MODEL PUBLIC SCHOOL: Down in St. Petersburg-Solomon S. Mead Sees Southern Sights With Northern Eyes

Source: Greenwich Graphic. May 16, 1903. Page 1.

Solomon Stoddard Mead

Editor of the Graphic:

I told you I would give you a description of my visit to St. Petersburg. I went by the Atlantic Coast Railroad from Tampa to Port Tampa, some ten miles or more. Port Tampa is on the east side of Tampa Bay and the water is so shallow you could wade over many acres of white sand. The locomotive and the full train run down to the steamboat wharf with freight and passengers. About all the wharfs are built out over the water from a half to a full mile in order to reach the steamboat. The steamboat came over from St. Petersburg in about two hours sail.

While waiting for the boat my attention was directed to a large bird flying single over the water and often would turn its head down and make a sudden dive for a fish. I enquired about the bird and was told it was a pelican fishing for a living. I noticed that the bird was successful in every dive he made and would take his time to swallow its catch before rising from the water, and then set sail for another fish.

I arrived at St. Petersburg about 10.30 and looked about the city until noon, and dined at the Cole hotel and had a very good dinner and well prepared. After I went through the town I saw a number of men digging a sewer through one of the principle streets. It was about 8 feet deep and composed entirely of white soft sand. At the bottom of the sewer work was a ____ of water. I asked how it came there and was told it came in from the bay just outside, say one-eighth of a mile through this white sand and was pumped out by hand in order to let the men work. I asked the foreman of the work where they came from, one said from Texas, one from Alabama, and one from Massachusetts.

St. Petersburg is the city well laid out, its streets are very straight and wide and planted with trees on both sides. Its houses are nice and comfortable looking, and its churches was of good and substantial architecture, and its public schools surprised anything I had seen before in the buildings, their equipment and management. There was a lake close by and a steam engine was at work forcing the water into a high tank to be distributed through the school and elsewhere that it was needed. As a joke I asked the principal Mr. Gunsinger if the pupils used the lake for a skating pond during the winter which caused him to laugh most heartily, as he thought I was in earnest, seeing that they never have a frost at this point. I cannot describe the school as it should be done, but there was everything that could be in any school. A cooking room and a sewing room for girls and a work shop for boys containing a work bench for each boy well stocked with all the tools to be used in that department and every other department. There was some very prominent rich man who took a great interest in the schools and who had spent his money with a liberal handed to bring them to a high standard of perfection. I often heard his name but I would not write it for I might not get it just right. The man had given the young cadets their uniforms and also all the girls of good age were dressed in uniforms according to the position they occupied.

On May 5, 6, 7, Tampa gave a May festival of 3 days duration. There were three steamboats that brought from St. Petersburg the schools and over one thousand scholars came and rode all over Tampa in the trolly cars and finally paraded through the streets and to the Tampa Bay Hotel, on foot all in uniform where they gave an exhibition of their training, both the cadets and the girls in uniform. The Tampa Bay Casino was filled and the ticket taker said to me there were over fifteen hundred persons in the building. Tickets were 50 cents each and there were several hundred dollars taken in all for the benefit of the poor children's home. Every one seemed to be well pleased with today's showing. On Thursday there was a matinee of the Sons of Ham which was well rendered and in the evening there were many unusual performances, songs and instrumental playing, a scene of hay makers, etc. These performers were of the schools of Tampa, young men and maidens and Mrs. and were very interesting for all young old and young. 

SOLOMON S. MEAD

Silas Merwin Mead's Will (1903)

Source: Greenwich Graphic. Saturday, April 11, 1903.

Putnam Cemetery, Parsonage Road, Greenwich. 

Silas Merwin Mead's will has been filed at the Probate Office, and is as follows: 

In the name of God, Amen. I Silas Merwin Mead of the town of Greenwich Countu of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, being of sound disposing mind, memory and understanding; Do therefore make, ordain, publish and declare this to be my last Will and Testament in manner and form following, that is to say: 

First. I order and direct my executrix herein after named to pay all my just debts and funeral expenses as soon after my decease as may be practicable. 

