Weld County, History of Colorado, BIOS: MEAD, Alexander (published 1918)
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"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918)  Vol. II


p. 206-207



ALEXANDER MEAD.

	Forty years have come and gone since Alexander Mead arrived in 
Colorado and in this period he has been a most active factor in 
promoting the development and welfare of the slate through irrigation 
projects and through many other fields of activity which have been 
directly resultant in bringing about present day progress and 
prosperity in Colorado. Mr. Mead is a native of the state of New York. 
He was born on the 18th of December, 1841, and was a son of Alexander 
Mead, Sr., whose birth occurred in Venice, Cayuga county, New York. In 
both lineal and collateral branches the family has been distinctively 
American through many generations. Alexander Mead, Sr., devoted his 
life to the occupation of farming in the town of Venice, Cayuga county, 
where he owned one hundred and sixty acres of land which he brought 
under a high state oŁ cultivation, and in addition to raising the 
cereals best adapted to soil and climate there he also engaged in stock 
raising. He died in the year 1868, while his wife survived until 1880 
and both were laid to rest in the cemetery at Moravia, New York. Their 
religious faith was that of the Universalist church.

	Alexander Mead, whose name introduces this review, pursued his 
education in the academy at Moravia and at the age of seventeen years 
took up the profession of teaching, which he successfully followed for 
an extended period, imparting readily and clearly to others the 
knowledge that he had acquired. He worked on farms during the summer 
months, while the winter seasons were devoted to his duties as an 
educator and ultimately he embarked in the lumber business in Oswego 
county. New York, where he continued in manufacturing of lumber for 
four years. But the lure of the west was upon him and in June, 1878, he 
arrived in Greeley, Colorado, where he became connected with the 
agricultural implement business, which he conducted until 1883. He then 
sold out in that line and began dealing in land and stock and this 
constituted an initial step toward his activity in the field of 
irrigation work. He devoted much of his time to the building of ditches 
and reservoirs as well as to farming and he also bought and sold 
considerable land. For twenty years he was engaged in land development 
through the construction of ditches and reservoirs in Weld county and 
was the organizer of a company to build ditches in Wyoming and 
Colorado. His life work has been of signal value and usefulness to the 
community in which he has lived and to the west at large. He has 
developed farms adjoining Windsor, Ault and Greeley and has been 
largely interested in numerous development projects in the country 
which have brought water into hitherto arid districts and produced 
their present productiveness. It is said that Mr. Mead is the best 
posted man on northern Colorado irrigation in the state. In 1883 he 
organized a company in Arizona for the development of one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand acres of land, which he hoped to redeem through 
irrigation, but in this work he met with such strong competition that 
he could not get his plans approved by the secretary of the interior 
and failed to win the support of the Congressmen and senators of 
Arizona to throw open the land which had belonged to the Indians on the 
reservation. It seems that during the administration of President Grant 
the belligerent tribes of Indians, after they had been captured, had to 
be transplanted somewhere and the Colorado flatlands above Yuma were 
selected for this purpose. This land was called a reservation, although 
the Indians had no treaty rights granted them, but they had to be cared 
for and Colonel Dent was sent to look out for the wards of the nation 
and to try to improve their condition by furnishing water for 
irrigation purposes. He drove a tunnel through Headgate Rock, which 
lies above the town of Parker, Arizona, hoping to direct sufficient 
water into that district to irrigate the body of land, which would be 
of great advantage to the Indians. During the spring of the year the 
usual rise in the river occurred and flooded the land below the tunnel, 
shutting off the flow, so that the project was abandoned. Headgate Rock 
furnished the most feasible site for diverting water known at any 
point. The government project at Yuma, however, was being constructed, 
also the Salt River project near Phoenix and the Roosevelt dam, all of 
which have adjacent bodies of land to cover with water to offer to the 
settlers. Therefore the Mead project at Headgate Rock was not looked 
upon with favor in Washington. Obstructions were interposed and the 
plans submitted were not approved by the secretary of the interior. Mr. 
Mead and his associates in the company were therefore obliged to 
abandon the project after the plans for the work had been drawn up by 
John H. Quinton of Los Angeles. Had the plans been carried out, it 
would have coat the settlers approximately forty dollars per acre, 
which was about one-half the cost of the government projects, but the 
necessary legislative approval was not secured. Mr. Mead's efforts in 
the irrigation fields of Colorado, however, have been of great benefit 
and value, transforming large arid tracts into valuable farming 
property. Moreover, in addition to his labors in that connection, he 
has mining interests in Nevada, including both gold and silver 
properties, and is vice president of a company operating at Fort 
Collins.

	In December, 1869, Mr. Mead was united in marriage to Miss Louise 
Avery, a daughter of Edgar Avery, and to them have been born eight 
children, of whom seven are living, while one died at the age of 
sixteen years. Mabel, the eldest, is the wife of Tracy Marsh, a miner 
of Ely, Nevada, and they have one son. Edgar, who is the manager of the 
White Automobile Company of Denver, Colorado, married Irma Hendricks 
and they have two children. Dr. Ella Mead is a practicing physician of 
Greeley and is winning very gratifying success in her chosen line of 
work. Perry, who was born in 1881, attended the public schools and 
afterward became connected with the Goodrich Tire Company of Denver, 
while later he was associated with the White Automobile Company in 
connection with his brother. In 1916 he joined the United States army 
as a member of Battery B in Denver and is now captain in charge of a 
construction corps. He was called to service as a captain of the 
commissary department which was sent to Linda Vista, California, where 
he took charge of a construction corps. Later he was transferred to 
Port Sill, Oklahoma, and is in charge of Truck Company No. 380, called 
"The School of Fire." He was married but his wife died, leaving two 
children. Mildred, the next of the family, became the wife of Walter 
Starbird and resides upon a cattle ranch on the western slope near 
Meeker, Colorado. Alexandria is the wife of H. N. Stronach, a lawyer of 
Cheney, Washington, and now secretary of the State Normal School. 
Wilhelmina was graduated from the Normal School, studied for two years 
in Columbia College of New York and is now a well known artist and 
decorator. Liberal educational advantages have been accorded all the 
members of the family and the eldest daughter, Mabel, held the chair of 
languages in the Agricultural College of Colorado for a time. Nature 
has endowed the members of this family with strong intellectual powers 
and Mr. and Mrs. Mead have every reason to be proud of what their 
children have accomplished in the educational field.

	It is said that no man in northern Colorado is more widely known 
or more highly esteemed than Alexander Mead of this review. Mrs. Mead 
and her daughters are very active in church work and in social affairs 
and Mr. Mead is a most generous contributor to charitable and 
benevolent projects. In a word, the family occupies a very prominent 
and enviable position, especially in those social circles where true 
worth and intelligence are accepted as the passports to good society. A 
residence of forty years in Colorado certainly entitles Mr. Mead to 
rank with its pioneer citizens and throughout the entire period his 
efforts and ability have gone far toward the upbuilding of the state, 
the development of its natural resources and the promotion of its 
progress along many lines which have worked not only for immediate 
benefit but for future good as well.