Grundy County IL Archives Biographies.....Mead, James 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com February 20, 2006, 7:24 am

Author: Bio/Gen Rec LaSalle/Grundy Counties 1900

The self-made man is everywhere the leading citizen. People take to him, and 
when he has once established his right to be so called good fortune seldom 
deserts him.  Grundy county, Illinois, has many self-made men and Au Sable 
township has its proportion of them, one of the best known of whom is the man 
whose name forms the title to this sketch.

James Mead, one of the early settlers and well known Au Sable township, was 
born in Kerry, Ireland.  His father was Michael Mead and his mother's maiden 
name was Kate Heffern. They both died when their son, James, was a child, 
though he was old enough to remember them distinctly. They left four children, 
three sons and a daughter. The other sons were named John and Patrick, and the 
daughter was named Anna. James was the oldest of the family and the only one 
who came to America.  When he was about fourteen years old he crossed the 
ocean with an aunt, his mother's sister, and went directly to Louisville, 
Kentucky, where he remained about three years.  In 1855 he came to Minooka, 
Grundy county, Illinois, and has been a resident of this county ever since.

Mr. Mead married Miss Maria Briscoe, who comes from a well known early family 
of Grundy county, and Mr. and Mrs. Mead have been blessed with nine children - 
three sons and six daughters, named as follows in the order of their birth: 
Mary Ellen, Eliza, James, Annie, Maggie, Nicholas, Katie, Agnes and Frank.

Mr. Mead came to America a poor boy, with no parents on whom to depend; but he 
went to work with a determination to succeed in life. He has a fine farm, and 
it is not too much to say that he is one of the substantial citizens of Au 
Sable township.  He has ever been esteemed as an honest, upright man and 
possesses the respect of his fellow citizens. He and all the members of his 
family are worthy members of the Catholic church.

Source:  Biographical and Genealogical Record of La Salle and Grundy County, 
Illinois, Volume 11, Chicago, 1900, p588

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