Saline County, Missouri Genealogy Trails

Biographies

BERNARD V. MEAD. A railroad engineer's life is so attended with danger that one needs to have a remarkably sunny and sanguine temperament to be happy and at ease in tilling such a position. Our subject is an ideal member of the brotherhood. He is a clever man and a genial, good-natured companion. As a teller of stories, either in the family, where, by the way, he is most delightful, or on the road, he is quite unapproachable. Located at Slater, Saline County, Mo., Mr. Mead is the engineer of a passenger train on the Chicago & Alton Railroad, running from Kansas City, to Roodhouse.

Our subject was born in Birmingham, Erie County, Ohio, September 13, 1840, a son of Dr. Alrie B. and Salle (Warner) Mead. His father was a native of Hartford, Conn., as. was also his grandfather, who was a manufacturer of iron, having a furnace and foundry. Mr. Mead traces his ancestry back to his Puritan fathers of English origin. His father graduated as a physician a Hartford, Conn., and on removing to Ohio, studied two years at Oberlin College. He began practice at Birmingham, Ohio, but in 1844 located at Twelve-Mile Grove, III., near Wilton Center. In connection with his profession as a physician, he carried on fanning, being the owner of one hundred and twenty acres of good land. In 1847, he removed to Joliet, 111., where he practiced until November, 1879, at which date his decease occurred. He was a prominent man and a highly esteemed physician. He served as County Coroner for many years and also as County Physician.

Our subject's mother was born in Vermont, near Montpelier, and was a daughter of Alfred Warner, a farmer in the Green Mountain State, who early settled in Ohio. His daughter Sallie graduated from a college in Virginia and was engaged as a teacher. She still survives and makes her residence at Morris, Ill. Of her six children our subject is the second in order of birth. The others are: Flavius J., who is in the furniture business at Georgetown, Colo.; Solon S., who resides in Indianapolis; Melville, who is in charge of the library at Joliet; Amanda, who is now Mrs. Bowers and lives at Hennepin, Ill.; and Theresa, who is Mrs. Field, of Morris, Ill.

Our subject was but four years old when taken by his parents to Illinois. The journey was made with team and they located at Twelve-Mile Grove. After a residence of seven years there, they removed to Joliet, and in that early day Mr. Mead shot more than one deer, beside other game. He attended the public and High Schools at Joliet, and his ambition to get on in the world found vent by working on the neighboring farms, for which labor he received from $7 to $14 per month. He later purchased a threshing-machine and a span of horses, and did a good business with this outfit.

Upon the breaking out of the war, our subject enlisted in Company A, of the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, in August, 1861. He was mustered in at Ottawa, at Camp Hunter, and marching to Centralia took the Main for Cairo. He participated in the battles of Belmont and Ft. Henry, and in March, 1862, was in the six days' siege at Donelson. He was also a participant in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, luka, Holly Springs and Coffeeville. He was then sent to Louisiana and joined the camp at Millikan's Bend, where he was detailed to scout duty and engaged in several skirmishes. On returning to Illinois, he was dispatched to the front, and took part in the siege of Vicksburg, also in the battles of Grand Gulf, Point Gibson, Raymond, Jackson (Miss.), Champion Hill, Black River, and in the forty-seven days' siege at Vicksburg. He then accompanied Gen. Custer on the Red River expedition, and was taken sick at Alexandria, La. After convalescing in hospital, he went to Galveston in 1865, and during the furlough home which was granted him, received his discharge by general order. He was made Orderly-Sergeant, and while lying sick at Galveston received his commission as Second Lieutenant. His terra of service extended from August, 1861, to April, 1866. Naturally, our subject had many adventures and escapades that would be interesting reading could they be here given.

For a time after the close of the war, Mr. Mead was very ill, and on recovering was placed in charge of the cooper shop and chair factory in the penitentiary at Joliet. While there one hundred and fifty-eight convicts were working under him. His shop was an extensive place and his responsibility was great. On one occasion, he discovered a plot laid by the prisoners for the escape of all. March 7, 1867, Mr. Mead was offered a position on the Chicago A Alton Railroad by John A. Mitchell, the President. The position was that of a fireman out of Joliet. In 1869, he took charge of engine No. 12 and continued to run on that until October, 1871, when he came to Missouri. He ran a construction engine at the time of laying the track between Mexico and Cedar City. He then engineered a passenger train for five years, and in the full of 1877 ran engine No. 165 on the Kansas City Division.

