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[Frontispiece: PRESIDENT AND OLD PIONEER]
Signature of President Coolidge from the White House, March 25, 1926.
PRESIDENT AND OLD PIONEER
Calvin Coolidge and Ezra Meeker, two stalwart Americans--the President a New Englander, and Mr. Meeker a native of Ohio, though for nearly all his adult life a resident of the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Meeker was a youth past fourteen when the late John C. Coolidge, father of the President, was born. Photograph taken on the White House grounds, near the Executive Offices, in October 1924, just after Mr. Meeker had flown in an aeroplane from Washington State to the City of Washington: and the old gentleman took advantage of the opportunity to say to the President--as he had to President Theodore Roosevelt near the same spot on November 29, 1907--that the memory of the Pioneers should be preserved, and the route of the Oregon Trail suitably and permanently marked.
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[Frontispiece: EZRA MEEKER]
EZRA MEEKER
Born December 29, 1830. Only survivor (1926) among the adults who passed over the Oregon Trail in their own outfits at the height of the migration of 1852. Founder and President of the Oregon Trail Memorial Association, Inc.
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KATE MULHALL
A Romance of the OREGON TRAIL
By EZRA MEEKER
Author of: Ox-Team Days, Pioneer Reminiscences, The Busy Life of 85 Years, Pioneer Stories for Children, Story of the Lost Trail to Oregon
Drawings by Margaret Landers Sanford, Rudolf A. Kauach and Oscar W. Lyons Map of the Oregon Trail, and photographs
Published by EZRA MEEKER 18 OLD SLIP, NEW YORK CITY
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED AS A TRIBUTE OF DEVOTION TO THE MEMORIES OF
PHOEBE BAKER MEEKER
MY MOTHER
ELIZA SUMNER MEEKER
MY WIFE
WHO CROSSED THE OREGON TRAIL AS A YOUNG MOTHER IN 1852, AND WAS AFTERWARD THE COMPANION OF MANY YEARS OF MY LIFE
THE HEROINES OF THE PLAINS AND 20,000 PIONEERS
MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN--BURIED IN UNMARKED GRAVES, ALONG THAT GREAT HIGHWAY OF HISTORY TO THE FAR NORTHWEST
Copyrighted 1926 By EZRA MEEKER
All rights reserved
CONTENTS
FOREWORD: Ezra Meeker, the Author By Robert Bruce.