Second. I give and bequeath to my daughter Anna R. Mead, wife of Nelson B. Mead, the sum of five hundred ($500) dollars. 

Third. All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate of whatever kind or nature, whether real or personal, I direct my said executrix to sell and convert into money. 

Fourth. And of such remainder or the avails thereof, I give and bequeath as follows: Four twentieth thereof to the Congregational Home Missionary Society of the City of New York. Three twentieths thereof, to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. One twentieth thereof, to the American Missionary Association of the city of New York. 

And, whereas the Ecclesiastical Society of the Congregational church of New Fairfield in said County of Fairfield has within the last few years suffered the loss by fire of its parsonage. If at the time of my deceased its society shall not than have a parsonage of its own, then I give and bequeathed to said society three twentieths of such remainder to be applied as followed: two thirds thereof, to go towards the building of such new parsonage, and the remainder of such legacy is to be used towards the improvement of a tract of some ten acres where the parsonage formally stood. 

And it is my wish that the said society or the members thereof should contribute an amount equal to this legacy to be expended for the same purposes. If however at the time of my decease said society shall then have a parsonage of its own, then and in that case instead of three twentieths of such remainder, I give and bequeath to society, one twentieth part of such remainder to be applied in the improvement of said ten (10) acre tract above referred to. 

Fifth. All the residue of my estate including any elapsed legacies I give and bequeath to my daughter Mary Louise Brush wife of Alexander B. Brush, of said New Fairfield, to her and to heirs and assigns forever.

Lastly I do hereby nominate, constitute and appoint my said daughter Mary Louise Brush to be the executrix of this my Last Will and Testament and direct that no bond be required of her for the settlement of my estate. 

I hereby revoke, cancel and annul any and all form by me made.

 In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal at said Greenwich, this thirtieth day of January, A. D. 1902. 

SILAS MERWIN MEAD, (S.S.)

Signed, sealed published and declared by the above named Testator as and for his Last Will and Testament in our presence and we at his request, in his presence, and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses. 

ELSIE M. DECKER of South Norwalk, Conn.
F.A. HUBBARD of Greenwich, Ct.
GEORGE G. MCNALL of Greenwich, Conn. 

Famous Paintings: On Exhibition At Mead's Stationery Store This Week (1912)

Source: Greenwich Press. Friday, August 2, 1912. Page 1

Image credit: AllPosters.com

Scores of people are visiting Mead's Stationery Store to see the two mammoth $15,000 historical paintings,"The Birth of the Flag" and "Ring! Ring for Liberty" by Henry Mosler, which are on exhibition there. The paintings are probably the finest that have ever been on exhibition in Greenwich.

The first painting shows Betsy Ross and three other young women engaged in making the first American flag. The coloring, lighting and perspective are wonderful.

It was Betsy Ross who made the first flag of the United States, and she made flags for the government for several years. The first flag was made in the little Arch street house in Philadelphia, which still stands; and it was ordered of Betsy Ross, in May, 1777, by a Committee of Congress, consisting of George Washington, Robert Morris and Colonel Ross. It is a scene of supreme significance to our country that Mr. Mosley has chosen for his great painting and the picture is a fitting companion for Mr. Mosler's "Ring! Ring for Liberty." In that picture the old bell ringer, in the cupola of Independence Hall, showed what the men of the Colonies had done to determine the destiny of the nation. This pairing portrays the part the women played.

Mr. Mosler has addressed himself to the subject with his accustomed intelligence and with real affection. He based his work on careful sketches made in the Betsy Ross House, and on through historical research. The scene lives for us, on the canvas, as only the genius and imagination of a great painter can replicate it.

