Source: Greenwich News and Graphic. Friday, June 1, 1923. L.B. Edwards. Page 9, Column 1.
If the question was asked most residents of Greenwich, Who is Zechariah Mead?, they could not answer the inquiry. They probably would reply that they had never known such a man. Some of the older members of the community would say immediately with pleasing enthusiasm, "Yes, I do."
Zechariah Mead was a prominent young man living in Greenwich sixty-three years ago, and belonged to one of the oldest Mead families, and while not among the number of young men who were the original members of Company I, the "crack" Greenwich company of the famous fighting Tenth Connecticut Regiment of Volunteers, as it was and still is known by among old soldiers and others who are familiar with its record in the war of the Rebellion, he joined the company later and in one of the few survivors who took part in the Memorial Day exercises in Greenwich this year.
For over forty years Zechariah Mead held an important position in a prominent New York city bank, giving it up only a short time ago on account of the infirmities of age.
Every Memorial Day since the beautiful soldiers' monument was placed on the conspicuous triangular knoll southeast of the Second Congregational Church, flowers have been placed at the base and a wreath or other flowers hung near the top, where the figure of the soldier in solid granite always scouts attention from the observers of interest in the town, especially strangers.
The flowers used have mostly been lilacs, as their attractive blossoms have been the most in bloom at this season of the year; until hear in Greenwich, if nowhere else, the lilac has come to be regarded as the national symbol for Memorial Day observance, no national flower having been adopted.
Now, however, it seems that the Flanders Poppy will become the national Memorial Day flower, and it has been stated that more than 40 states will show their regard for those who fell in war by the use of the poppy for Memorial Day decoration, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars are inaugurating a movement for the recognition of this pretty little flower, as the national Memorial Day blossom.
The very many wearers of poppy blossoms on Memorial Day paid silent tribute to the soldiers gone, and where they were sold, as they were in many places, the proceeds realized will be used to alleviate the condition of disabled ex- servicemen, the comrades of those living in Greenwich, who formed the Greenwich Company, as well as other veterans of the late war for taking part in the Greenwich Memorial Day exercises.
It was a number of years after the Civil War was over, that the residents of the town of Greenwich decided to erect a suitable memorial in recognition of their valiant deeds. Many of the other towns of the state, within a comparatively few years after the soldiers and sailors returned to their homes and the war was declared ended, had directed memorials of some kind, and as the years went by criticism became more and more severe in Greenwich because nothing had been done in the matter in Greenwich. Finally public opinion became aroused and Horace W. Barton, who was engaged in the monument business in Woodlawn, but whose home was at Greenwich, was consulted and he submitted plans of the soldiers monument that seemed to please all who inspected them.
Then a town meeting was called and the resolution appropriating the $6000 required was passed without a dissenting vote, and it was not long after the monument was placed in position with the appropriate exercises.
Stanford was more remiss than Greenwich in neglecting proper permanent recognition of the soldiers and sailors of the Civil War. There were a number of Greenwich veterans living in Stamford and they did not hesitate to call attention of the old soldiers of Stamford to what Greenwich had done in honor the veterans and Stamford residents; many of them were insistent that some action be taken on the part of the Town to place Stamford on the map with other cities and towns of the State that had so long in abeyance.
And then, too, the action of Greenwich was an incentive for Stamford to do something. The town did it, but it took an object lesson, laughed at by many Greenwich people who saw it, to secure what those who insisted that Stamford should have– a suitable recognition in form of a monument for the Stanford soldiers and sailors. The object lesson was given one Memorial Day morning. It was a beautiful day and the residents had begun to start the Memorial Day exercises. Many of them were wealthy New York business men who lived with their families in handsome residences, of which there was a large number of conspicuous homes, and the conditions prevailing were similar to those of most towns whose prominent residents were largely of the commuting class and there was very little interest taken by them in local affairs of the town.
On this Memorial Day morning, located on a permanent place in front of the public square on Main and Atlantic Street and Park Place, was a small monument. It had been put there the previous night. It was about five feet high, of wood frame, covered with unbleached cotton cloth.
At the front was a wreath of green leaves and underneath lettering: "The way Stamford remembers its veterans," or wording of similar effect. There was a lot of mad Stamford folks when they saw it, and some laughed at it, however, and said that it was a great joke, while the majority passed it by with a look of disgust. It was the talk of the town on that Memorial Day and some of the residents said they would find the ones who were the instigators of the insult.
"Plain" Sam Fessenden, leading politician, state's attorney and public spirited citizen, who had been a lieutenant in the Civil War, smiled in his friendly way when spoken to about the matter, and Alexander Weed, an old soldier who knew more about jokes than any other man in Stamford and was one of the kindest-hearted men of the town, stormed around some and appeared to be very angry when spoken to about it by those we're going to find one, but it was noticed that after they left his store he would go into the back room and laugh, and it soon became evident that the two close friends knew more about the monument than they were willing to tell.
But it had the desired effect, for soon after the Town of Stamford was presented with a cannon, captured from the Spanish in the Spanish-American war. This was mounted on a suitable base in West Main street park, and dedicated with appropriate exercises and afforded a suitable and rather unique soldiers monument for Stamford.
