the influence of free institutions. The father of Alfred, Hon.
Anderson Meacham, was elected to the Legislature of Indiana
about 1820, and a few years later to the State Senate, and
his strong common sense and unflinching integrity, made him
a most influential factor in shaping the policy of the young-
State. He was a farmer by profession, and he also built and
managed a combined grain and lumber mill. The terrible
financial panic of 1837 crippled his enterprises, and in 1841
he sold his mill, property, farm, etc., and paying his debts to
the last dollar, he removed with his young family to Iowa,
locating in the vicinity of Iowa City, where he continued to
reside until his death, April 16, 1882, two months to a day after
the death of his oldest son, the subject of this sketch. The
father knew naught of the death of his son Alfred until he
also passed to the higher life, his surviving children fearing
that in his feeble state the sad news might hasten his own
departure from their midst.
At the age of fifteen Alfred, at the request of his mother, signed the pledge of the Washingtonian Temperance Society,, which he kept in letter and spirit to the day of his departure from this world of appetential temptation. In 1845, though but nineteen years old, Alfred assisted in removing the Sac and Fox Indians to the reservation assigned them after the Black Hawk War. This was the time of the beginning of his interest in the Indian, and his admiration for his character. From about this time to 1850 he followed the toilsome business of breaking prairie. He would go with his team of eight to ten stalwart oxen and enormous sod plow from place to place wherever he could secure a contract for work, and many hundreds of acres of virgin soil did he upturn to the fructify- ing rays of the genial sun. The money thus earned was almost wholly devoted to paying the mortgage on his father's farm, and when the debt was lifted, and his father and family secured in the enjoyment of a productive home, Alfred started with his ox team, accompanied by his brother Harvey, for the land of gold, the far-away California. His constitution was sound, his frame \vell-knit, his habits good, and his hopes high. The brothers reached the mines safely and were fairly
