Meeker, N. C. Life in the West; or, Stories of the Mississippi Valley. New York: Samuel R. Wells, 1868. First Edition. [10438]
Cloth, binding faded, boards bordered in blind, gilt titles to spine and front, 8 x 5 1/2 inches, small horizontal split to headband, tight. Peach end papers. [i]-vi, [2], 7-360 pp. 36 pp. publisher's catalogue on the subjects of Physiognomy and Phrenology. Good. Hardcover.
A glimpse of life in the Mississippi Valley right after the American Civil War, with accounts written to encourage emigration - the last page lists the Land Office locations for Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
The book describes new settlements, steamboats, plantations, "Change of Opinion during the War", a refined family in a rough settlement, prairie life in early days, farming and law, the language of cattle, a description of the Mississippi Valley, etc.
Flake 5326. "Going to be a Mormon: or, life on the Western Reserve," p. 252-63. An account of a blacksmith named Graves and his family in the Oho Western Reserve. Two Mormon preachers came to their town having been sent from Salt Lake City to convert the gentiles. He soon left his family behind to prepare a place for them at Salt Lake, but when his family followed some time later they found him settled in a pleasant home and were relieved to hear that they would not be turning Mormon after all.
Nathan Cook Meeker (1817-1879), b. Euclid, OH; d. Meeker, Colorado. Meeker wore many hats, and was a journalist, a homesteader, a promoter of the American West, an Indian Agent for the federal government, and a social reformer who founded the Union Colony, a cooperative agricultural colony at Greeley, Colorado. Meeker had studied the Oneida Community and Mormon farm cooperatives before beginning his own experiment. As the Indian agent at the White River Agency he tried unsuccessfully to convert the Ute Indians from traditional hunting and fishing to farming. He was murdered by the Utes in 1879 in what became known as the Meeker Massacre. After Meeker had been assaulted he wired for military assistance, which, when the Utes learned of their approach, took this to be an act of war. The soldiers were attacked, all of the Agency men were killed, and Meeker's wife and daughter were taken captive. Several hundred reinforcements eventually quelled the rebellion.
