John Emerson Meek - The Youngest Son of Samuel and Eliza Meek

Not the best photo, but the only one I have of John Meek

Emily Meek's younger brother was John Emerson Meek, born December 28, 1874, in Hicksville Township, Defiance County, Ohio.  John appeared with his family in the 1880 census, but his whereabouts in 1900 is but a guess.

In the 1900 Federal Census of Holt County, Liberty Township, Missouri, a John Meek was boarding with the Arthur Markt family and working as a farm laborer.  The birthdate given for this John Meek was August, 1874, instead of December, but that could be explained because the informant to the enumerator might not have been John, himself.  John Meek was 25 and single, and he also reported that he was born in Ohio, as were both of his parents, which fits our John E. Meek.  

In 1903, John E. Meek married Pearl May Huston and they settled in Newville Township, Dekalb County, Indiana.  By the 1910 census, Pearl and John had had five children together, but only three had survived: Ruth Esther (born December 8, 1904), Olive Angeline (born July 8, 1907), and Violetta (born March 15, 1909).  John was farming on a farm he was buying.

The World War I draft registration for John completed on September 12, 1918, at the age of 43, indicated his address was Rural Route 3, Bryan, Ohio.  His self-description was of a tall man with a medium build and blue eyes and brown hair. 

Sometime between 1910 and 1918, the John E. Meek family moved to Williams County, Ohio where a farm was purchased in Superior Township.  There they were enumerated in the 1920 census: John E., a farmer, 45; Pearl, a housewife, 37, and the three girls: Ruth, 15, Olive, 12, and Violetta, 10.

By 1930, John and Pearl had moved to a house on South Main Street in Bryan.  John, at 55, earned a living by doing odd jobs. Violetta, 21, was still at home and single, working as a public school teacher.  One newspaper article stated that Violetta Meek was going to teach at the Grange Hall School in Williams County.  

John had completely retired by 1940, at the age of 65, and the couple lived in their home in Bryan, valued at $1050.  He died in April, 1949.

 Pearl continued to be in touch with the family of Emily Meek, attending Thanksgiving dinner, for example, until her death in 1971.

Pearl Huston Meek

Pearl Meek in 1961

 Olive Meek died in her youth on November 26, 1930 in Wood County at about 22 years old.

Ruth E. Meek did not marry, and she lived in the Sandusky area. The Sandusky Register named her in an article in March 1958, stating that she belonged to the Sandusky Yacht Club and served on a committee for one of their events.  She worked in the secretarial field, and died on December 2, 1985, at Providence Hospital in Sandusky at the age of 78

Violetta Meek married Charles W. Hutchison, who died at 49, in February 1958.  She remarried in 1961, Keith Ingle, but they divorced in 1969.  Violetta died on August 28, 1997 and is buried in Williams County, Ohio.

Now, we'll move back a generation to the parents of David, Solomon, William Oscar, Hiram, Sherman T., Emily A. and John E. Meek - Samuel Meek and Eliza Fuller Meek.