History of Chesterfield, (Cheshire County) New Hampshire United States of America

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Biographies:

Edwin Doak Mead, editor, was born in Chesterfield, N.H., Sept. 29, 1849; son of Bradley and Sarah (Stone) Mead; grandson of Levi and Betsey (Converse) Mead, and a descendant of Gabriel Mead, who came from England to Manchester, Mass., about 1635. He was educated in the public schools of Chesterfield and was employed on his father's farm and in the village store until 1866, when he removed to Boston, Mass., and was in the employ of Ticknor & Fields, 1866-75. He was a candidate for orders in the Protestant Episcopal church in 1874, but he never entered the ministry. He studied in the universities of Cambridge and Leipzig, 1875-79, and on his return to Boston engaged in lecturing and literary work. From 1883 he directed the Old South work in Boston, devoted to historical and political teaching and study, editing in connection the Old South Leaflets; and he was editor of the New England Magazine, 1889-1901. He was for many years president of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Good Citizenship, was the first secretary of the Boston Municipal League and first president of the Twentieth Century club of Boston. He was married, Sept. 29, 1898, to Lucia True, daughter of Nathan P. and Elvira Ames, of Boscawen, N.H. In 1901, with his wife, he visited Europe, where he represented the United States in the Prison Reform congress. He contributed to magazines and newspapers on religious and political subjects, edited Faith and Freedom, by Stopford A. Brooke (1881), and is the author of: The Philosophy of Carlyle (1881); Martin Luther, a Study of Reformation (1884); and The Roman Catholic Church and the Public Schools (1889).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Larkin Goldsmith Mead, sculptor, was born in Chesterfield, N.H., Jan. 3, 1835; son of Larkin Goldsmith and Mary Jane (Noyes) Head: grandson of Levi and Betsey (Converse) Mead and of the Hon. John Noyes, of Putney, Vt. His parents removed to Brattleboro, Vt., in 1839, where his father was a prominent lawyer. Larkin was educated in the public schools and was employed as a clerk in a hardware store in Brattleboro in 1850. His artistic abilities were first brought prominently to light by his modeling of a colossal figure of an angel, in snow, a newspaper account of which attracted the attention of Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati, who provided for his art education. He studied under Henry Kirke Brown in Brooklyn, N.Y., 1853-55, and in the latter year established a studio in New York city. He produced the "Recording Angel" (1855); the colossal statue of "Vermont" on the dome of the state house at Montpelier, Vt. (1857), and the statue of Ethan Allen at the entrance to the state house (1861). He was with the Army of the Potomac in 1861, and contributed to New York papers illustrated articles on camp and battle scenes. He went to Florence, Italy, in 1862, where he became professor of sculpture in the Academy of Fine Arts. He was also attached to the U.S. consulate at Venice, where his brother-in-law, William Dean Howells, was consul, 1862-65. He was married in 1864 to Marietta di Benvenuti. His works include: statuettes: Echo; Sappho; Venice, the Bride of the Sea; Joseph the Shepherd, and The Mountain Boy; and larger and more elaborate works: The Returned Soldier (1866); Columbus's Last Appeal to Queen Isabella (1868); America, for the Soldiers' monument at St. Johnsbury, Vt.; Ethan Allen, for Vermont in the National Statuary hall, Washington, D.C.; Abraham Lincoln, for the President's monument in Springfield, Ill. (1874), and five colossal groups entitled: Cavalry, Infantry, Artillery, Navy, and The Mississippi; and the pediment sixty feet long representing The Return of Proserpine from the Realms of Pluto, which was placed over the main entrance to the Agricultural building at the World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, 1893.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor