Amanda C. Meeker

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65655149/amanda-meeker_spinning

n 1841 Amanda's family moved to Eddyville, Iowa where she grew up. In April 1852 Oliver Meeker, who was on his way west over the Oregon Trail, stopped in Eddyville to visit his younger brother. Ezra Meeker had been living in Eddyville since October 1851 and had spent the winter working for Amanda's father surveying parts of Iowa. After a stay of two weeks Oliver and Ezra headed west. Two years later Oliver was back in Eddyville where he met his parents, Jacob & Phoebe Meeker, and two of his siblings whom he intended to guide west over the Oregon Trail to Puget Sound. A whirlwind courtship, which has been described as of one day's duration, took place and Amanda and Oliver were married on April 23, 1854. Their honeymoon was a journey over the Oregon Trail and Naches Pass to Puget Sound where they arrived in late October 1854. Amanda and Oliver took a Donation Land Claim in rural Pierce County, but the outbreak of the Puget Sound Indian wars in 1855 drove them to the city of Steilacoom. Here they had their only child, Frank Oliver Meeker, born May 3, 1855. Amanda's husband, in concert with Ezra and Jacob Meeker opened a store in Steilacoom. Oliver also got involved in politics and was elected to the territorial legislature. In January 1860 Oliver Meeker drowned when the steamship Northerner sank off the northern California coast. (Oliver was bringing supplies for the store from San Francisco.) Amanda and her child moved in with her brother-in-law Ezra.