Nathan Meeker - Biography

Biography

Nathan Cook Meeker was born in Euclid, Ohio. As a young man, he married a woman named Arvilla and they had a family. He became a newspaper reporter for the New York Tribune, where in the 1860s, when he was in his 50s, he served as its agricultural editor. Very interested in the West, in 1866 he wrote Life in the West. He went to the Rocky Mountain region for the Tribune in 1869, and was inspired to plan a utopian agricultural community there.

With the backing of his editor Horace Greeley, Meeker organized the Union Colony to be settled in the Colorado Territory. He 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." Meeker received approximately 3000 replies that winter, and accepted about 200 of them to purchase shares.

With the capital from the shares, Meeker purchased 2000 acres (8 km²) near present-day Greeley at the confluence of the South Platte and the Cache la Poudre (Powder Bag) rivers. The venture, which relied on funding from Horace Greeley, was initially successful. The settlers brought irrigation techniques to northwestern Colorado, and helped attract additional agricultural settlement in the region. The town of Greeley was incorporated in 1886. The predominant American Indian tribes in the area were bands of Utes, who were struggling with the results of European-American encroachment on their lands.

In 1878, eight years after the founding of the colony, Meeker was appointed United States (US) Indian agent at the White River Ute Indian Reservation, on the western side of the continental divide. His political appointment was made despite his lack of experience with Native Americans. While living among the Utes, Meeker tried to extend his policy of religious and farming reforms.