Thomas Mears Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 1030, 1031

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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THOMAS MEARS, one of the most extensive grain growers and stock raisers 
of Clark county, and whose portrait appears on another page, is a 
native of Watertown, New York, and was born November 10, 1849. His 
present home is on section 34 in Rosedale township. 

Mr. Mears was the oldest of seven children born to John and Jane 
(Carscadden) Mears, natives of Ireland, who emigrated to the United 
States in childhood. Our subject lived in Canada and afterward in Ohio, 
where he worked until seventeen years of age on a farm, and then was 
employed in a quarry and afterward worked for a time at engineering. He 
engaged in the merchandise business in Northamherst, Ohio, and in 
March, 1884, went to Dakota. He purchased land, intending to farm 
during the summer season and return to his home for the winter months, 
but once into the work he settled on his farm, and, with little 
investment aside from his land, began his improvements. The second year 
he invested in a steam thresher, the first machine in the country. He 
found this a profitable investment and now owns two outfits. He owns 
about one section of land, and crops annually from one thousand to 
fourteen hundred acres of land. The improvements on the property are of 
the most approved style, and modern machinery is used in the 
cultivation and gathering of the grain. Water is abundant and is an 
excellent feature in the raising of stock, about fifty or one hundred 
head of cattle being raised on the place. Our subject has displayed 
careful management and painstaking care in every detail of the work, 
and as a result has as well an equipped estate as meets the eye in a 
drive through the more thriving portions of Rosedale township. 

Mr. Mears was married in 1870 to Miss Phoebe Curtis. One daughter, 
Luella B., has been born to bless the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mears. She 
is a young lady of rare accomplishments and excellent education. She 
completed her schooling in the Oberlin College, and is a well-known 
teacher in Clark and Kingsbury counties. The family is well known and 
commands the esteem of all. Our subject has mixed freely in matters of 
a public nature, and has filled various offices of importance. He is a 
Populist and favors state control of liquor, and favors equal suffrage. 
He was a popular candidate for register of deeds, and has served as 
delegate to the state convention. In the official capacity of township 
clerk he has gained the confidence of his associates, and is an all-
around popular man of Clark county. His financial success is the direct 
result of well-directed labor, industry and honest dealings, and he 
well merits the high place he has attained among the people of his 
community. He can review his life work with a sense of satisfaction 
that the dominant traits of character which have marked his career are 
not without their reward.