Nathan Meeker

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Nathanial C. Meeker
Born	July 12, 1817(1817-07-12) Euclid, Ohio
Died	September 30, 1879 (aged 62) Meeker, Colorado

Nathanial C. Meeker (July 12, 1817–September 30, 1879) was a 19th century U.S. journalist, homesteading entrepreneur, and Indian agent for the federal government. He is noted for his founding in 1870 of the Union Colony, a cooperative agricultural colony in present-day Greeley, Colorado. He was the most famous casualty of the 1879 Meeker Massacre in western Colorado, where the town of Meeker was later named for him. His name is also found on Mount Meeker, a shorter neighbor to the more famous Longs Peak, the tallest mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park.

[edit] Biography

Nathan Cook Meeker was born in Euclid, Ohio. He became a newspaper reporter for the New York Tribune, and served as their agricultural editor in the 1860s.

In 1869, with the backing of his editor, Horace Greeley, he organized the Union Colony and advertised for applicants to move to the South Platte River basin in the Colorado Territory. The cooperative venture was intended to be a utopian religious community of "high moral standards." Meeker received approximately 3000 replies that winter, and accepted about 700 of them to purchase shares. With the capital from the shares, he purchased 2000 acres (8 km²) near present-day Greeley at the confluence of the South Platte and the Cache la Poudre River. The venture, which relied on funding from Horace Greeley, was successful and helped advance irrigation techniques to northern Colorado, and to induce further agricultural settlement in the region. The town of Greeley was incorporated in 1886.

In 1878, eight years after the founding of the colony, Meeker was appointed Indian agent on the White River Ute Indian Reservation, on the western side of the continental divide. His appointment came despite his lack of experience with Native Americans. While living among the Utes, he built on his experiences at the Union Colony by pursuing a policy of religious and farming reforms.

An etching that appeared in the December 6, 1879 edition of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper depicts the aftermath of the "Meeker Massacre."

Meeker was an idealist. His idea was to convert the Utes from primitive savages to hard-working, God-fearing farmers. Needless to say, his ideas were not popular, and he was warned that the Utes were furious with his reforms. Meeker ignored these warnings, and ordered that a horse racing track be plowed under to convert the race track and horses' pasturage to farmland. The Utes, who prided themselves on their wealth in horses, took this as the final affront -- especially when Meeker suggested to one that there were too many horses, and that they would have to kill some of them.

By doing that, he signed the death warrants of himself and every male employee at the Indian Agency, for on September 29th, 1879, the Utes rebelled, killing Meeker and ten others. The women and children, including his wife, Arvilla Delight Meeker, and his daughter, Josephine, were captured and the agency burned. The incident came to be known as the Meeker Massacre^{[1] [2]} and marked the beginning of the Ute War. A unit of soldiers under Major [Thomas T. Thornburgh] of the 4th Infantry Regiment (United States) was ambushed and Thornburgh and 12 others killed and 43 wounded.

Although the Utes prevailed in the short run, within a decade they were forced to withdraw from nearly all of western Colorado, including all of the lands along the White River.

[edit] List of killed

• Nathan Meeker
• Frank Dresser
• Henry Dresser
• George Eaton
• E.W. Eskridge
• Carl Goldstein
• W.H. Post
• Mr. Price
• Fred Shepard
• Arthur L Tompson
• Unknown Teamster

Reference ^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "The Last Major Indian Uprising"
• "Meeker Home Museum"
• "Meeker Family History"