Samuel Meeker and the Westtown Meeting House

Thanks to the Sussex County Library recently providing public access to local newspaper archives, I have been able to add two names to the total of known burials in the abandoned Meeker Cemetery, also known as the Christie School Burying Grounds, in Wantage NJ. Previously known gravestones are: Jeptha Meeker dis March 21st 1812 aged

X: Meeker Genealogy Benjamin Meeker (10 Jun 1700 – March 1761) of Goshen Township. m. 1730 to Catherine (1701-1761) Benjamin Meeker Jr. (1720 – 1788/90 a widower. (Will mentions Dr. Eusebius Austin ad David Cooley the 3rd) Visited by Rev. Silas Constant on Aug 24, 1784. Abigail Meeker Lois Meeker (d. 1795). Her will, from

IX. The Legacy of Samuel Meeker What is the legacy of Samuel Meeker? The vast majority of references to him are for his quote in the Battle of Minisink. And we’ve seen that the blame for the failure of the battle shouldn’t fall on him; at least not solely on him. His actual legacy in

VIII. Selling of Lands at Samuel Meeker Sr.’s death.   Many of Samuel’s lands had been sold in his later years. What was left was sold after his death. The following sources have been discovered on the subject: 1805, Oct 14, Auction of lands of Samuel Meeker, deceased. “FOR SALE BY virtue of an order

VII. Samuel Meeker Jr. Samuel Meeker’s son Samuel Meeker Jr. is mentioned only scarcely in the records. This can largely be attributed to his early demise. In the Draper manuscripts it is said he “died young.” A March 2, 1805 administration of Samuel Meeker is of “Jr.” seeing that is mentions Jeptha as a cousin

VI. The Death of Samuel Meeker As the location and date of Samuel’s Meeker’s birth are each unknown, so also is the location and date of his death unknown. The last evidences of Samuel being alive are in 1801. First there is his signature (along with his son’s signature) on a May 19, 1801 petition

V. The Later Life of Samuel Meeker Samuel Meeker’s later life is perhaps best described as tragic. All of his efforts for the Patriot cause in the Revolution left him injured and in debt. Long after the injury healed, his debt remained. It would trail him the rest of his life. His debt, according to

IV. Samuel Meeker in The Revolutionary War In the early 1770s both Samuel Meeker and his brother Nathaniel Meeker were living relatively quiet lives as a yeoman farmers. While Nathaniel’s life would remain fairly quiet1, Samuel’s involvement the Revolutionary War brought to him many changes and challenges. Samuel would soon be embroiled in that Patriot

III. The border farms of Samuel Meeker and Nathaniel Meeker. Samuel Meeker went on to purchase a number of lands in Sussex County, NJ but the one which is most important to his story is a 173 acre parcel near the New York border he purchased in 1767 for £350 from Joseph Barton (1723-1788) who