1890 Buchanan and Delaware Counties History pgs. 641-644
William Mead. In the town of Manchester,
Dearborn county, Ind., on the seventh of June, 1826, was born William Mead, the
subject of this sketch and now a prosperous farmer of Delaware county, residing
three miles and a half north and a little east of the county seat,
Manchester. The name indicates partially the origin of the family of
which he is a descendant, the word Mead, although used mostly in poetry, being
one of the purest English. The Mead family, to which our subject belongs, took
its start in this country from Samuel Mead, a native of England, who came to America
in colonial times, settling in the then province of New York. The line as
traced down from him is as follows: His son Isaac, who was born in the city of
New York and as far as family tradition goes, always lived and died there; his
son John, who was also born in the city of New York, there reared, served in
the Revolutionary war, subsequently moved West and died in the territory of
Indiana, aged eighty-two, his son Chauncy, who was
born in Cherry Valley, Otsego county, N. Y., January 19, 1802, and now resides in
Jones county, this state, being the father of the subject of this sketch. Chauncy Mead was reared in Dearborn county, Ind., his parents moving there in 1814.
He resided there until 1853, when he moved to this state, settling in Jones county, where he has since lived. He has been a farmer all
his life, an industrious and successful one.
The mother
of William Mead bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Morsse,
and she was born in the state of New Jersey in the year 1806. She is still
living. She is a daughter of John Morsse, a New
Yorker by birth, who died in middle life.
Chauncy
and Elizabeth Mead have had born to them a family of six children, three of
whom are now living and three dead. The eldest, Thomas, died in Jones county,
Iowa, in 1880, leaving a family; the second child is our subject; John died a
young man in 1854; Simon is still living, being a farmer now of Jones county, Iowa; Elizabeth is the wife of Abram Holston, and resides in Hitchcock county, Nebr., and Anna died in 1878.
Our subject
was reared in Dearborn, Henry and St. Joseph counties, Ind., and resided in one or the other of
those counties until 1853, the date he came to Iowa. He grew up on the farmland in his
youth received a limited common-school education. Leaving home at the age of
nineteen, he went to Mishawaka, Ind., where he learned the trade of a carriage and wagon-maker,
following his trade at that place for a period of ten years succeeding that
time. On coming to this state he located first in Jones county, engaged in
farming and resided there till April, 1878, at which time he became a citizen
of Delaware county. He
purchased a tract of land of two hundred and fifteen acres on moving to this
county, it being the present farm on which he resides, and has continued to
reside there for the last twelve years, engaged in agricultural pursuits. Mr.
Mead is one of Delaware county's
substantial farmers. He owns one of the most desirable places of its size in
the county, being well located, highly productive and splendidly improved. If
general indications account for anything, it is entirely proper to say, in this
connection, that the farm which he has had under his supervision and management
for the past twelve years, shows that he is no mere
tiller of the soil, but a reading and thinking man. His earnest labors have
been directed by an intelligent mind, and what he has accomplished is not the
more noticeable for amount than for quality. His handsome residence,
surrounded by spacious grounds and ornamented with clumps of beautiful trees
and shrubbery, well as of his quiet, clean and healthful home life.
Mr. Mead
has taken much interest in matters relating to the affairs of the communities
in which he has resided, and has filled the usual number of local offices, the
duties of which he has discharged with credit to himself and satisfaction to
those concerned. He has not taken an active part in partisan politics, but is a
man, nevertheless, of fixed political convictions, and whenever occasion demands
he gives expression to these convictions. In earlier years he was a whig and supported the whig ticket with great zeal. He cast his first presidential
vote for Zachary Taylor in 1848, and voted steadily with the whigs till the dissolution of
their party. On the organization of the republican party,
he cast his political fortunes with it, and he has maintained a steady
allegiance to its doctrines since. Mr. Mead is a man of strong temperance
views, and whenever the liquor traffic has been an issue in politics, he has
given to the cause of prohibition a hearty support.
As might be
supposed, Mr. Mead has been prompted to the conservative course which he has
selected and pursued through life, by his love of home and his desire to
preserve intact all those fire-side virtues on which all domestic happiness,
and, indeed, all true happiness must rest. He married, May
1, 1850,
taking to share his life's fortunes a young lady, then of St. Joseph county, Ind., Miss Louisa Webster. Mrs. Mead was
born in Otsego county, N. Y., June 30, 1828, and is a
daughter of William and Esther (Coats) Webster, both of whom are also natives
of New York. There were in the family to which she belonged
nine children, of whom she was the third in point of age. The eldest, a
daughter, Harriet, is now the widow of John Wison,
and resides at Toledo, Ohio. Menzo, the eldest son,
married Rebecca Morris, and died, in 1878, in Elkhart county, Ind. Calista became the wife of John Derven,
of South Bend, Ind., and died at her home in Monticello, Iowa, in 1886. Volney married Kate Cooper, and now resides in Monticello, Iowa. Wheeler married Maria Van Piper,
and lives in Butler county, Iowa. Amy is the widow of Wallace Darling,
and lives in Mitchell, Dak. Cornelia is the widow of
John Skelley,and lives in Monticello, Iowa. Henry, the youngest, died in Stockton, Cal., unmarried.
Mr. and
Mrs. Mead have had born to them six children, all of whom are grown. The
eldest, Henry H., was born September 21, 1857; married Mattie Atkinson, by whom
he has had one child, Sarah, and now resides at Cedar Rapids, this state. John J. was born October
1, 1859;
married Alice Wilson, and resides also at Cedar Rapids. Judson W., was born April
1, 1862,
and now lives at Minneapolis, Minn., being unmarried. Elmer E. was born
February 9, 1866, and is still with his parents. The eldest child, Mary
L. died at the age of thirteen months, and the second-born, Harriet E., died
when three years old.
Mr. Mead
has always given an earnest support to the school interests of the communities
where he has resided, and to all those social organizations affecting home
life. Although a member of no church, he gives liberally to charity in
proportion to his means; and his mind, freed from the dogmas of churches, is
ever open to receive the opinions of others.
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