CAPTAIN MEAD—A VICTIM OF THE MCARTHUR RAID
Benjamin Mead was a familiar name among the old pioneers of Woodhouse when this old century was new. The fine old home of the Meads, located on the old gravel road west of Port Dover, has long since passed into strangers’ hands, yet the place is still referred to as the old Mead homestead.
Benjamin Mead was the son of Richard Mead, of St. John, N.B. He was born in 1774, and when a mere lad was apprenticed to a tanner. When the U.E. Loyalists of the Maritime Provinces began a movement for the settling of Upper Canada, young Mead, seeing an opportunity of securing a home for himself in the new country, bought off his time and fell in with the westward march.[1] He came to Long Point about a hundred years ago, and secured Lots 8 and 9 in the 1st concession of Woodhouse. Subsequently he married a young lady who had come to the settlement with the Dedrick family. She was of German descent, as also are the Meads. In about 1800 the parents of Benjamin came to Woodhouse, where they spent the remainder of their lives. The court records show that Benjamin Mead was a member of the Grand Inquest at the spring term of the old Court of Quarter Sessions in 1802, held at the house of James Monroe.
Mr. Mead was prudent, industrious and enterprising. He possessed good business abilities, and made money from the very beginning of his pioneer experiences. During the first decade of the century he built a tannery on his land, which was in operation during the war of 1812. When the war broke out he enlisted in his country’s service, and was captain of a company of militia. He had about $4,500 in cash at the time, and in order to secure this money in case of possible invasions, he buried it in the centre of the public road opposite his home. During the McArthur raid the invaders passed his place, burning his tannery and dwelling-house on their way. Mrs. Mead made an effort to save her household effects, but as fast as she carried the goods from the burning home the Americans seized them and threw them back into the fire. Mr. Mead received no wounds during the war, and there is no evidence to show that he took part in any of the principal engagements. Just before the war he joined the Tisdale brothers in a mercantile adventure in Vittoria. The partners in this concern consisted of himself and Samuel, Lot, Joseph and Matthew Tisdale. The five deputized three of their number to manage the business, Mr. Mead being one of the three. The particulars pertaining to the organization of this mercantile syndicate are given in sketch, “The Tisdale Brothers’ Business Combination,” and need not be repeated here. It appears to have been a short-lived affair, and in the dissolution Mr. Mead withdrew his interest in merchandise, taken from the general stock, and moved it to his own place, where he started a little store of his own. Two or three years after the war he and one Stebbins built a schooner and engaged in the carrying business. The schooner was named The Elizabeth, in honor of Mrs. Mead.
Mr. Mead was a shrewd business man. He possessed two faculties in a marked degree—one for making money and the other for taking care of it after it was made. Sometimes he kept large sums of money secreted on his premises, and on one occasion his wife found a considerable sum under a barrel in the cellar while engaged in righting up things. After he had passed the high meridian of life he joined the Methodist Church, and spent the afternoon and evening of his existence in the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of his well-earned home comforts. In 1824 he was importuned by his many friends to accept a nomination as a candidate for parliamentary honors, but he positively declined the favor, preferring the quiet of private life. He died in 1857, in is 84th year; and Mrs. Mead, who was eleven years his junior, died in 1848, in her 64th year.
Captain Benjamin Mead had two sons—Richard D. and George; and six daughters—Catherine, Hannah, Rebecca, Maria, Lucretia and Mary Ann.
Richard D. Mead, elder son of Benjamin, was born in 1815, married Hannah, daughter of William Henderson, the old Charlotteville pioneer, and settled on the eastern portion of the Mead homestead. He kept a tavern during the rebellion, and in 1839 went to London, where he kept a tavern. Indeed, Richard Mead spent the larger portion of his life in the business of tavern-keeping. He returned to the old stand, but left it a second time for a hotel in Caledonia. Subsequently he kept a hotel in Simcoe, and when he began to feel the weight of accumulated years he quit the hotel business and retired to the old homestead, where he lived the remainder of his life. Lieut. “Dick” Mead was cut out of nature for the business of tavern-keeping. He was socially inclined, and being of a genial nature he knew how to attract and entertain his guests. But he did not inherit his father’s business acumen. When the Hamilton and Port Dover plank road was built, he, in company with two or three others, secured a contract for clearing off the timber and grading the roadway between Port Dover and Jarvis. After the tender was made, and before the contract was closed, Mr. Mead submitted the figures to his father, who, after making a careful computation, informed him that the tender only amounted to fifty cents per rod, and that it would ruin them financially if they were awarded the contract. They did undertake it, however, and the consequence was Mr. Mead lost his valuable farm.
