Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1910-02-03
THE BEGINNING OF MEADE
CENTER, NOW MEADE
A Short Sketch OF The Life Of
j. r. Graves
By E. D. Smith
An accidental Meeting Which
Founded A City.
CHAPTER I.


A study of the history of the early
settlement of the western rim of the
great elevated plateau situated be-
tween the Missouri river on the east
and the Rocky Mountains on the
west, of necessity requires a retro
spective glance at the environment
in which the actors in the drama,
were born and reared. there were
two classes of men prominent in the
development of the great Mississippi
valley, dissimilar at a glance, but
each the complement of.the other in
the work of founding communities.
Born of three generations of war
and daily conflict in which the rifle
was as necessary an implement of
agriculture as the plow, whose earli-
est recollection was the battle cry of
a white foeman, or the wild war
whoop of the savage, and whose
idea of pleasant sounds calumnated
in the whiz of barhed arrow and the
hum of rife ball; dangers and diff
culties were the breath of their
nostrils.
Their sons pushed on into the land
west of the Mississippi and Missouri
following their great leader and
pioneer, Daniel Boone. Some set
tied in the rich valleys of that state,
while others more restless and am
!. bilious of emulating the lives of
their fathers, pushed on south and
west into Arkansas and Texas and
even to old Mexico. The one class
of these virel men were the first com.
ers in any new settlement, men
whose rifles were always in hand,
who being first corners had the
choice of locations, but who paid
more attention to those persuits
which kept them always on the alert
and called for life in the open.
The other arriving with the second
set of colonIzers, as the Lewlses and
Clarks followed Boone, were the
persons esentially home builders
Where the first broke and blazed the
way the others followed, armed for
war to cultivate, to found businesses,
to plant schools and churches, to lay
deep, broad and firm the foundations
of prosperous communities. That
the sons of such sires should meet at
the beginning of things civilized in
this southwest country is to be ex-
pected and the expectation was in
every little settlement realized. So,
that ]. R. Graves, should arrive in
~iNeade county, soon after R. A. Har-
per to open business house, and
develop farm was the natural re-
suit of the instincts of the American
pioneers who had in the long years
past carried civilation west, and
ever westward to the utmost limits
of the continent.
When we speak of ], R. Graves
and the city of Meade we speak of
the beginning. Before Graves,
where Meade now is, was the primi-
tive. Before ]. R. Graves, where
Meade now is, was the buffalo, ante
lope, the coyote, the wild cat, buffalo
grass and soap weed.
]. R. Graves was born on a farm
in Macon county Missouri July 27th
1868 aud his early years were the
counterpart of that of other boys of
that day and age, in that rich agri-
cultural country. His father died
when be waszone year old, and his
mother year later to day. Thus
left an orphan at the tender age of
two years, he was to grow up never
knowing the caressing hand of a
mother, or her loving guidance of
his childish years, nor to have the
strong guiding Of fond fathers hand