Thomas E Means

MEANS

Posted By: County Coordinator (email)
Date: 5/13/2010 at 17:17:08

Twenty-five years have come and gone since Thomas E Means took up his abode in Boone and for twenty-four years of that time he has been engaged in the real estate, abstract, loan and insurance business. He joined with his brother William B Means in the conduct of a business of that character, and they have since been associated under the firm name of Means Brothers. It is not difficult to determine the secret of their success, for close application and energy have ever guided them in all of their business relations.
Thomas E Means was born near Paris, Illinois April 1865, and is a son of John C and Margaret (Shelledy) Means. His father was a pioneer of Edgar county, Illinois, where he arrived in 1823, at the age of six years, n company with his parents, William and Susan (Seal) Means who removed from Ohio to Illinois. William Means, however was a native of Staunton, Virginia, and lived in South Carolina for some time before going to Ohio. In the last named state he remained until 1823 and then went to Illinois when his son John C was a little lad of six summers. The death of William Means occurred I 1848. Under the parental roof John C Means spent his boyhood and youth. He was about eighty years of age ere death called him in 1897. He married Margaret Shelledy, who was born near Wet Union, Adams county, Ohio a daughter of G B Shelledy, who was a pioneer lawyer and a contemporary of Abraham Lincoln. Some correspondence which passed between the two includes a letter from Mr Lincoln to Mr Shelledy, which is now in the curator’s department of the state capital at Des Moines. Mr Shelledy died abut 1846, when a comparatively young man. His daughter Margaret reached the ripe old age of seventy years, passing away in March 1897. She and all the members of the family were Presbyterians in religious faith, and her belief found expression in the beauty of her life and in the kindly spirit manifest toward those with whom she was associated.
Thomas E Means was the ninth in order of birth in a family of ten children, of whom eight are yet living. There were also two cousins who were reared by his parent, and all the others of the household remained at or near the old Illinois home. Thomas E Means spent his youthful days in Edgar county, Illinois and in the acquirement of his education attended the high school at Paris, from which he was graduated. In early manhood he engaged in teaching for some months and then went to Boone, Iowa since which time he has been engaged in abstract work and in his present business. He joined his brother William B Means in 1893, and under the firm style of Means Brothers they have since conducted an abstract, loan, real estate and insurance business.
In 1893, Mr Means was united in marriage to Miss Agnes Kennedy, a native of Hendricks county, Indiana, and a daughter of Dr L H Kennedy, who was a surgeon in Benjamin Harrison’s regiment of Indiana troops and served through out the Civil war. He lived and died in Indiana. Mrs means acquired a high school education there and taught for some time before her marriage at Danville, Indiana, proving very capable in imparting readily and clearly to others the knowledge that she had acquired. Mr and Mrs Means are now parents of two daughters, Margaret and Mary Frances, both of whom are attending high school. In politics Mr Means is a republican, yet without ambition for office. He has membership relations with the Knights of Pythias and with the Royal Arcanum.

1914 Boone County History Book