860
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
pany. After leaving school Mr. Meredith was engaged in the construction of the Chicago & Iowa branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, and for fifteen years was an engineer on that line. After his retirement from railroad work he was employed for two years as Superintendent of the street railway lines of Aurora, and since then has been engaged in the real-estate and insurance business in that city, for two years filling the position of claim agent for the Elgin, Aurora and Southern Traction Company. Mr. Meredith established his home in Aurora in 1869, which he has maintained here to the present time. The Meredith flat building, one of the handsomest apartment houses in Aurora, was constructed by him. For two terms he officiated as a member of the Aurora City Council, and for many years he has been a member of the Aurora East Side School Board. In 1861 he was married to Miss Eliza Rhodes, daughter of Joshua Rhodes, one of the first settlers of Big Rock Township, Kane County.
THOMAS MEREDITH, SB. (deceased), pioneer, Aurora, Ill.; born in ]812 in Montgomeryshire, Wales, where he was reared, educated and married, his wife being Miss Sarah Thomas. In 1843 he came to Illinois, locating in Kane County, where he purchased several thousand acres of land. Much of this land he sold to desirable parties, and soon surrounded his home with fine neighbors, putting Big Rock Township in the front as an advanced and progressive community. For some thirty years he carried on extensive farming operations, and was widely known as a man of character and ability. His death occurred suddenly at Manatee, Fla., in 1882. Mr. Meredith was known in Wales as a strong protestant against the tithing system of that country, and he did much to start a sentiment that has since assumed large proportions. The title to some of the lands which he purchased in his native country dated back to William the Conqueror. In Illinois he became associated with the anti-slavery movement, and bore himself stoutly in defense of human rights. For many years he was a warm personal friend of the Hon. John Went worth, of Chicago, and a regular contributor to his paper, the "Chicago Democrat." Although deeply interested in politics, he steadfastly refused to accept any office.
THOMAS MEREDITH (deceased), merchant, Batavia, Ill.; born at the "Park," Montgomeryshire, North Wales, May 24, 1835; came with his parents to Illinois in 1843. The father settled in Big Rock Township, Kane County, where he acquired a large tract of land. The son grew to manhood on the farm, receiving his education at the Aurora. Seminary and the Batavia Institute. After leaving the Institute he taught school in Batavia for a year, and then engaged in the hardware trade in the same city until 1879, when he disposed of his goods to his brother. That year he was elected County Clerk of Kane County, a position he held two terms. During his earlier life he had been called to several local positions, and took an active part in politics and public affairs. He was one of the earliest and stoutest friends of the present United States Senator, A. J. Hopkins, and did much to further his aspirations. During the Civil War he served one year in the regimental band of the Forty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and in after years was associated with veteran organizations in Batavia and Chicago. At the time of his death, Feb. 28, 1888, he was Master of Batavia Lodge, No. 404, A. F. & A. M., and had attained the Thirty-second Degree in Masonry. He was married March 1, 1857, to Miss Harriet M. Kemp, daughter of Milo M. and Julia (Root) Kemp, her parents being among the older settlers of Batavia, where they settled in the fall of 1837.
WYNN MEREDITH, electrical engineer, San Francisco, Cal., was born in Big Rock Township, Kane County, Ill., March 12, 1864, the youngest son of Thomas Meredith, Sr., and acquired his education in the public schools of his native county and at the University of Illinois. After leaving the University, in company with Edward Frazier, he installed the first commercial incandescent electric-lighting plant in Aurora, and was the first electrician of the Aurora Street Railway Company, after its electrical equipment in 1890. Two years later he was called to Chicago to take the position of Assistant Superintendent of Electricity at the World's Fair, and when it closed was appointed Superintendent of Electricity at the San Francisco Mid-Winter Fair. Since then he has resided in San Francisco, and has superintended the construction of seven great plants for the transmission of electric power generated by water power. The most famous of