Mr. Mosler's great painting "Ring! Ring for Liberty!" depicts, in thematic form, the moment of the making of our nation. It celebrates the way on which was announced to the world the great fact of American Independence. It is the scene of which the poet sang:

That old State House bell is silent,

Hushed is now its glamorous tongue;

But the spirit it awakened

Still is living—ever young;

And when we greet the smiling sunlight

On the fourth of each July,

We will never forget the bellman

Who, between the earth and sky,

Rung out, loudly, “Independence”;

Which, please God, shall never die!

The painter of "Ring! Ring for Liberty!" and "The Birth of the Flag" was born in New York City, June 6, 1841, and has enjoyed an artistic career of great distinction. He studied first in Cincinnati under the tutelage of James H. Beard. He served through the Civil War as a staff officer, and made many sketches and drawings of the scenes of engagement in which he took part. After that he worked for year or two in Dusseldorf, under Mucke and Kineger; also under Wagner in Munich. He spent some time, likewise, in Paris, under the instruction of Herbert. As early as 1874 Mr. Mosley won a medal at the Royal Academy of Munich, and this was followed by many medals and other prizes in Europe and America. He was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1892. He won the distinction of obtaining the Thomas B. Clark prize of our National Academy of Design, in 1896, and has received many signal tokens of distinction since that time. 

He came to be known as one of the leading American artists who, in addition to his masterly skill, revealed a ready sympathy for the people at a strong national feeling. This is found expression in a number of distinguished paintings of an historical and patriotic character, of which the present paintings are the most notable. 

Mead's store have several fine reproductions of the paintings for sale.

Letter to the Editor: SEAMAN MEAD WAS THERE: Skating Across Long Island Sound in the Winter of 1857 (1912)

Source: Greenwich Press. Friday, March 1, 1912.

*NOTE: See also my article published by Greenwich Time in its March 27, 1994 edition.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN – Sir: The recent frozen condition of the Connecticut harbors brings to mind a little incident that occurred many years ago. Long Island Sound was frozen over, from the Connecticut to the Long Island shore, in the winter of 1857. Many of the young people of Milford enjoyed skating on the ice near the shore, and trips were frequently made to the lighthouses on the islands offshore. Some of the young men, with a spirit of bravado, decided to skate across the Sound. Their preparations were quietly made, for they well knew that it would not be possible to obtain the consent of their parents, and at the time and place appointed by their leader twenty-five young fellows gathered.

Each was equipped with a piece of stout rope, about thirty feet in length, and a pair of skates. The trip to Long Island was safely made. On the return trip the boys landed on one of the small islands off Port Chester, N.Y. One of the twenty-five boys who made the trip is still living, the Hon. Seaman Mead of Greenwich.

Milford, Conn, February 21, H.Y. P. – NEW YORK SUN.

NEW GREENWICH HISTORY: SPENCER P. MEAD'S LATEST ACHIEVEMENT PLACED BEFORE THE PUBLIC (1912)

Source: Greenwich News. Friday, February 2, 1912. Page 1.

Has Created a Volume Dealing with This Town from Indian Days to the Present – Illustrations of Residences and Portraits of Citizens – Map of Greenwich in 1787. Shows Houses and Names of Occupants.

Self-committed to a single task, which began many years ago Historian Spencer P. Mead, author of "Ye Historie of Greenwich," the first copies of which arrived in Greenwich less than a week ago, has produced of work which is abundant in the credit due the writer and invaluable in its worth to the people of Greenwich and neighboring sections. It stands as the complete history of the town of Greenwich from the days of the first white settler to the present day, one of the best local histories ever compiled for the instruction and edification of any community.

Spencer P. Mead's gravestone is at Putnam Cemetery, Greenwich. 

To trace the course of the crossing and recrossing threads, diverging road and faintly blazed trails, was the work which Mr. Mead set before himself many years ago. He had dreamed the dream of a complete history of Greenwich; one which might be authentic and in every detail, and setting up this high conception as his ultimate goal, he has sacrificed many other interests and bent every endeavor to consummate the high purpose to which he dedicated himself, knowing well how year would drag on after year before the cloth he was weaving would be spread out for public inspection; before even he might call this pattern complete and begin first to weave together the thousands of slender threads.

