There is no name which is more familiar to the early and later settlers of Scott County than that which stands at the head of this sketch. Rev. Enoch Mead was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, Septem ber 2, 1809. His parents were Colonel Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Holmes) Mead, both of the old Puritan stock.
The old family homestead was situated at the foot of Putnam's hili, and the farm has been in the family for several generations. Colonel Mead held the rank of colonel of Connecticut militia for many years, including the War of 1812.
Our subject resided on the farm with his parents, attending district school in the winter until he was fourteen years of age. He then took a classical course at a school in Stamford and at Yale College, graduating from the college in the class of 1830. Entering the Theological Seminary at Auburn, New York, he took a three years' course and was licensed to preach by the Cayuga presbytery on April 17, 1833. He accepted a call to the pastorate of the Congregational church of New Haven, Vermont, in 1834, and was ordained and installed pastor of that church to succeed the Rev. Dr. Bates, president of the Middlebury College.
While in New Haven Mr. Mead was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. James, daughter of Deacon Samuel James, January 20, 1835. In the fall of 1837 he decided to come west, and leaving his family in the care of his parents in Connecticut, he set his face toward the setting sun with no particular place in view, his route being by the way of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and the Ohio river and up the Mississippi river to Alton, Illinois. While resting in Alton from a three weeks journey, a pro-slavery riot destroyed the printing press and murdered the publisher of the “Alton Observer,” Elijah P. Lovejoy. Together with a few sorrowing friends of the deceased, Mr. Mead gave to this early martyr to the cause of emancipation Christian burial. From Alton he pro ceeded up the Illinois river to Peoria, thence to Knoxville, Illinois. Leaving his baggage there he set out on foot alone for Rock Island, which he reached after three days' travel through the woods and over prairies, with an occasional squatter's hut to be found.
Arriving at Stephenson he crossed the river to Davenport, then a new town containing about a half dozen families. Learning that there was a town four miles down the river called Rockingham, then the Cuonty seat and containing several hundred inhabitants, he traveled down to that place and received a hearty welcome as a minister of the Gospel. They said the "Sabbath had not crossed the river," but the majority desired a Christian minister to settle among them and establish their religious institutions. Believing this to be a promising field for usefulness he accepted the invitation to remain, and soon gathered a congregation, organized a Presbyterian church, and continued his services as a minister until the decline of the town, caused by the removal of the County seat to Davenport.
During the first winter as the children were growing up in ignorance, he taught a village school, and then returned east for his family. He shipped his household effects by the way of New York, New Orleans and the Mississippi river to Rockingham, then purchasing a span of horses and a covered wagon he left the Green Mountain State and with his family set out for his new home, one thousand two hundred miles away. His overland journey was made without accident; the longest distance they found without seeing a house was forty miles, and they made the journey in a little over one month. The once prosperous town of Rockingham now commenced a rapid decline, which continued until it was nearly deserted. The church which he organized was swallowed up by the Metropolitan church in Davenport.
He then devoted himself to the missionary work in his own and the adjoining Counties, and for many years he continued this work. At Blue Grass and other places he preached the Gospel regularly, and often made long journeys of one hundred miles over the prairies to fill some pulpit. The last few years of his life were spent on his farm in Rockingham Township, where he was engaged in agricultural and horticultural pursuits. He was a member of the State Horticultural Society and contributed articles for its annual reports.
BIOGRAPHIES