The Town of Mead, Weld County Colorado, was originally founded in 1906 when the Great Western Railroad announced they were bypassing the growing community of Highlandlake, (founded in 1871-72), and instead laying track a full mile east of the town. Additionally, the promised beet dump was now to be located on the eastern border of Paul Mead's (nephew of Highlandlake founder, L. C. Mead) farm.

Since the new beet dump was on the border of his land, Paul Mead saw a business opportunity and laid out several blocks and streets for the new town, donated land for a park and school and started selling business and home lots, even before the first track was laid. Paul and his wife Ariet Palmer Mead, painstakingly laid out the town, putting in many hours of thought into what it should look like and what the streets names should be. The town's name itself, was named after Paul Mead's father, Martin Luther Mead, who was the first medical doctor in this area, and whom originally homesteaded the land the new town was located on.

The Mead town plat was was filed on February 19, 1906 and on March 17, 1908 the town was chartered. Over the next few years, most of the public buildings at the nearby Highlandlake community were moved to the new town site.

For nearly 30 years, Mead was a bustling community. At its peak, Mead had three general stores, a hotel, a combination grocery store and meat market, two saloons, butcher shop, filling station, two auto garages, farm implement company, two livery stables, a lumberyard, blacksmith shop, drug store with the post office in the back, lunch room, pool hall, bowling alley, hoe and harness repair shop, bank, newspaper, Ford Car Dealership, pickle factory, hay/feed mill, pea hulling factory, Kunner's cucumber factory, library, movie theater, volunteer fire department, two doctors offices, and even a resident lawyer or two.

The original Main street was what is now known as Weld County Rd. (CR) 7. Most of the stores and businesses were located on the east side of the road as they were not subject to the "dry" clause in the property deeds that forbade the use or selling of alcohol beverages on land that lay within Paul Mead's original platted town. The first ordinance of the town addressed the need for liquor licenses for these businesses and at the same meeting that the ordinance was passed, three out of the seven applicants were awarded liquor licenses. The license was good for only six months after which the town trustees would revisit the matter.

In 1963, Pansy Ballinger remembered that the town was first built on Third Street (now CR 7)  and contained a store, saloon, barber shop, jail, livery stable, drugstore and hall, and a hotel. Sometime after 1913, the businesses were moved to Fourth Street.

The Colorado Telephone Company was granted a franchise for 25 years in Sept. 1908.Mead had the first private phone service in the state, meaning town citizens could have private lines instead of party lines, and they didn't have to go through an operator to call someone else in the town.

The first school house in Mead, was a two room, wood-framed building located on CR 7, just north of the town park. In 1917, a new, two story, brick school was built on Welker, with most of the area schools eventually merging into the new Mead Consolidated Schools. Grades 1 - 12 attended this school. The Mead school was merged into the St Vrain School District (SVSD) in the early 1960s. Shortly after the merge, the SVSD closed the Mead school. In the early 1970s they torn the building down, saving only the gym, and built a new elementary school on the site. A few years earlier, they built the middle school just west of the original school site. In the fall of 2009, a new Mead high school was opened, located south of Hwy. 66 on CR 7.

In March 1914, the Town Board signed a contract with George Sethman for the construction of the Municipal Water Works system. They voted $11,000.00 of bonds for this purpose. People paid $5.00  for a year for each cistern and $1.25 per year for each lot for water used on the garden, trees or lawn.

The first fire hose cart was bought April 1915 from Eureke Fire Hose Company.

The first electricity was furnished by Western Electric and Light and Power Company in Oct. 1915.

Paul Mead started the United Brethren (now United Methodist) church in 1907. It is still located in its original location. In 1911, the Mount Zion United Brethren church was moved up from its original location near the intersections of Colorado Highway 66 and CR 7, to just south of the intersection of Welker (CR 34) and CR 7, in Mead. This was purchased by the Catholic church and renamed Guardian Angels Catholic Church. It still stands.

The town library was was started by the Rev. Slatterback, pastor of the United Brethren Church. Mrs. Hazel Trimble and Mrs. Beulah Baxtrum served on this board. Books were collected and the library was kept open by the Extension club donating their time. After being closed for several years, in 1961, the books that were usable were given to the school and the rest were sold. From the proceeds of that sale, $96.00 was raised and donated to the Mead School to be used for a card catalog filing cabinet for the schools library.

Over the years, Mead had three different newspapers plus a couple of recent newsletters that lasted only a few months. In addition, the Longmont papers, the Johnstown Breeze in Johnstown, the Platteville newspaper and the Berthoud newspapers all carried news about Mead. The Longmont Ledger carried a Highlandlake/Mead column for over 50 years. For several years in the 1930s and 1940s, the Johnstown Breeze published the Mead Messenger since the owner of the paper in Mead, did not have a press. About that time, the Longmont Ledger started including a section in their paper called the Mead Messenger, which ran for a few years.

The town lost most of its businesses, including both banks, in the early 30s during the Great Depression. Once the Depression was over, cars made it more possible for people to go to Longmont to trade, bank, and see a doctor, resulting in even more business losses.

The town slept peacefully until the mid 1990s, when its convenient location to Interstate 25, started attracting businesses and subdivisions. Today, Mead is a growing town covering nearly 5 square miles along both sides of Interstate 25. It truly is, as its motto states, "A Little Town with a Big Future."

 

History courtesy of Historic Highlandlake www.HistoricHighlandlake.org