Early Memories of Saugatuck, Michigan : 1830-1930
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Mich: 1930

JOHN MEAD

John Mead came here from York state in the forties, and at first located at Singapore when John P. Wade ran the boarding house there, and at this boarding house he met and married Miranda Gilman, a sister of Eri and Hiram. They soon erected a cabin at the Red Banks on the Kalamazoo where they spent the rest of their days, each living past the four-score mark.

Mr. Mead traded with the Indians while clearing- his tract for a farm. He and several others would build a raft and drag it along the lake close to the beach, and go to Chicago, buy a load of salt pork and flour in barrels and other trading stock then load the raft and drag it back to the harbor, then pole up the Kalamazoo to the Red Banks. This was a huge undertaking and fraught with danger, should a squall arise— it often took them several weeks. Mrs. Mead said their cabin was small and they always kept a barrel of pork just outside the door, which Mr. Mead traded to the Indians for fur or venison. Were the snow very deep, and the winter unusually severe, Mr. Mead would let the Indians have the salt pork and they never failed to pay as soon as they could hunt or trap when weather permitted.

Their relations with the Indians were most friendly and when hostile tribes were on the war-path the friendly ones always protected them.

They had no near neighbors, Uncle Tom Lamoreaux at the bridge the nearest. Mr. and Mrs. Mead were the parents of eight children, Delia, Melia, Emma and Frank, deceased, and living are Albert, Walter, James and Arthtur.