Mayor Edwin Capps with Ezra Meeker. Capps served twice as mayor, 1899-1901 and 1915-1917. Meeker (1830-1928) was a Washington pioneer, hops farmer, merchant, and an advocate for preserving the Oregon Trail. From 1906 until his death, he devoted time and energy so that the trail used by pioneers from 1842 to 1869 was marked and preserved, making four official trail-promoting trips. His third trip was in 1916, traveling east to west in The Pathfinder, a touring car with a canvas shell loaned to him as for publicity by the Pathfinder Company.