Mary Paine Mead
March 21, 1796-March 28, 1891
Niles Daily Sun, March 30, 1891, page 3.
In Memoriam
Mrs. Mary Payne Mead was born in Green county, N. Y., March 21, 1796, and died in Constantine, Mich., March 28, 1891, aged 95 years and 7 days.
The subject of this brief memoir was one of the few remaining pioneers of south-western Michigan.
It will be but a few years before the last of the old landmarks will have been removed. Her mother died when she was but four years of age. She left home soon after to live with an older sister, who lived in Amenia, Dutchess county, N. Y., whose husband was the well-known pioneer missionary in the states of Indiana and Illinois, Rev. John M. Peck, D. D., one of the founders also of Shurtleff College, Illinois. It was at her sister’s home that she met her future husband, Mr. Henry Hibbard Mead. To him she was married on the 12th day of December, 1819. In 1824 they moved to Chautauqua county, N. Y. In 1836 they moved to Cass county, Mich., and settled on Beardsley’s prairie, near the village of Edwardsburg. In 1842 her husband died and was buried in Edwardsburg, - forty-nine years ago, nearly – leaving her with a family of seven children, two of whom were married, and but three only of whom survive her to-day.
All of them became heads of families from which sprang nine grandchildren and twenty-five great grandchildren, many of whom reside in this city to-day.
After the decease of her husband, she moved to Edwardsburg and resided there until all her children were married, when she came to Niles to live in about the year 1865, with her son, Dr. Jackson Mead, deceased. With him she lived nine years, and for the past sixteen and one-half years she has lived with her daughter, Mrs. Nathan Fitch, nine of which she has lived in this city. Last October she decided to go and spend the winter with her youngest daughter, Mrs. Dr. Thomas, at Constantine, Mich.
About three weeks ago it became evident that this long life was nearing its close and the remarkable vigor which had sustained her for nearly a century, was beginning to wane and on the 28th day of March, she fell asleep conscious until the last moment of her earthly existence. When she lived in Amenia, she and her husband united with the Baptist church, baptized by John M. Peck in 1820, about seventy years ago and to the end she maintained her Christian profession in an exalted manner and grew until she possessed the Christian graces in an eminent degree. The Bible was the lamp to her feet and the light to her pathway.
In some regards she was a most remarkable woman. Generally as people grow old they grow also to be peevish, petulant and irritable until nothing but love and duty can bear with their disagreeableness.
Mrs. Mead was not soured by trouble or disappointments nor did she ever lose her genial gentle disposition by infirmities of age. While others complained and chafed and became [several words illegible] and age and infirmities [several words illegible] she alone almost. [Several words illegible] undisturbed peacefulness of disposition [illegible] of herself. Always a lady, she and trained herself to agreeableness and hence she was the friend and companion of the young, the middle-aged and the aged. She brought the sweet amenities of her early self-taught life, inspired by lofty Christian principle, along through the severest trials and troubles incident to human life and evermore, as age advanced, refused to forget and ignore the principles which she had learned to love, and which had made her so eminent an example of exalted Christian womanhood. Under whatever influence, in whatever sphere, under all skies and in all moods she was a peerless woman. In character, as pure as the unspotted snow of the north; and in all aims and purposes, social and Christian, she was a lofty as her faith in the Book which was her constant companion to the end. At an advanced age she passed over the river. Hers was no sudden call.
All preparations by her had been made both secular and spiritual. The silver cord was not cut hurriedly, nor the golden link broken in an instant. The cord was gently untied; the golden bowl melted away ‘as it were a scarf of vapory amethyst,’ or rather as the light fades away from the firmament at the coming of the evening mild. The pearl dropped from the wasted shell as the Saturday afternoon sun was creeping slowly along midway from zenith to the horizon. At the home of her youngest daughter she passed peacefully, gently away, conscious that she was merging into the light of Eternal life. Her remains were brought to this city this afternoon from Constantine.
The funeral services connected with her decease will be held to-morrow morning at 10 o’clock at the Baptist church, conducted by the Rev. Chas. Ager.
Niles Daily Star. March 30, 1891
Mrs. Mary Mead, mother of Mrs. Nathan Fitch, of this city, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Dr. Thomas, at Constantine Saturday evening, aged 95 years. The remains were brought here this afternoon.
Same page:
Funeral services connected with the decease of Mrs. Mary P. Mead, mother of Mrs. Nathan Fitch, will be held tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock at the Baptist church.