Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 426 - 429

JAMES W. MEAD. One of the fine stock farms of Sedgwick County is that owned and occupied by the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, on sections 21 and 25 in Grant Township. Mr. Mead is a native of Darke County, Ohio, and was born Oct. 19, 1829. His parents, Hiram P. and Sarah (Oliver) Mead, were natives of New York and Ohio respectively. Hiram P. Mead, the father of the subject of this biography, was the son of Hiram P. and Sarah A. Mead, and came to Ohio in an early day. He had married previous to this, Sarah Oliver, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Oliver, who were natives, the former of England and the latter of Ireland, who had come to this country in childhood and were reared near Culpeper Court House, Va. Hiram was a ship carpenter by profession, and remained in Ohio until his death, which occurred in 1834. While on board a ship on Lake Erie during the summer of that fateful year, he was taken with Asiatic cholera, from which he died. His widow still survives him, and is a resident of Logan County, Ill.

        The subject of our sketch was reared beneath the parental roof on a farm in Central Ohio, and attended the district schools of the neighborhood, in which he acquired his education. He was early initiated into the mysteries of hard work attendant upon a life devoted to agriculture, and after spending his youth upon his father's farm commenced life for himself at the same vocation in his native State. In 1856, with a laudable desire to improve his condition, he removed to Illinois and made a settlement on Delavan Prairie, in Logan County, among the first settlers in that locality. He continued farming in that neighborhood until 1877, when, still pursuing the phantom, Fortune, he came further west, and settled in Grant Township, this county. At that time he made a purchase of eighty acres of prairie land, and at once commenced its improvement, and to the original farm has added piece by piece, until he now owns in connection with his son a tract of 240 acres of as fertile and highly cultivated land as lies in the township. The improvements upon his place are of a very neat and substantial character, and evince much care and taste on the part of the proprietors. The farm is well stocked both, with Norman Percheron horses and high-grade Durham cattle.

        Mr. Mead was united in marriage in London, Madison Co., Ohio, Sept. 21, 1853, with Mrs. Lucy Hatfield, who is a native of Cattaraugus County, N. Y., born Feb. 17, 1813. She is the eldest of seven children in the family of her parents, Isaac and Lodema (White) Reed. Her father was a native of New York, and the son of Isaac and Hannah (Finch) Reed, who were also born in the same State. Her mother was the daughter of Nathaniel and Hannah White, both of whom were born in the Empire State. To Mr. and Mrs. Mead have been born two children - Francis M. and James Oscar. The eldest son was killed at the age of twelve years by a team, which in running away with the roller, passed that implement over him, and crushed him. James is carrying on the farm for his father, and is quite an enterprising and intelligent young man. Politically, Mr. Mead affiliates with the Republican party, giving full adherence to the principles and doctrines of its platforms. He has little or no aspirations for the duties or emoluments of public office, but has served nevertheless as Township Collector in Illinois and as School Director for a number of years, and is at the present writing a member of the Board of Township Trustees, having been elected to that office in the fall of 1887. Both he and his noble wife are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and by a blameless life set a most excellent example before the rising generation.

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