Butte County Biographies

HARRY BIDWELL REED

Transcribed by Betty Wilson

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

            Occupying a position of prominence among the 
progressive and prosperous agriculturists of Butte county is Harry Bidwell Reed, 
who is actively engaged in his chosen calling on a well-kept and highly improved 
ranch, beautifully located, his pleasant home being just across Lindo Channel 
bridge.  Coming from honored New England ancestry, he was born, April 10, 1859, 
in Lowell, Mass., a son of the late W.H. Reed.  His great-grandfather on the 
paternal side served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and his grandfather 
Ransom Reed, a native of Vermont, removed to Lowell, Mass., where he built up a 
large mercantile trade.
            Born in Lowell, Mass., January 29, 1829, W.H. Reed was there bred 
and educated.  In 1849, a youth of twenty years, he came with a company to 
California, sailing around the Horn in the bark Maria, and being six months on 
the voyage.  Remaining in San Francisco until after he had disposed of the 
mercantile goods that he brought with him, he went from there to the Sierra 
diggings, and thence to the Shasta mines.  His results as a miner not being at 
all satisfactory, he obtained a position with the Adams Express Company, and was 
located at Georgetown until the failure of the company.  Then, in 1855, he 
accepted a position in the Mills Bank in Sacramento, entering the employ of D.O. 
Mills, and although color blind, was considered the most expert gold buyer on 
the coast.
            In 1857 he became cashier for the Fisk Banking Company, with which 
he was connected for a year.  In 1858 he made a business trip to New York and 
Massachusetts, being away one year.  Returning to the Pacific coast he entered 
the employ of the Wells-Fargo Express Company, acting as their agent for a year 
in Marysville, and then going to Portland, Ore., where for five years he had 
full charge of their bank, express office and assay office.  From there he 
located in San Francisco, and for a year was connected with their bank in that 
city.  Resigning the position in 1867, Mr. Reed was for two years superintendent 
of a ranch in Chico belonging to his uncle, Gen. John Bidwell.  Going to 
Stockton in 1870, he was for eighteen months agent for the3 Wells-Fargo Express 
Company at that point, and from 1871 until 1875 was paying teller at the Bank of 
California, in San Francisco.  He was subsequently clerk in a manufacturing 
company there, after which he established himself in the mercantile business at 
Knights Landing, remaining there until wiped out by the memorable flood of 1881. 
 Again re-entering the employ of the Wells-Fargo Company, he was in their 
auditing department at San Francisco until 1885.  Coming then to Chico, he was 
here engaged in general ranching until his death, December 11, 1900.  He married 
Miss Mary Bidwell, who was born in Vermont, June 5, 1839, and now resides with 
her son, Harry Bidwell, the subject of this sketch, and the only child born of 
her union with W.H. Reed.  Her father, Daniel Bidwell, a brother of Gen. John 
Bidwell, was born in New York state, and reared to farming pursuits.  Coming to 
California in 1854, he located in Chico, buying eight hundred acres of land, and 
was here profitably engaged in agricultural labors until his death, December 2, 
1887.
            After leaving the public schools, Harry Bidwell Reed entered St. 
Augustine College, at Benicia, Cal., where he was graduated in 1878.  Entering 
the employ of the Southern Pacific Railway Company in 1879, he was telegraph 
operated at Durham for five years, at the same time serving as the Wells-Fargo 
agent for the Sacramento Short Lines.  Returning in 1884 to Chico, he has since 
had charge of the home ranch of four hundred and twenty acres.  He has met with 
signal success in his operations, both as an orchardist and general rancher.  He 
has an orchard of one hundred and fifty acres, in which he raises pears, 
almonds, peaches and prunes, and in addition raises large crops of grain, and 
pays considerable attention to raising stock, having good pasture land.
            February 4, 1892.  Mr. Reed married Miss Rachel Annette James, who 
was born in Tehama, Cal., where her father, John James, located on emigrating to 
this country from Wales.  Mr. and Mrs. Reed have two children, Daniel Bidwell 
and Marietta.  Politically Mr. Reed is an active Republican, a member of the 
county central committee, and religiously he belongs to the Episcopal Church.
 
History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento 
Valley, California; by J.M. Guinn, The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago (1906)
pp. 550-551