An Account of the Author's Trip Across The Plains, from the Missouri River to Puget Sound, at the Age of Twenty-two, With an Ox and Cow Team in 1852, And Of His Return with an Ox Team in the Year 1906, at the Age of Seventy-six, with Copious Excerpts From His Journal and Other Reliable Sources of Information; A Narrative of Events and Descriptive of Present and Past Conditions Ezra Morgan Meeker (1830 - 1928) was an American pioneer who first came to the Pacific Northwest via the Oregon Trail. After a colorful career during the early days of several Washington communities, he devoted his life to preserving the historical record of the pioneer route that brought many to the West. The Ox Team, or The Old Oregon Trail is his revisitation of the route near the turn of the 20th century, and remains a classic account of early Washington State history.