The Mead Family - Family Histories - Coleman County, Texas

      David Ernest Mead, his wife, Onie, and son, Ben Carlton, was the first Mead brother to move to Coleman County, arriving in the early nineteen hundreds. He opened a hardware store in Valera and sent for his younger brother, Jim, to work in the store. James "Jim" Willard Mead, born 1881, came to Valera in 1909. He was born in Hillsboro, Tennessee, into a large family, in 1881, and moved to Texas with his parents, David Edgar and Mary Ann Charlotte Mead, his brother, David Ernest, and a sister, Ethel, who died about 1895.

     A partnership was formed in 1909, called D.E. Mead and Company. The partners were Ernest and James Mead, Ethan Rodden, and a Mr. Thompson. Julia Beall taught first grade at Valera in 1910. She married Jim, June 14, 1911, in Wortham, and moved into a house Jim bought from Ernest, who had moved away from Valera. Julia was born in Mexia, Limestone County, in 1887, and her, parents Hezekiah and Arthurilla Wilmoth Groves Beall, moved to Wortham, Freestone County, when she was five years old. She and her sister, Rosa, became orphans as young children and came to Texas with relatives.

     After the death of David Edgar Mead in Campbell in 1907, his widow moved to Valera to be with two of her sons. A married daughter lived in Tennessee and two other daughters were deceased. When Ernest and One left Valera they had two more children, to take with them: David Thomas, December 24, 1907; and Ula Lee, April 22, 1910.
They moved to Moody, where Ernest managed a lumber company and eventually settled in Amarillo where they lived until his death.

     Jim and Julia's children were born in Valera: Mary Wilmoth, September 14, 1913; Erile Louise, November 16, 1915; and Arjorie Bettie, May 7, 1917. Mrs. Mary A. C. Mead died in a hospital in Ballinger, March, 1920. A sheet metal shop was added to the hardware store, providing space in it for plows, cultivators, etc. At times there were one or more coffins, and a windmill. He built a warehouse across the street from the hardware store for commodities in which he traded, such as grains, peanuts, pecans, etc.

     The James W. Mead family moved to Coleman in early September, 1925. When living in Valera, and later when living in Coleman, our family went on camping and fishing trips to the Colorado River near Leaday. Dad rented a building on Pecan Street, east of Commercial, to open a furniture store. Mother worked in the store. Dad employed Will Clay; he worked many years in a variety of jobs. Upon moving to Coleman we began attending the Methodist Sunday School and Church. Early in 1927, my parents bought some acreage, south of town where the high school is now located, from J. N. Needham. A new house was built in 1927. Later built a storage warehouse for storing furniture for the public. He farmed this land about thirty years; then arranged for Harold Phillips to farm it. Dad rented the vacant store building adjoining our furniture store for an automobile display room and obtained the Hupmobile agency. He bought a Hupmobile to replace our Baby Overland, an open car with snap-on curtains for bad weather. Coleman County was prosperous during the late nineteen twenties, and the furniture business was good. Dad had employed the oldest son of a first cousin, Billy Gannaway, who lived near Midlothian. He and his wife, Anna Ruth, and baby son, Billy Phil, moved to Coleman. Later Dad employed Billy's younger brother, Ben, who was single.
Encouraged by a local banker at this time my father bought lots and built a building for the furniture and funeral businesses on College Avenue next to the Coleman Hotel, and quit the automobile business.

     The closure of the banks showed the severity of the depression. The oil boom was over. Most people did not buy furniture or anything else they could do without. As a result, my father lost his building about 1935. My mother taught two years after going to summer school to renew her teaching certificate. My sisters and I taught school outside of Coleman County most of the time after graduation from Texas State College for Women, now known as Texas Women's University. We also had part time work there which paid tuition for several semesters. While attending Sul Ross, Erile met Amos Graves Bogel, of Alpine. They were married in June, 1939, at the First Methodist Church in Coleman. They had five children: Richard Graves, 1943; Marianne, 1945; Margaret Ellen, 1952; James Russell, 1954; and William Mead, 1956.

     Dad rented a store building west of the courthouse and went into the furniture business again. The second floor was remodeled for the funeral business. My father was assisted in the funeral business by my mother as well as his embalmer. Later when Mike Wright had his own funeral home in Coleman he did the embalming for Dad. In another building he had a mattress renovation and upholstery shop with Wayne Campbell in charge; Wayne had done other types of work for Dad. My father obtained his real estate and broker's license and listed and sold several farms.

     After my graduation from college and teaching four years, I worked in offices at the Station Hospital, Camp Bowie, Brownwood, during World War II and met David Bunting of Tacoma, Washington. We were married in July, 1944, at the First Methodist Church in Coleman. David W. and Mary Wilmoth had one daughter, Constance Ruth, born 1951.

While working as a home demonstration agent in New York state, Bettie married Herbert Hake of Middletown, New York, October, 1945. They were divorced in 1953 while living in California, they had no children.

     While Erile's husband was away in the Navy, during WWII, she came to the family home in Coleman with two year old Ricky and two month old Marianne, and stayed until his return. After the war they lived in several other places, finally settling in Huntsville, Alabama; she died in July, 1962.

     In a few months after my wedding, my husband was sent to England and Europe. I moved from Brownwood to the family home in Coleman, and worked part time in the store. For a few years in the nineteen fifties and sixties, my mother raised birds; canaries at first, then changed to parakeets as they became popular. She sold most of them at wholesale in Abilene, from there they were shipped to Chicago and New York. Dad built a store building on South Commercial in 1956. My parents operated this business of new and used furniture; one side of the building was partitioned off and equipped for renovating and making new mattresses. Wayne Campbell again operated this business for Dad. Later he had his own business there, and now has his business in Brownwood. My father had one-third of his farm plated into city lots and streets. The plat was approved in February, 1964, as the Belmead Subdivision. My parents sold their farm and the one-third that had been developed into a subdivision to the school board in October, 1969.

     After a lengthy illness my father died in February, 1970. The following year a grandson, Jim Bogel, of Huntsville, Alabama, stayed with Mother and attended Coleman High School. Bettie Mead died in Brownwood in October, 1973.

     Mother moved to Auburn, Washington, August 1, 1974, to be near me. In April, 1975 Mother and I returned to Coleman to dispose of household furnishings and offer the house for sale. While there, a tornado in May removed most of the roof and caused considerable damage. Mother and I were not injured. Mr. and Mrs. E. D. Bouchillon drove over immediately to offer shelter. We had an auction and disposed of all the furniture and items we wanted to sell. Mother now resides in Green River Convalescent Center, ninety-six years old in September, 1983.