Albert E. Mead

Albert Edward Mead (December 14, 1861 – March 19, 1913) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the fifth governor of Washington from 1905 to 1909.

Biography Mead was born in Kansas on December 14, 1861. There is conflicting information about his town of birth: most reliable sources say it was Manhattan, Kansas, but there is one claim he was born in Ashland, Kansas. He received his formal education at Southern Illinois Normal University and at Northwestern University's Union College of Law in Chicago. In 1889, he moved to Washington Territory. Mead served as Mayor of Blaine, Washington (1892), as a member of the Washington State House of Representatives (1892), and as prosecuting attorney for Whatcom County, Washington, from 1898 to 1903. His wife, "Lizzy", died in 1898, and on May 5, 1899, he married Mina Jane Hosmer Pifer, and they had one son, Albert Vincent. Mead (on porch) with Wendell, Roland, and William in yard, at Percival House, Olympia Wash, circa 1906. Mead's election to the governor's office in 1904 over U.S. senator George Turner was considered a significant upset at the time. During his tenure, he supported legislation establishing a Railroad Commission, and acts establishing a State Bank Examiner, a State Tax Commission, and a State Highway Commission.

After his term as governor ended, Mead moved to Bellingham, Washington, where he returned to private practice as a lawyer and served as president of the Chamber of Commerce.