Francis M. Nead Biography

FRANCIS M. NEAD, a member of one of the most prominent of Sullivan county's early families, was born in Jackson township on the 16th of October, 1858, a son of John and Nancy A. (Tipton) Nead and a grandson of George Nead, who died on the 6th of February, 1856, aged about sixty-seven years. His grandparents were natives of Switzerland, but emigrated when young to Pennsylvania and thence to Carroll county, Ohio, where they spent the remainder of their lives and were there buried. George Nead was both a farmer and cooper, and in early life he married Sarah Mizer, who was born in Carroll county, Ohio, and died June 13, 1888, aged more than eighty-eight years.


John Nead also claimed Carroll county as the place of his nativity, born November 4, 1830, but three years later his parents moved to Coshocton county, that state, where the senior Mr. Nead became a prominent farmer. In 1854 the son came to Sullivan county, Indiana, and bought eighty acres of land in Jackson township, where he followed general farming until his enlistment, on the 26th of August, 1862, as a private in the Ninety-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Company I, in which he served a little over a year and died on the 31st of August, 1863, from sickness contracted in the army. He was buried with military honors at Camp Sherman, Mississippi, on the Big Black river, but with those of other soldiers his remains were afterward taken to the burial ground of the National Cemetery at Vicksburg, and his grave was marked by a stone bearing the initials of J. N. Mrs. Nead, his wife, was born March 5, 1831, in Coshocton county, Ohio, a daughter of William and Patience S. (Pugh) Tipton, the former of whom was born in Virginia August 20, 1798, and the latter in Berkeley county, West Virginia, November 18, 1794. Moving to Ohio when a boy William Tipton spent his early youth on the Maumee river, where he was married in 1818, and many years afterward, in 1847, they came to Owen county, Indiana, and farmed there until the death of the husband and father, May 29, 1854. The mother had moved with her parents to Ohio when a young girl, and after the death of her husband, in 1854, she came to Jackson township in Sullivan county, and resided here until her death, March 1, 1868.


Francis M. was the eldest of the three children born to John and Nancy A. Nead, and he was but a little lad of five years at the time of the death of his father. His mother kept him in school until he was about eighteen, attending the graded schools of Hymera, Sullivan and Farmersburg, and for fifteen years after the completion of his education, beginning in 1879, he was engaged in teaching. During that time he had become the owner of the parental homestead, and at about the close of his professional career he was elected the assessor of Jackson township and continued to reside on the farm until October of 1907. Previous to this time he had bought the site for the splendidly equipped home which he built at that time, and he still owns the old farm and about fifteen acres adjoining.


On the 22d of August, 1883, Mr. Nead was married to Adaline Payne, who was born in Jackson township August 22, 1858, a daughter of Hosea and Sarah A. (Asbury) Payne, the father a native of North Carolina, born on the 25th of December, 1815, and his wife was some years his junior. He came with his parents to Lawrence county, this state, about 1830, and from there to Sullivan county, where he bought a farm in Jackson township, married, and continued to reside here until his death in 1900. His wife died four years later, in 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Nead have four children: Conza C., born October 6, 1884, married in 1904 Evan G. Moreland and resides on the old homestead in Jackson township; Garland H., born October 30, 1887, taught school some years and is now with her parents; Wendell Holmes, born December 27, 1894, is in school, as is also Mary Esther, born September 13, 1901. Mr. Nead's politics are Democratic, and for five years, from 1895 to 1900, he served as an assessor, and he is now serving his fourth year as a trustee, having been re-elected as the trustee of the township of Jackson November 3, 1908. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Hymera Lodge No. 603, in which he has filled all of the offices and is one of the present trustees, and has also represented the order in the Grand Lodge. This lodge was instituted here on the 6th of October, 1883. He is a prominent and worthy member of the Methodist church.