Obituary: Oliver Deliverance Mead (New York Times)

Oliver D. Mead, 96, Greenwich Banker

Executive of Lumber and Land Companies is Dead

Special to the New York Times

GREENWICH, Conn., January 11.

Oliver Deliverance Mead, former banker and lumber dealer, died in his home, Field Point Park, here this morning. He celebrated his ninety-sixth birthday on December 29, and on Monday made his usual trip to town in his electric automobile, 1922 model, to pay his town taxes.

Mr. Mead was vice president of the Maher Brothers Corporation, a large lumber and coal firm. He was president of the New Burial Ground Association and for ten years president of the Greenwich National Bank.

Born on his father's farm on Dec. 29, 1842, he attended Greenwich Academy and in 1882 moved to the Sophar [Zophar] Mead homestead, Field Point Park, a house built in 1792, which he inherited with 120 acres from his cousin, Oliver Mead. He organized the Field Point Land Company and served as its president for many years, dividing the farm into home sets, which now make up Belle Haven. For thirteen years he served in the Connecticut militia and was for a time justice of the peace.

In 1864 he cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln and had voted in every Presidential election since that time. Mr. Mead sought to enlist in the Union Army during the Civil War. "They thought I wasn't physically able," he said recently, "and now there are none of them left." He was the oldest member of the Elks and Masons here.

Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. Adam Reed Guy of Brooklyn, and Mrs. Newell L. Walker and Mrs. William J. Ferris of Greenwich, and a granddaughter, Mrs. Granville K. Lester.