Contra Costa County Biography

LEWIS RISDON MEAD

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, December, 2006.

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Among the many brilliant, able, and resourceful men who gained positions of 
distinction in the Bay cities was Lewis Risdon Mead, now deceased. The record of 
his career is the record of worthy and upright living, of strict adherence to a 
high personal standard, of talents and powers well used for worthy ends. These 
things need not be repeated to the readers of a history of this section of 
California, for Mr. Mead was one pf Contra Costa County's most progressive and 
successful business men, and his name had been known and honored here for many 
years. Lewis Risdon Mead was born on September 7, 1847, at Saline, Michigan. His 
parents were Silas and Harriett Risdon Mead. In the parents' family there were 
two children - William, an agriculturalist, who resides on the home place at 
Saline, Michigan, and the subject of this review. Lewis and William, when young 
men, went to New Orleans, and in 1863 Lewis came to California via the Isthmus 
route to be with his uncle, John Risdon, who originally started the iron works 
then known as Risdon & Coffey. The concerned remained as such for some years, 
when it became the property of Mr. Risdon and was familiarly known as the Risdon 
Iron Works. The Risdon Iron Works continued until 1914, when it was sold. Mr. 
Mead was identified with the concerns for many years, and held the important 
position of secretary and auditor until 1907, when he severed his connection 
with the concern, and took up his residence in Byron Hot Springs, located at the 
northern end of the San Joaquin Valley. In 1865 Orange Risdon and Lewis Risdon 
Mead took up two hundred acres from the United States Government, now known as 
the Byron Hot Springs. The land was patented and patent papers were received 
later in that year. The springs on this historic spot have been famous ever 
since the aboriginal days. The Indians came here; the wild animals knew it, and 
well they used the healing waters of the bubbling springs. Mr. Mead bought out 
Mr. Risdon's interests and took the active management of the springs, and ran it 
up to the time of his death. The first building was erected in 1865. A fill of 
ten to twelve feet was necessary in order to make a garden and plant shrubbery 
and trees, owing to the fact that the land where the hotel and cottages are 
located was a vast lava bed. The first large hotel, costing $50,000, was 
destroyed by fire in 1901; in 1902 a new hotel of Moorish design was erected by 
Reid Brothers, of San Francisco, at a cost of $150,000. This magnificent 
structure was destroyed by fire in 1912. Mr. Mead had a difficult time with the 
insurance companies, but won the fight, which was a difficult time with the 
insurance companies, but won the fight, which was in litigation for some time, 
and in 1914 he gave a contract to Reid Brothers again to erect a strictly 
fire-proof building on the site of the other hotel, at a cost of $100,000. Lewis 
Risdon Mead was a broad-minded man, liberal in thought and honorable in purpose. 
His life was fruitful of good results, not only in the attainment of success, 
but in his support of progressive public measures which are of benefit to the 
community. He served as a regent of the University of California. He was the 
founder of Brooklyn Lodge No. 225, F. & A. M., of Oakland. He was a member of 
Islam Temple and the Mystic Shrine. He was president of the Mechanics' Institute 
of San Francisco for many years. Mr.  Mead was twice married. The first union 
was in 1873, to Blanche Durant, who died in 1905. There was one son, Louis 
Durant Mead, born March 31, 1875; he married Miss Charlotte Lanneau, of New York 
City, in 1905. They have one daughter, Blanche, born June 22, 1910, in San 
Francisco, California. The second marriage of Lewis Risdon Mead occurred on June 
19, 1907, to Miss Mae Sadler, daughter of Charles M. Sadler, one of the 
representative business men of San Francisco, and senior member of the firm of 
Sadler & Co. At the time of the San Francisco fire Miss Sadler was in Europe 
completing her studies and returned to her home in San Francisco; the following 
year she was united in marriage. The present hotel at Byron Hot Springs was 
planned by Mr. and Mrs. Mead, and is truly a monument to Mr. Mead. After the 
second fire, wells were sunk at the river, two miles away, and connected with 
water pipes all over the grounds and in the hotel and cottages for fire 
protection. Mr. Mead's political belief was with the Republican party, and he 
was one of the most conscientious type of public men, ever holding to his ideals 
and principles without swerving. He served on the grand jury, and was called 
upon at various times to serve on the Republican county and other committees. He 
 was not only a very patriotic American, but an ultra-loyal Californian. Mr. 
Mead passed away on June 13, 1916, and his death was sincerely mourned by a wide 
circle of friends all over California and in the East. Mrs. Mead will erect a 
memorial over the original hot salt springs in memory of her husband, who will 
always be remembered among the most honored and eminent residents of Contra 
Costa County.
 
Source: "The History of Contra Costa County, California," Elms Publ. Co., 1917, 
pp. 561-562.