Early years
On May 25, 1878, U.S. Army officer and civil engineer Frederick Mears was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His father, Frederick J. Mears, was a career Army cavalry officer, and the Mears family lived in a number of military posts in the American West toward the end of the Indian Wars period after the Civil War.
Mears was sent to and did well at the Shattuck Military School, which his father also attended. Shattuck is located in Faribault, Minnesota (although it is no longer a military...