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............         I.*.. . ...u. *...
           MRS. CHARLES S. MEARS
      Contributed by the John Bell Chapter, D. A. R.
...............................................................................
(Extract from the Wisconsin State Journal, Feb. 9, '32)
    "The funeral of Mrs. Harriet Mears, 91, widow of
Charles S. Mears, one of the oldest women of Madison,
took place here this afternoon. She had lived in this
city for 67 years.
    "After coming as a young matron in 1865 from New
Albany, Ind., where she was born and where she was
married at 17 to Charles S. Mears, her home was on the
site of the Present Parkway theatre, and there she and
her husband had a fine vineyard and orchard. When
construction of the city hall-now old and all but ready
to be displaced-was begun and their home was threat-
ened to be overshadowed by the great structure, they
erected a house on East Gilman Street, and there has been
her home since, for more than 64 years. It is next to
the executive residence, and since General Rusk's time
the Mears family has been closest neighbor of all Wis-
consin governors.
    "Mrs. Mears possessed a remarkable memory, and
was more fully informed respecting social and other af-
fairs of the city for over 60 years than any other person.
Newspaper men frequently appealed to her for early data
regarding Madison and Madisonians, and never without
obtaining generous information, often intimate, welcome;
and procurable from no other source.
    "As an incident of her early life she was wont to tell,
how, in childhood, she went with her father, member of
a committee, down the Mississippi in a gay packet and
escorted General Zachary Taylor up to Louisville, New
Albany and other cities where receptions were being
tendered as he progressed toward the national capitol for
his inauguration.
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