The Meachams

Ulysses Meacham is our great-great-Grandfather. His daughter,
Millicent, married our great-grandfather Richard Powers.

Ulysses Meacham was born in 1836 in Erie, Pennsylvania. He was a
Lake Erie fisherman and lived at Put-In-Bay, Ohio on South Bass Island.
Today there is a Meachen Road on South Bass, and there is a Meacham
Street in nearby Port Clinton, Ohio. In 1858, Ulysses married Belle
Ruggles who was born in 1838 in Erie, Pennsylvania.

At some point Ulysses became involved in the Underground Railroad as
well as being associated with John Brown of John Brown's raid on
Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Ulysses apparently ferried runaway slaves
across Lake Erie on his fishing boat. One likely destination would have
been Pelee Island, which lies just over the Canadian border and only
about 8 miles from Put-In-Bay. The Dred-Scott decision by the U.S.
Supreme Court allowed Southern slave-owners to capture runaway
slaves north of the Mason-Dixon Line as long as they were still in
American territory. This meant that slaves would have to escape to
Canada to be truly free.

Family history has it that one day a man boarded Ulysses' boat at
Put-In-Bay. The man informed him that he was there to search for
runaway slaves. Ulysses asked, "By what authority do you board this
vessel"? The man responded, "By the authority of the United States
government". Meacham then said, "Then by the authority of God I cast
you overboard", and threw the man over the side into Lake Erie.

How Meacham became affiliated with John Brown is yet unknown.
While we were vacationing at Lake Erie recently, (September, 2005), we
were eating at the Crescent Tavern at Put-In-Bay. On the back of the
menu was a history of the establishment. It mentioned that one of the
original owners married the granddaughter of John Brown. It seems
that Brown must have had some connection to the Erie Islands; perhaps
he had family there and that's how he met Meacham, perhaps his
affiliation was Meacham alone. After Brown was executed at Harpers
Ferry, Ulysses and his wife Belle had as heirlooms the ball-and-chain
that bound Brown while he awaited sentencing as well as his pocket
watch. These were left to their daughter Hattie Meacham when they
died. Uncle Clarence Powers referred to her as `Aunt Hattie' and he
often recalled seeing the ball and chain and watch. What happened to
them is unknown.

Sometime after Harpers Ferry and apparently just before the start of the
Civil War, Ulysses Meacham's fishing nets were destroyed by a Lake
Erie storm. Nets were very expensive and hard to come by and it
appears that this prompted him to move inland to Monroeville, Ohio.
Before his death he lived with his daughter Hattie, who was now Hattie
Browning, in Sandusky where he eventually died March 17th, 1906. He
is buried in North Monroeville.

Ulysses and Belle had three children:

  Ida J. Meacham        born Erie, PA                          1859
  Millie Meacham        born Ottawa County, OH         1861
  Hattie Meacham        born Ottawa County, OH         1863