Early San Jacinto Valley residents made bold move west
In January 1914, the Hemet News reported on the 70th wedding anniversary celebration of Edwin Mead Sr. and his wife, Mercy.
They were 94 and 91 respectively. According to the
News, the couple came to the San Jacinto Valley area in November 1886, making them some of the earliest settlers in that area. The article said they were highly esteemed and had a host of friends.
“They have been ever ready to answer the call of the needy, and have been great factors in the development of the San Jacinto Valley.”
The Meads were married in Connecticut in 1844. They eventually had six children. At the time of their 70th anniversary, they had 20 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
By 1848, when their second child, a daughter named Cornelia, was born, they were living in New York state. In the 1850 census, the Meads were living in Virginia, where Edwin was a woodcutter. By 1855, they were back in New York, where their third child was born. The Meads’ fourth child was born in Connecticut in 1856, but whether the whole family had moved or son Stephen was born while his mother was visiting family there is unknown.
About 1857, the family moved to the small village of Ashkum in Illinois, where it appears they lived for almost 30 years and where their last two children were born. The farm schedule for 1880 showed the Mead family as being better off than some, but not as well off as others. They didn’t own any horses or mules at that time and had less land to till than some of their neighbors.
A significant turning point in the Mead family’s history came in 1884. That was the year that their daughter Cornelia, married to a Scottish immigrant by the name of Donald MacBeath, moved to the San Jacinto Valley.
Two years later, the Meads, along with at least some of their other adult children, moved to the
San Jacinto Valley as well, where they settled on 20 acres of land. Their moving days were over and Edwin and Mercy would spend the rest of their lives in the San Jacinto Valley. In many ways, this was a bold move for the Meads, for they were both in their 60s when they packed up to move across the country to a little known and lightly settled area of California.
In October 1914, Mr. Mead celebrated his 95th birthday at the Congregational Church in San Jacinto, where he was a charter member. It was his last public outing and he died the following January. His obituary said he was “affable and kindly, and everyone in San Jacinto was his friend.” His wife died in April 1918, also at the age of 95. Both are buried in the San Jacinto Valley Cemetery.