James R. Mead (pioneer)

James R. Mead arrived in Kansas Territory in 1859, having ridden in from his home in Iowa, and was soon involved in trading with the Indians.

The trading post he established in the Arkansas Valley in 1864 was the first building on the site that was to become Wichita - a city he was instrumental in founding and developing.

Late in life, he dictated his memories of his early days in Kansas which were later published in his book Hunting and Trading on the Great Plains, 1859 - 1875.

The wagons, carrying 8 to 10 thousand pounds of goods with as many as 10 to 30 oxen or Missouri mules traveled all the way to Santa Fe.

Hunting in the Smoky Hills off the Saline River (Kansas), he observed: 'The whole country had the appearance of a well-kept park belonging to some English nobleman.

The country was well watered by pure streams fringed by belts of timber and the high buttes was clothed with grass to their summits.'.

In the Summer of 1863, Mead left the Smoky Hills and established a trading post at Towanda in Butler County, Kansas.

[3] On October 17, 1865, the United States and all of the major Plains Indians Tribes signed a treaty on the Little Arkansas River.

A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, Etc., Volume 3, Part 1, Pages 456–459, Standard Pub.