28 Facts About Nathan Meeker

Nathan Cook Meeker was a 19th-century American journalist, homesteader, entrepreneur, and Indian agent for the federal government.

Nathan Meeker is noted for his founding in 1870 of the Union Colony, a cooperative agricultural colony in present-day Greeley, Colorado.

Nathan Cook Meeker was born in Euclid, Ohio on July 12,1817, to Enoch and Lurana Meeker.

Nathan Meeker was a writer and submitted articles to area publications when he was a boy.

Nathan Meeker left home at 17 years-of-age for New Orleans, where he worked as a copy boy for the New Orleans Picayune.

Nathan Meeker saved up his money to move to New York, hoping to fulfill a desire to become a poet.

Nathan Meeker married Arvilla Delight Smith, a Congregationalist, on April 8,1844.

Nathan Meeker was baptized a Disciple of Christ to address her concern about his lack of faith.

Arvilla taught kindergarten and Nathan Meeker was a teacher, historian, auditor, librarian, secretary, and poet laureate.

In 1847, Nathan Meeker opened a store with his brothers in Cleveland.

Nathan Meeker was asked to help found the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute by the Disciples of Christ, but he was furious when his claim was held up because he sold whiskey.

Nathan Meeker only sold whiskey by prescription, but was so angry over the misunderstanding that he left the church.

Nathan Meeker lost his store and property during the Great Panic of 1857.

Nathan Meeker moved to Dongola, Illinois, where he opened a small store and grew fruit.

Nathan Meeker wrote articles, often about sociology, that were published by the Cleveland Plaindealer and reprinted by Horace Greeley in the New-York Tribune.

Nathan Meeker became a war correspondent for Greeley in his Cairo, Illinois office during the Civil War.

Nathan Meeker was present at and reported on the battle at Fort Donelson, among other journalists such as Junius Henri Browne and Charles Carleton Coffin.

Nathan Meeker became made an agricultural journalist and editor at the end of the war for the New-York Tribune.

Nathan Meeker went to the Rocky Mountains for the Tribune in 1869, and was inspired to live there.

Nathan Meeker, who was interested in communal and cooperative farms, created his vision of a utopian community based upon Christianity and communal economic enterprise, which was a modification of Charles Fourier's definition of a utopian society.

Nathan Meeker advertised for applicants to move to the South Platte River basin, in what was intended as a cooperative venture for people of "high moral standards" and temperance.

Nathan Meeker received approximately 3,000 replies that winter, and accepted about 700 of them to purchase shares.

In 1878, Meeker was appointed to the salaried position of United States Indian agent at the White River Reservation by Henry M Teller, the Governor of Colorado.

Nathan Meeker demanded the Utes accede to his wishes, withheld rations and annuities to force their compliance, and wrote newspaper articles condemning their resistance.

Nathan Meeker told the Utes that the land did not belong to them, but to the US government.

Nathan Meeker requested the US cavalry patrol the borders of the Ute Reservation to prevent the Utes from leaving to hunt on their traditional hunting grounds.

Nathan Meeker requested that Thornburgh halt his advance outside the reservation and proceed to the White River Agency with only five soldiers.

Nathan Meeker is buried at the Linn Grove Cemetery, Greeley, Weld County, Colorado.