How well the historian has succeeded cannot be told by saying that the public is offered a volume of seven hundred and sixty-eight pages 8vo and illustrated, nor even can it be conveyed by lightly touching upon its many facts in a review of this nature. It can only be appreciated by reading from cover to cover. Not a person who is a present living in Greenwich or who has ever lived in Greenwich, whether grown-up or still young, who cannot find it much that will interest and instruct, much that will seem almost unreal to some of us of the present generation, but which is so carefully drawn from all the available old records and so conclusively presented that one will readily accept as true and authentic this authors fullest detail. Those most familiar with the records of our town will be the first to testify that Mr. Mead's exhaustive study, for which he had earlier proved himself especially well fitted, has brought to earth almost hopelessly entangled traditions and many romantic legends to place them in their proper positions, as a part of history, unbiased and stripped tho they may often be of their more romantic features.

Mr. Mead's history of Greenwich contains a short account of the occupation of the land by the Indians; some of the less authenticated of the legends of the Indians; a graphic account of the battle between the Indians and the combined Dutch and English settlers at Strickland Plains at Cos Cob in 1644; descriptive accounts of the early settlers and their dealings with the Indians, and accounts of the French and Indian Wars as far as they pertain to the history of Greenwich.

Coming down to the last of the eighteenth century, the deeds of the colonists and their participation in the great war for freedom from England are amply portrayed. Greenwich with debatable ground during much of the period in which the Revolutionary war was fought, and Mr. Mead interestingly relates many stirring stories of exciting escapes of the patriots from the Tories and cowboys, who frequented the town. Tryon's raid and General Putnam's escape are presented in a new light and some of the old traditions are thoroly shattered.

Mr. Mead has briefly chronicled the part taken by Greenwich in the building of the new federal and state governments under the charters by which they are covered today. He has inserted a particularly interesting history of the old turnpikes, tracing themselves thru the town, and the story of the toll-gate, located on what is now Toll Gate Hill, just west of Horseneck Brook which was shortly west of old Horseneck. In history each section of the town, Olde Greenwich or Old Town, Mianus, Cos Cob, Horseneck, Byram, Stanwich and other settlements are given the full measure of their importance to the whole town. By the earlier accounts it can be seen that Horseneck, or that part of the town which is now incorporated into the Borough of Greenwich or is closing adjoining it, was of much less importance than several other parts of the township. Mianus and Cos Cob with their trading packets and village stores were once far larger and more impressive places than were Rocky Neck and Horseneck.

No vivid contrasts are allowed at the matter-of-fact historian, but may be permitted the reviewer, who sees only the realities of to-day. One who is accustomed to seeing the long lines of double lamped automobiles racing up Greenwich avenue from the Greenwich station shortly after a late afternoon train arrives, can hardly help wishing to be carried back for a moment to the time when "it was not an unusual sight to see a line of carts, each containing fifty bushels of potatoes, extending from the landing at Cos Cob to the Hub, waiting for a chance to unload." Those were the days when a Greenwich man's wealth was measured by the bushel and not by the acre. The Dun and Bradstreet reports of those days were kept on the pads at the docks in Mianus, Cos Cob and Rocky Neck and what Wall street knew or thought it knew had no bearing on the individual's position in social life.

The historian has thoroly searched the records of the nineteenth century, setting forth much that is important. A very valuable work has been the compiling of records of the town's enlistments in the Civil War. With this is given a brief, but very interesting history of the several of the regiments in which Greenwich men went through the great struggle. The accounts of the 10th 17th and 28th Connecticut Volunteer regiments are most complete.

Church history is begun almost with the early settlers and brought down to date. Important real estate transfers begin with the Indians and are traced thru many generations. Governmental history begins with the early disputes between the Dutch and English and is brought to date. Resolutions passed at some of the earliest town meetings may be found, as well as resolutions passed in town meetings only a year or two ago. Of the later important doings chronicled are the centennial celebration of General Putnam's ride, the burning of Alexander Mead's barns, he unveiling of the Soldiers and sailors monument, the unveiling of the Putnam monument, the dedication of the Town Hall and the dedication of the Putnam cottage.

