Nathan Meeker History

A look at the man and his family who ventured West in search of Utopia.

• high moral standards including temperance, hard work, agriculture, education, and cooperation.

And they called it the Union Colony of Colorado. One of Meeker’s and Greeley’s major concerns was to make sure the community remained a cooperative and congenial group of people. They wanted all of the colonists to abstain from alcohol, to adhere to similar religious values, and to have plenty of money so they would stay and build the community.

Expecting about 50 responses they were overwhelmed to hear from over a thousand in that first month. Among those people were over 300 families who were selected to be a part of the initial joint stock venture. Each of those put in $155 and sent out the selecting committee to purchase and homestead land for the settlers to move to and develop.

The current-day Greeley was selected as an excellent place for irrigation as it is situated between two rivers, the Cache la Poudre and the South Platte River. Irrigation was required because the average rainfall didn’t support the crops they were planning to grow. This site also rated high as it was located on the railroad line about halfway between Denver and Cheyenne. Then in the spring of 1870 the committee bought 12,000 acres from railroad easements and local ranchers and farmers, and homesteaded the rest. The Union Colony committee made arrangements with the railroad to bring families, entire households and farming equipment out to the Union Colony.

During April and May the first Union Colonists began to arrive. Some looked around and were shocked to find that there were absolutely no trees in sight. The only thing visible were a few homes and shacks in the new railroad community of Evans. They were assured that trees were available just at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Loveland, but that was 30 miles away! A few colonists got back on the train and asked for their money back. But the rest were convinced to stay and make this the utopian paradise they dreamed of by sweat, irrigation, and cooperation. By the end of that first year of 1870, there were over a thousand people in the community. Nathan Meeker came out with his son George with the first wave of colonists. One of the reasons people wanted to come to Colorado was because the dry climate was good for those with lung ailments. George Meeker hoped for a cure from the dry air and high altitude. Nathan returned for a second group of colonists, but while he was gone, his beloved George died of tuberculosis.

The townspeople wanted to name the colony after Nathan Meeker, but Meeker didn’t want the recognition. Horace Greeley, however, embraced the idea of a namesake town. Some of the first orders of business were to plat the town of Greeley, dig irrigation ditches, and initiate the Union Colony Church. The original idea was to have all inhabitants of the Union Colony attend the same church, and call it the Union Colony Church. The proposal was popular at first, until the settlers couldn’t agree on the leadership of the church. So they splintered and each faction built their own church. Soon, because of the prohibition of alcohol, the number of churches, and the Greeley fence, Greeley became known as the “City of Saints.” The original deeds of the Union Colonists actually stated that should the owner be caught drinking, buying, selling or dispensing alcohol that he would lose his home to the Union Colony.

Nathan Meeker was a fine builder of the Union Colony, but he was not skilled at finances. He built up quite a bit of debt and was in danger of losing the Greeley Tribune which he had begun publishing in 1870, just six months after the Union Colony was settled. Horace Greeley tried to encourage him to sell the Tribune to another Greeley paper. Meeker determined to pull through and so received loans from Horace Greeley. Unfortunately, Horace Greeley died, and his lawyers called in all of his debts. Meeker was forced to liquidate much of his land. Even then he was short of funds, so he sought further employment

Nathan Meeker found a job as an Indian agent working for the government at the White River Indian Agency on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains. His wife Arvilla took on the duties as store manager at the agency, and daughter Josephine became the agency’s schoolteacher. Along with six Union Colony men and one other Union Colony family, the Price’s, the Meekers settled at White River in the spring of 1878.

Meeker determined to teach the 700 Ute Indians to farm the lands at White River. To the Utes land had a spiritual nature, supporting plants that the “women” harvested and grazing for the animals that the Utes hunted and worked with. Meeker viewed resistance to change as willful obstinance. The tribes also felt that the school was put there to wipe out their culture.

After a year of disagreements and poor communication between vastly differing cultures, Nathan Meeker took a firm stand and directed that a piece of pasture where the natives grazed their ponies should be tilled and horse racing should be stopped. After a scuffle with the chief medicine man, Meeker sent a long telegram to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs asking for assistance.

A group of soldiers was sent out from Fort Steele (near Rawlins, Wyoming). On Sept. 29, 1879, a battle ensued between the soldiers and the Utes enroute to the White River Indian Agency. The commander of the soldiers sent for reinforcements.

During that same day perhaps thirty Utes at the agency fired on the white men working around the White River Agency and captures the women and children. Arvilla Meeker was shot and slightly wounded in the hip.

Each of the three women (Arvilla and Josephine; Mrs. Price) was “escorted” by a different brave in the tribe. Josephine Meeker spent her free time constructing a dress out of a blanket given to her. This dress is on exhibit in the downtown Greeley History Museum.

A relief force was sent from Fort Russell in Cheyenne, Wyoming, led by Colonel Merritt. On October 11, Merritt’s troops arrived at the White River Agency. They established that all of the white men, Nathan Meeker and ten others, had been killed, and the women and children captured.

General Charles Adams, a longtime friend of Chief Ouray, was asked to go and assist in the return of the women and children, along with the Sapovanero, Chief Ouray’s brother-in-law. They peacefully secured the release of the women and children. After twenty-three days of captivity by the White River Utes, Mrs. Meeker, Josephine, Mrs. Price, and her two children were escorted back to Denver. Upon hearing of the difficulties suffered by the Meeker family, Horace Greeley’s daughters made immediate efforts to find out about the proceedings taken on their behalf and forgave their father’s loan to Nathan Meeker entirely.

When the Meeker women returned to Greeley, Josephine stayed only a short while, then moved to Washington DC to take a job. She died there of pneumonia.

Arvilla Meeker lived in her home here in Greeley until she was 90. That year she went to live with her son Ralph, in New York, where she died in 1906. Arvilla, her husband Nathan, Mary, Rozene, George, and Josephine, are all buried here in Greeley at Linn Grove Cemetery.

Ralph, the eldest son, was working for the New York Times when the family came west with the Union Colony. He married and had one daughter who died as a child.

Rozene, the eldest daughter, was quite eccentric. As a child of three years she fell down a well, injuring her head and nearly drowning. She may have sustained brain damage that could explain some of her odd behavior as an adult. Rozene moved out of the original home and lived an isolated, anti-social and extremely untidy life. Neighbors called the authorities many times to complain of everything from holes in her roof and chickens in her living room, to trash in the yard. She was married for a short time but never had children, and finally died in 1935, living longer than any of her siblings.

Mary was considered the sweet quiet middle daughter. She married and had two children, but she died shortly after giving birth to her second child. Her husband moved with the children to California.

Josephine was a bit of a tomboy. When the Meeker family moved here she was 13, and the youngest and wildest of the children. Josephine refused to ride a horse side-saddle and challenged boys to horse races down the street. One of the city fathers wrote to her father’s newspaper complaining of her “unlady-like” behavior. After high school Josephine attended business college in Denver and learned secretarial skills. Josephine followed her mother’s ideals and was a fervent advocate for women’s and Native American rights.

George died of tuberculosis in 1870, the first year of the Union Colony settlement.