Joseph Mead, a prominent farmer and stockman of Plum Grove township and a veteran of the Civil war, is a native of Delaware county, New York. He was born February 26, 1844, and is a son of Jabez and Lucetta (Nickason) Meade, natives of New York and of English descent. When Joseph Mead was a child, the family removed to Michigan and settled on a farm in Kalamazoo county. There were nine children in the Mead family. The parents spent their lives in Michigan.

Joseph Mead served in Company C, Sixteenth regiment, Michigan infantry, during the Civil war and experienced much hard service. His command served in the Army of the Potomac under General Grant. At the siege of Petersburg, he was one of a small detachment that became separated from his regiment and for five days, while endeavoring to get back to his regiment, he was without food, however he came upon his regiment one morning just as they were at breakfast which was a very opportune moment for a hungry soldier to join his comrades. After the surrender of Lee he participated in the Grand Review at Washington and later was discharged at Jeffersonville, Ind., and mustered out at Detroit, Mich.

After the war Mr. Mead remained in Michigan and followed lumbering to some extent. In the winter of 1878 he took a contract to cut 300 cords of wood and in order to fulfill his contract he and his men were compelled to work in snow, four feet deep, and had to shovel the tim-

ber out of the snow. They endured much hardship that winter, which led Mr. Mead to the conclusion that if there was any other place on earth where snow and winter weather were not the dominant features of the climate he wanted to see what it looked like. With that end in view he bought a ticket to Hutchinson, Kans., where some friends of his lived at that time. That section of the State seemed a little too treeless to a man from the woods of Michigan, and after looking around considerably he found a location to his liking in Plum Grove township, Butler county. He had very little capital and at first invested in a small tract of land upon which he built a small house, and later he bought eighty acres of land on Diamond creek, making a payment of $10.00 and going in debt for most of the purchase price. He raised a big crop of corn the first year, which gave him a good start, and he now owns 200 acres which is one of the best farms in Plum Grove township.

Mr. Mead was married in 1871, to Miss Hattie Thair, a daughter of Orleius Thair, a native of New York and a pioneer of Michigan. To Mr. and Mrs. Mead have been born the following children Henry, Butler county; Joseph R., Butler county; Maude, married Samuel Thomas, Butler county; Lily, married Elias Eckhardt, Oklahoma; Frances, married Joseph Wilson, Butler county; Matty, married Rowe Ullem.

Mr. Mead is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Masonic lodge, and is a Democrat.

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