One chapter is devoted to the incidents and modes of life of the early settlers, a journey by stage in 1826, market boats, steamboats, railroads and trolleys. Business centers and industries are traced from the early days to the present. A sketch of each lawyer and doctor who has practiced or is at present practicing in town is given, sketches of the various newspaper publications which the town has seen, histories of the fire companies, libraries, hospitals, public schools, private schools, churches, hotels and societies are also given.

An invaluable aid to attorneys or others, who have occasion to search the records is given in an alphabetical list of landowners from the first Indian deed in 1640 to 1752.

One of the great features of the new work is the genealogies of the early families of Greenwich. Few can comprehend the vast amount of work which was required to complete even one of these family genealogies – and there are fifty seven in all. It has meant almost infinite pouring through musty records, some of which are in the possession of the town, others scattered through various probate districts and town clerk's offices. Often the trail has a lead through vast bundles of private papers, which their possessors have kindly granted Mr. Mead permission to investigate. Days and weeks have been spent in church cemeteries and private grave yards in Greenwich and elsewhere, where the only records left obtainable are sometimes been almost obliterated.

The book is amply illustrated. In it are half-tone engravings of six of Greenwich is oldest residences, to which some history is attached; five other old building such as taverns and mills, six modern dwellings, four new manufacturing plants, several landscapes showing historic spots, portraits of ten persons who are connected with the history, several sketches, and a reproduction of the map of the old Greenwich, now owned by F. W. Lyon, editor and proprietor of the GREENWICH NEWS, which was found only a few years ago and which has proved to be the most valuable of all maps ever made of the town.

The history is copyrighted by Mr. Mead and was published from the Knickerbocker Press. Bound in cloth the price is $5.00. An edition de luxe bound in levant and width Gil top will be sold at $10 per copy. Clarkson H. Mead and Richard Mead of 240 Milbank avenue are the agents for Greenwich.

Spencer P. Mead, LL. B., the author of the new "Historie of Greenwich," is a native of the town of Greenwich; one of the honor men, class of 1893, of the New York Law School; was admitted to the New York bar in June, 1893; is a member of the New England society; Son of the Revolution in the state of New York, and the Society of Colonial Wars. In 1901 he published the "History and Genealogy of the Mead Family," which is one of the most comprehensive genealogies ever published, and contains many interesting incidents relative to the beat family.  Mr. Mead is at present a real estate lawyer in the city of New York.

Advertisement: James R. Mead, Attorney and Councellor-at-Law (Greenwich Press 1912)

Source: Greenwich Press. Friday, May 17, 1912. Page 4. 

IN NEW QUARTERS: Mead's Stationery Store Now Occupying Building Near E. Elm Street (1912)

Source: Greenwich Press. Friday, May 17, 1912. Page 1.

Mead's Stationary store is now installed in its new quarters at 249 and 251 Greenwich avenue near East Elm street, which can safely be said to be as fine and commodious quarters as any store in town has. It has more than three thousand square feet of floor space and is one of the best lighted business places anywhere hereabouts.

The display windows are of oak finish and the most artistic the community has ever seen here. Close to the windows in either side of the store are large mirrow-backed cabinets, one to be used for the display of kodaks, and one for writing papers and materials.

Running lengthwise of the store are eight find large "salesman" showcases. Large bookcases is capable of holding two thousand volumes have been installed. These bookcases like all other woodwork in the store are a super gray oak, the new finish which is becoming popular.

At the rear of the store is a large sound–proof room which will be used as a Victor Talking Machine salesroom. Just outside is a series of cabinets in which are stored the four thousand or more Victor records which the store carries.

There are many other new, interesting and pleasing things about the store and one will find it worthwhile to visit and inspect them.