In 1879. our subject encountered a broken rail, which whirled his engine around, heading it the other way. The expressman was killed and our subject received twenty-seven cuts on his body. On recovering from his two months' sickness after this catastrophe, he was given charge of No. 188, while since 1886 he has run engine No. 222. Mr. Mead has laid up a comfortable sum out of his earnings, and owns some valuable real estate in Kansas City, beside a residence in Slater that makes a comfortable and pleasant home for his family. He was married in Joliet, October 16, 1867, to Miss Mettie A. Campbell, who was born in Quincy, Branch County, Mich. Her father, Thomas Campbell, was a native of Schenectady, N.Y., and was a farmer in Michigan. He now resides with our subject. Mr. and Mrs. Mead became parents of three children, whose names are Fred E., Louisa and Adell. The eldest is a foreman on the Chicago & Alton Railroad. The elder daughter died at the age of nineteen, at Coldwater, Mich. The younger daughter, Adell. is at home.

Our subject belongs to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, being a Chief. He was a delegate to the National Convention in 1885, and to that held in Chicago in 1887. He is the General Chairman of the Brotherhood Adjusting Committee on the Chicago & Alton Railroad. He belongs to the Free & Accepted Masons and also to the Royal Arch Masons, and to the Missouri Commandery No. 36, of Knights Templar, Marshall, Mo. In politics, Mr. Mead is a Democrat.

Mr. and Mrs. Mead celebrated their silver wedding on Tuesday, October 18,1892 (their anniversary falling on October 16, it being Sunday), when they were the recipients of many costly presents from their friends.

Portrait and biographical record of Lafayette and Saline Counties, Missouri : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States. Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1893, Page 168 - 169 submitted by Lisa - 2009

JOSEPH McKIM BARKS, editor of the Blackburn Record, is a young man who is making a success in the editorial field in this county. He is a man of ability, the son of a minister who is still doing efficient work in his chosen line. Mr. Barks was born in Benton County, Mo., February 18, 1860. His father, Joseph V. Barks, is a native of Delaware County, Ohio, where he was born September 17, 1817. His grandfather, Solomon Barks, was a Pennsylvanian by birth, while his great-grandfather was a native of Germany. The grandfather emigrated to Ohio, where he died.

The Rev. Joseph V. Barks is a graduate of Mariatta (Ohio) College, and taught school for the purpose of earning means to defray his expenses through college. He took up theological studies in Lane Seminary, completed his theological education in Massachusetts, and entered the ministry in 1848, being an Old-school Presbyterian.

In October, 1849, Rev. Mr. Barks married and came to Warsaw, Benton County, this State, where he began his work as a minister. He has always preached in Missouri, has filled many pulpits, and is still engaged in his chosen work. His wife was Miss Diana Bancroft, of Granville, Licking County, Ohio, and her parents were members of a colony which came from Granville, Mass., in the early days and settled in Ohio. Her father was a soldier in the War of 1812, and became a prominent man of Licking County, Ohio, being Associate Judge in that county for several years. He died in 1817, at the age of ninety-tow. Mrs. Barks’ mother is now in her seventy-third year.

Joseph McKim was the fourth of seven children, four of whom are living. He received his preliminary education in the common district schools, and afterward spent about two years in Westminster College, Fulton, Mo. He was reared on the farm, where he remained until he reached his majority, and for several years afterward, managing the estate for his father.

In 1889 Mr. Barks came to Blackburn and associated himself with L. G. King, establishing the Blackburn Record. Six months later, he purchased Mr. King's interest, and since then has conducted the work alone. The paper is a seven-column folio, and is Democratic in politics. It follows that Mr. Barks is a Democrat, and, as we have said,he is a man of ability, and gives promise of still greater power. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, being a Ruling Elder. Beside his editorial work on the Record, Mr. Barks is associated with Dr. Thomas M. Bridges in the publication of the Corder Gazette.

the editorial pen is a power in the country, and if wielded aright may be a means of great good and advancement. It has given to posterity the beliefs of some of our strongest and clearest minds, and is destined in the future to shape, to a large extent, the character of the masses. With this in mind, it behooves every controller of a paper to see that its pages are of benefit to the readers of them, and Mr. Barks’ friends are confident that such is and will always be his aim.

Portrait and biographical record of Lafayette and Saline Counties, Missouri : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States. Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1893, 648 pgs. (Page 121) Submitted by Lisa - 2009