Their Golden Wedding: Mr. & Mrs. Isaac Lewis Mead and Greenwich Fifty Years Ago (1905)

 

Source: The Greenwich Graphic. December 2, 1905. Page 5. 

Mr. and Mrs. I. L. Mead Receive Congratulations- Talks with Graphic About the Greenwich for 50 Years Ago. 

Mr. and Mrs. Isaac L. Mead held an informal reception at their home last Monday in observance of the 50th anniversary of their wedding. During the day more than a hundred persons paid their respects to the couple. Besides these Lombard Post G. A. R. called in a body, the deacons of the Congregational Church and the school visitors, as well as representatives of Acacia Lodge A and F. M. 

Many pretty presents were received by the pair. Among them were a gold Grand Army badge presented by Lombard Post, a gold lined silver fruit dish presented by the visitors and a gold Masonic emblem for Mr. Mead and a gold brooch for Mrs. Mead presented by Acacia Lodge.

Isaac L. Mead House, Lafayette Place, Greenwich. Circa 1890.

Mr. Mead is a native of Greenwich, there can hardly be found a man who has for so many years kept in such close touch with the town. His naturally fine intellect has preserved all its keeness and his physical faculties have not been impaired by age with the exception of his eyesight which he has almost entirely lost.

"There has been a great change in Greenwich since 50 years ago to-day," he said reminiscently to the GRAPHIC. "At the time I was married it was but a little village which had but little intercourse with the outside world. The railroad had been put through but a short time and a trip to New York was infrequent indeed to the average Greenwichite." 

"I think at that time there were but six houses of what is now Greenwich Avenue. The avenue was a mere road from the Post Road down to what is now the Steamboat dock. There were no sidewalks and the road was often in such a condition  that it was necessary to walk out into the lots to get out of the mud. The road was considerably used even before the railroad was put in, in going from the upper part of town to Capt. Caleb Merritt's sloop wharf.

"This sloop of Captain Merritt's plied between here and New York and was for a great many years a much used mode of transportation, not only of freight but of passengers. The sloop ran once a week. It started in the evening and if the weather was good generally arrived in New York It started in the evening and if the weather was good and generally arrived in New York somewhere near dawn.

"The business section of the town for the most part was near the corner of Sherwood Place and Putnam avenue was near the corner of Sherwood Place and Putnam Avenue, though there there were one or two stores, though there there were one or two stores adjacent to the building which is now called the Lenox House. The hotel was called the Mansion House and was kept by Mr. Augustus Lyon. It was the only hostelry in this part of the town.

Greenwich Avenue, 1890.

"There were no public improvements in town then, if you accept the roads. They were not even lights. I remember the first time lights were put on Greenwich avenue. I think it was just prior to the war, when the 8th regiment of militia was camping on Mr. Sandford Mead's lot.  I was then a member of the Board of Burgesses and I realized that there would be a great many people passing between the railroad and the campground and that there ought to be lights on Greenwich avenue. 

"At that time the Americus Club had a clubhouse on Indian Harbor Point where Mr. Benedict's place is now. They used great many lamps to light the woods up when they held an entertainment of any sort. I went to the club and as it was about time for it to close for the year, asked them for the use of the lamps. 

"When I got them I had them fixed to the trees all along Greenwich avenue. Those were the first lights on the avenue, but it was a long time before any were permanently placed there. 

"Practically no one outside knew of town, then, as a summer resort. One of the first people to make a summer home here was William L. Tweed. It was he who brought the Americus Club which through its members helped to spread the fame of Greenwich as a beautiful summer place.

"Then of course other people traveling through the town on the railroad noted its beauties and came here to try them. 

Indian Harbor, Commodore E.C. Benedict's home. 

"There is a rather amusing story told of the late Mr. H. M. Benedict, brother of Mr. E. C. Benedict whose elegant villa here is one of the most magnificent in the country.

"For some reason or other Mr. Benedict had come to town and he visited the cemetery. For some reason or other Mr. Benedict had come to town and he visited the cemetery. Going through it and reading various inscriptions, he remarked that there were an almost amazing number of persons who had died at the ages of eighty or ninety or even older.  

New Burial Grounds Association Cemetery, Greenwich. It is located
next to the Second Congregational Church. (Read here). 

"Ha,"he said with a smile, "if the place is so healthful that they all live to be eighty or more, it's just the place for me.' Somewhat later he came here to live, whether partly because of the incident or not, I don't know. 

"Seven years ago he died at an age that was not less than those he had marveled at, graven in the old cemetery." 

A Farmer's Opinion: Selling the Town Farm (1905), by Solomon Stoddard Mead

 

Solomon Stoddard Mead. 

Source: The Greenwich Graphic. December 2, 1905. Page 4. 

On Tuesday afternoon I attended a town meeting in Bruce's New Town Hall  held to take into consideration the propriety of selling the present town farm and removing the inmates to some other location in Greenwich. When I arrived at the hall it was already full to overflowing, and the meeting had already commenced. I could not hear one word to that was spoken, but I saw there was something going on inside by the uplifted hands of the people. 

I should think there was fully 1200 in the building at the time, and standing outside and in the entry way. Who was moderator, I had no idea, or what the people were voting for or against, and it is my opinion that far too many did not know how they voted, nor were their votes properly counted. No person could count those with any degree of accuracy at the time, and I look upon the whole transaction as a farce and a fizzle.

Now I am opposed to selling the town farm as it is the best possible plan to take care of the poor people of Greenwich. There they have all the comforts and benefits that could possibly be vouchsafed to them. It is a very healthy place. They can working raise vegetables and amuse themselves. 

Now if it was my case and perhaps I shall get there myself in the near future I should feel it was much more to my comfort to be on a farm than confined in a sanitarium. It was said to me that the farm was objectionable to the millionaires of Greenwich, that they can did not like the idea of living on the road over the hill to the poorhouse. Now where can they live if they do not come in sight of the poorhouse or the sanitarium or the poor people themselves. I cannot see any advantage arising by changing the poor. I cannot see any advantage arising by changing the poor. I can see they would be much better off as they are. A life in prison is much worse than a life on a beautiful farm like the present home for the poor of Greenwich.

I was not at all satisfied at the way the meeting was managed. I feel no one knows how many voted yes or voted no and also how many of them voted that had no right to a vote. I understand many millionaires were there and had everybody that they could control; to vote to sell the poor farm. Even gave them a holiday to do so and how much else I know not. These things are managed in a curious way, but in a way to reach the object for which they are sent.  I think the meeting was all wrong and if voted at all should be done by ballot and only the persons who are legally qualified should be allowed to vote. I for one object to the whole proceeding of Tuesday's vote on the question of selling the town farm. 

SOLOMON S. MEAD