“Mr. John J. Meader died at his residence, 129 Wood St., September 25, 1897 at 3:15 a.m. He only retired from active life when stricken with a stroke of paralysis. He was born at North Berwick, Maine, the son of John and Elizabeth Meader, distinguished Quaker preachers. He obtained his education in this city, concluding his course of study at the Friends' School. He was associated with his father in a grocery store on North Main Street, and he remained in the business for several years after his father had disposed of it to F. H. Perry. Later he was bookkeeper in the printing house of Millard & Barker, and he left them to enter the employ of the Union Railroad Company, When he left the employ of the Company, he had been with it more than 22 years.

“When a young man his tastes took a literary bent, and his contributions in prose and verse appeared in the public press in all parts of the world. At the time of his death he had compiled a large work containing the genealogy of the Meader family. His collection of Rhode Island and general historical works was a creditable one. Mr. Meader never lost his interest in his books, and during the last nine years of his life, when he was quite unable to leave his house, he spent his time entirely among them.”