezra and his father Jacob. On January 6, 1860 while returning to Steilacoom from San Francisco on the steamship Northerner with supplies for the store, a rock was struck off Cape Mendocino, The ship sank and Oliver drowned while trying to make it to shore. There is a marker and a cross at Centerville Beach where the recovered bodies were buried.