During the troublous times of the rebellion, Lieut. Dick Mead‘s tavern was a popular resort for Loyalists. Captain Jacob Powell organized a company of light infantry for service, and the lieutenancy was reserved for the man who succeeded in raising the largest number of recruits for the company. Richard Mead and Lewis Mann were the principal aspirants for the position. They furnished a larger number than was needed, and each was awarded with the position—the former as First and the latter as Second Lieutenant. Mr. Mead died in 1865, in his 51st year. He had three sons—John, Richard and Robert; and two daughters—Caroline and Miranda. Robert is the present proprietor of the “Mead House,” Port Dover.
George Mead, younger son of Benjamin, married Elizabeth Wilson, and settled on the homestead. He had three sons—William, John and Walter; and two daughters—Candace and Caroline. This family settled in the States.
Catherine Mead, eldest daughter of Benjamin, married Frederick Gibbs, and settled in Walpole. She had two sons—Benjamin and William; and one daughter, Nelly.
Hannah Mead, the second daughter, married Zeal Welch, and settled in the States. She had one son, Benjamin, who married Catherine Dedrick, and settled in Walsingham, where he raised a family of four sons—Abraham, William, Madison and James; and three daughters—Harriet, Susan and Jane. Subsequently Benjamin Welch married Rebecca Jewell, by whom he had a second family.
Rebecca Mead, the third daughter, married Reuben Bacon, and settled in Charlotteville. She had one daughter, Eliza, who married Philip Vasbinder.[2] Subsequently Mrs. Bacon married John Gifford, of South Cayuga, by whom she had five sons—Edward, Maxwell, Benjamin, George and Thomas; and two daughters—Maria and Elizabeth.
Maria Mead, the fourth daughter, was born in 1809. She married Holmes Matthews, of Woodhouse. She died in 1881, in her 73rd year. Her children are enumerated in the Matthew’s genealogy.
Lucretia Mead, the fifth daughter, married Thomas Walsh. Her children are named in the Walsh genealogy.
Mary Ann Mead, the youngest daughter, married John McBride, and settled in Woodhouse. They are both living, but there are no children or grandchildren to visit them in their beautiful home in Port Dover. They settled in the woods, and after clearing up a good Woodhouse farm, came to Port Dover, where Mr. McBride engaged in the drug business, and continued it for more than a quarter of a century. When he retired from business he sold out to Robert M. Taylor, who had been his faithful clerk for sixteen years. Mr. McBride has been a busy man in private life, and also a prominent man in public affairs, having served in the municipal councils of his township and village, and as a Justice of the Peace.
Captain Benjamin Mead was one of the foundation builders of Norfolk. He raised a family of eight sons and daughters, all of whom married, yet the county where he settled a hundred years ago contains few of his descendants, and the family name has become nearly extinct. The descendants of Captain Mead, through the Vasbinders, have reached the seventh generation. The captain had a brother, Israel, who settled in the States, and the grandchildren of this brother have visited their Norfolk relatives.
[1] Benjamin Mead’s obituary in the Christian Guardian newspaper dated February 5, 1857, stated that he died on January 31, 1857 aged 83 years and 6 months. This would place his birth in June or July 1773. Benjamin was a son of Richard Mead, born at Loudon County, Virginia c. 1750. Richard Mead, son of Samuel and Mary (Downey) Mead, moved with his parents to Pittsgrove Township, Salem County, New Jersey in 1765. He married at Daretown, Salem County on August 29, 1772, Parneal/Parnel Sutton (Records of Pittsgrove Baptist Church, Daretown, Salem Co., NJ in Historical Sketch of Pittsgrove Baptist Church by Rev. Joshua Wills, 1915). During the American Revolution, Richard served in the 1st and then the 2nd Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers, latterly as a Sergeant, recorded in the regimental muster rolls. In 1783, he went with the Loyalist Exodus from New York to Nova Scotia and received a grant at Digby Township, Digby County. In 1785, he moved to Pennfield, New Brunswick. Richard Mead brought his family— Benjamin, Parnel, Isaac and Margaret to Upper Canada in June 1799. His petition dated July 30, 1799 stated that he came into the province about a month earlier with his wife, two sons and two daughters. Source: Upper Canada Land Petition “M” Bundle 5, Doc. No. 92. On 16 Jun 1802, he purchased from Thomas Hamilton 200 acres in Lot 2, Concession 1, and Lot 15, Concession 1, Woodhouse Twp., Norfolk Co.
[2] Reuben and Rebecca (Mead) Bacon also had a son John H. Bacon, born c. 1834 who married Nancy Jane Steinhoff on 17 May 1860. John’s marriage record in the Norfolk County Marriage Register named his parents.