The 1857 Directory of the Province of Ontario lists an Episcopal Methodist minister Rev. Benjamin Meeker living in Winchester, Dundas Cty.

Between 1851 and 1857, Rev. Meeker performed 35 marriages and in 1865 baptized 20 babies at Winchester (The Ontario Register).

He was born in Weybridge, VT, USA in 1788 and in 1809, he married Mary Cramer, daughter of U.E. Loyalist Peter Cramer and Mary Coctello.

They had 5 children: Samuel, Peter, Elizabeth, Nancy, and Eunice. Samuel and Peter married Empey girls, Nancy and Mary Adeline, respectively. The girls were daughters of Philip W. Empey and Avy Shaver of Osnabruck, Stormont Cty. (Philip W. was born in 1783 while his father and grandfather, William Empey and Philip Senior Empey were U.E. Loyalist prisoners of war in NY).

Samuel Meeker was born 4 March 1810, and Nancy Empey was born 27 December 1814. They were married 5 January 1834 and had at least one child Philip Harold Meeker, in 1840. Apparently Nancy died not very many years later because Samuel remarried a Martha ___ about 1845 and they had 5 children (John, Elizabeth, Hester, Franklin, and Alice). Philip does not appear in the household with his father and step-mother until the 1861 census, living in Osnabruck.

The 1851 census of Winchester, Dundas Co., contains Rev. Benjamin Meeker's household. Living with Benjamin and Mary was a boy, named Benjamin Meeker, age 13, who lists his birthplace as Osnabruck. Also, there were 2 families listed as living in the household.