Elkanah Mead Rites Tomorrow at 3:30 (1938)

Source: Greenwich Press. Thursday, February 10, 1938

Veteran Insurance Man Dies Yesterday in 87th Year.

Elkanah Mead, native of Greenwich and member of one of the town's oldest families, will be laid to rest in the family plot in Union Cemetery tomorrow afternoon following funeral services from his late home. The Rev. Daniel Bliss, pastor of the Second Congregational Church, of which Mr. Mead was long a member, will officiate at the service at 3:30 o'clock. 

For some time in failing health, Mr. Mead died at 10 o'clock yesterday morning. He had been confined to his bed for four months before his death. He was in his 87th year. 

Mr. Mead resided in the house he built on Milbank Avenue in 1881, shortly after his marriage to Esther L. Waterbury. He was born on June 23, 1851, the son of the late Elkanah  and Jane Mead Mead. He was born in the family homestead at the intersection of Stanwich Road and Guinea Road, now the home of the Yandell family. The house had been previously purchased by his father, who had formerly lived in the ancestral homestead on North Street, now the home of Edward McFarlan. The homestead has been built by Amos Mead (pictured below), Mr. Mead's grandfather. The land had been owned for generations by the family.

His mother was Jane Mead, daughter of Ephraim and Azuba Mead, the original owners of Bruce Park. 

Ephraim Mead built the first brick house in Greenwich, since torn down, the bricks for which were brought to Greenwich from Holland.

Mr. Mead received his education at the old Stanwich School located on Stanwich Road, near Dingletown Road; and at the Greenwich Academy, which his ancestors established. In 1880 he married Esther L. Waterbury, daughter of Aaron and Lava Waterbury of Pound Ridge, New York.

He was one of the first to cross the continent on the trans-continental railroad in company with his cousin, Ephraim Mead. He journeyed to California via the Isthmus of Panama and returned shortly after the railroad had been completed. On the trip, he saw immense herds of buffalo, wild antelope and tribes of Indians. 

For several years he was associated with Waterbury and June lumber business which was located on Steamboat Road. It was in 1891 that he established the real estate and insurance business which still bears his name. The business is now conducted by his daughter, Katherine, and his son-in-law, Carleton T. Bradley.

Always interested in the public affairs of Greenwich, Mr. Mead refused to hold public office until 1922, when he accepted the nomination as Republican candidate for the state legislature. He served one term, refusing to run again.

For many years an active member of the Second Congregational Church, he served in past years on many of the church committees. 

Surviving besides his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Bradley of 178 Milbank Avenue, is a daughter, Mrs. Winifred Smalley of St. George, Maine, and granddaughter, Jane Mead Smalley.