Santa Clara County
Biographies
JOHN
W. MEADS
JOHN W. MEADS. Since
1865 Mr. Meads has been the owner of his present ranch of one hundred acres,
located one mile south of Alviso, in Santa Clara
county, upon his purchase of the property in that year setting the greater part
of the land to fruit. He now has thirty acres devoted to the cultivation of
apples, among other varieties raising the Newtown pippin, White Winter pearmain and Jonathan, while a like number of acres is given
over to pears of different varieties. The balance of the ranch is devoted to
hay and grain. This is one of the model ranches in this vicinity and its owner
is justly proud of it, while his fellow citizens give to Mr. Meads the
credit which belongs to an enterprising and progressive farmer. Born in
Baltimore, Md., April 11, 1834, he was the son of William Meads,
also a native of that city.
William Meads spent
his entire life in the vicinity of his birthplace, becoming a vegetable
gardener on a farm which he owned adjoining the city, and where his death
occurred in 1853. He married Mary Hughes, also a native of that locality,
and they became the parents of eleven children, the sons of whom were as
follows: John W., of this review; William, deceased; George, assistant
postmaster of Baltimore; James; George, a manufacturer of tobacco; and David,
deceased. The eldest of the family of children, John W. Meads,
remained in his home near Baltimore until about twenty-three years old,
receiving his education in the common school in the vicinity. In young manhood
he was apprenticed to learn the mason’s trade in Baltimore, and in 1857 he came
to California via the Isthmus of Panama, renting land near Alviso,
on the Alviso and San Jose road, where he engaged in
farming until 1865. In that year, as before mentioned, he became the owner of
his present property, and has since made this his home.
In this county Mr.
Meads was united in marriage with Agnes Emerson, a native of Maine, whose
father, Charles, a sea captain, brought his family to California in 1852 via
the Horn. He located in San Francisco. While a member of Mr. Meads’ family
he died in 1879 at the age of sixty-two years. To Mr. and Mrs. Meads have
been born two sons and three daughters, namely: Walter A., at home,
formerly a member of the State Assembly; Alfred, at home; Norman L., in
San Francisco; Alice, the wife of William Selby, of Milpitas road; and Daisy,
at home. The last named daughter received her education in the school of Alviso. Fraternally Mr. Meads is a member of the
Ancient Order of United Workmen, of Milpitas, and politically is a Republican,
having served for many years as school director in the interests of this party.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
07 May 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 576-577. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie
Hassard.