Mead Histories

Mead Histories

 

The current histories of the Mead Community encompasses both letters and small family histories that individuals wrote. It is hard to separate what would be considered a letter or a history at this point, so I am including both.

PAUL MEAD- FOUNDER OF MEAD, COLORADO  
Paul Mead was the son of Dr. Martin Luther and Myra Mahetabel Jenkins Mead. Martin was the brother of Lorin C. Mead who founded Highlandlake. In the early 1880s Lorin contacted his younger brother, extolling the virtues of Highlandlake and telling him of the urgent need for a physician in the area. In 1883. .

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       BACKWARD GLANCES - STORIES OF LIBERTY & MEAD, COLORADO  
Veva Turner Berg was the daughter, granddaughter, and niece of early Boulder, Larimer and Weld County pioneers. I am concentrating on the parts of her life that encompass the periods years when she lived in Weld County, and most specifically in the Mead and Liberty areas of Weld county.

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      LEGENDS & LORE  
This is the place I plan on recording the local lore and legends of Mead. Most of the stories in this category are based on memories, family legends, local "tales" and the such. I am in no way trying to prove or disprove these stories, only save them for posterity.

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     LAW & ORDER  
 The first Town Marshall was J. L. Ballinger hired May 13, 1908 with a salary of $26.00 a year. It was later changed in 1910 to $10.00 a month. W. H. Wilson was the first Police Magistrate appointed - June 1908.

The first jail was a building 12' x 10' x 7'. It was a wooden frame with a flat top. The first lumber bill was for $105.00 and the land the jail stood on rented for $10.00 a year. In about 1940, the old jail house was moved up on 4th street and was sold in 1943 for $35.00.

The second jail was torn down sometime in the 1980's. All prisoner's now go to the Weld County Jail in Greeley. One of the two old jail houses is located on Boulder Scientifics' property. I'm not sure which one it is, some say it is the original, others say it is the second one.

      Original Main street now Rd. 7 & Welker Ave. ca. 1912-1913
Courtesy of Longmont Museum. Earliest picture I have of Mead
(Warning photo is large so will take a long time to load)

The Town of Mead, Weld County Colorado, was originally founded in 1906 when the Great Western Railroad announced they were bypassing the growing community of Highlandlake, (founded in 1871-72), and instead laying  track a full mile east of the town. Additionally, the promised beet dump was now to be located on the eastern border of Paul Mead's (nephew of Highlandlake founder, L. C. Mead) farm.

Various stories abound to this day as to what happened to make the railroad change their original plans. Some people maintain that the railroad found the original route too difficult, and changed the route at the last minute to bypass a hilly area. Others say that there actually was an election for where the railroad would go with the residents of Highlandlake and Liberty voting with the polling place located at the Liberty Schoolhouse. On the day of the election, the story goes, there was a blizzard and the residents of Highlandlake were unable to get to the polling place to vote. Finally, more than a few people find it interesting that Paul Mead benefited from the change of route, and that not only did he sell land to the railroad for the beet dump, but that he also had a whole town laid out before the first track was laid.

Whatever the reason for the railroad changing its mind, the citizen's of Highlandlake were devastated by the news, as they had worked with various railroad companies for almost 30 years, trying to get them to come to Highlandlake. The only solution in many people's minds was if the railroad wouldn't come to the town, then the town had to be moved to the railroad tracks.

Since the new beet dump was on the border of his land, Paul Mead saw a business opportunity and laid out several blocks and streets for the new town, donated land for a park and school and started selling business and home lots, even before the first track was laid. The town was platted on February 19, 1906 and local businessmen decided that it was only fitting that the name of the new town be Mead, after the man whose land the town was now on. On March 17, 1908 the town was chartered and over the next few years, most of the public buildings at Highlandlake were moved to the new town site.

class="title3" nowrap style="padding-right: 10px; padding-left: 10px; font: bold 11px / 15px Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" valign="middle"> MEAD POST OFFICE class="title3" nowrap style="padding-right: 10px; padding-left: 10px; font: bold 11px / 15px Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" valign="middle"> NEWSPAPERS MEAD GOVERNMENT

For nearly 30 years, Mead was a bustling community. At its peak, Mead had three general stores, a hotel, a combination grocery store and meat market, two saloons, butcher shop, filling station . . . Read More. . . 1911 Mead Business Directory
	The Mead Post Office was moved from Highlandlake to Mead in March of 1907. Cecil V. Holmes became the new postmaster. He ably handled the task at hand for three years, when Marion S. Adams assumed charge in October of 1910 Read More. . .
	Mead had three different newspapers over the years, and a couple of recent newsletters that lasted only a few months. In addition, the Longmont papers, the Johnstown Breeze in Johnstown, the Platteville newspaper and the Berthoud newspapers all carried news about Mead. The Longmont Ledger carried a Highlandlake/Mead column for years in the early part of this century. Read More. . .
	The first town board meeting was held at Dalgetty's/Daughety's, (believed to be a dry goods store, others claim it was the local Pool Hall and barber shop but I think that came later), 13 April 1908. C. V. Holmes was elected Chairman Pro-Tem and I. F. Hays, Clerk Pro-Tem. The Mayor was M. S. Adams, (he had recently moved his general store from Highlandlake to the new town site) Some Memories of Mead & The Mead School 1919-1923 -- Hazel Elmquist Bullock A little history of the early days of Mead -- Homer L. Gammill Growing up and living in Mead a 70 history of the town -Nick Sekich Sr.

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