California Biographies Mendocino and Lake Counties, California Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California With Biographical Sketches History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry Illustrated, Complete In One Volume Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914 CAPT. JAMES M. REID.� Prior to the outbreak of the Revolution there crossed the shores to the new world John Reid, a native of the Isle of Man and a member of an ancient family of the north of England and the south of Scotland whom the vicissitudes of fate had taken to the little island where he was born and reared. The new world with its unsettled prairies and vast opportunities appealed to his appreciation of opportunity and he reared his family in this country. Returning to Great Britain to visit the scenes of his youth, it is supposed that he was lost at sea on the return voyage to America, but the meager opportunities for tracing the happenings of that period prevented the family from learning definitely about his fate. Seth Barton Reid, who was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, in 1819, was reared by his maternal grandmother, the wife of Samuel Hooper, a signer of the decla- ration of independence. To learn a trade was the custom of that day. At the age of about fourteen he was bound out to a millwright at Mount Pleas- ant, Jefferson county, and on the expiration of his time he devoted himself to the occupation in various sections of country. Before leaving Ohio for the newer west he married Eleanor Rogers, a native of the Buckeye state and a daughter of William Penn Rogers, whose people were among the very earliest settlers of Maryland, but who became a pioneer of Ohio and aided in founding what is now the flourishing city of Marietta. The brave spirit which led him to conquer the difficulties of the frontier became an inheritance of his daugh- ter and led her, through the troubled era of the Rebellion, to defend herself and family with a shotgun, but could not prevent her from having to suffer great losses through the confiscation of cattle, wagons, horses, mules and, indeed, practically all of the equipment of the large southern farm. These losses occurred while the men of the family were bearing arms in the service of the Union, but no recompense was ever received for them. It was about the year 1846 when the family removed from Ohio to In- diana, where the father built a mill at Aurora and where a daughter, Mary Lovinia (now deceased), was born. Next removal was made to Missouri, where the father again built mills at Jefferson City and St. Charles. The youngest child, Anna Eliza, was born at St. Charles ; she died in 1893, leav- ing one son, Harold Deison, now a resident of Austin, Tex. After having built a mill at Pekin, III, Mr. Reid took his family back to Missouri and built a mill at Hannibal. In 1852 he became a pioneer of Texas and settled near Austin, where conditions were those of the frontier and where privations and discomfort abounded. At the time of locating near Austin the eldest child, James Madison, was eleven years of age. Under the conditions then existing it was impossible for him to attend school with any regularity, yet he is a man of broad information and in early life proved an apt pupil in the great school of experience. His assistance to his father proved invaluable. Together they raised cattle and horses, together they quarried rock and burned lime. On one occasion he was sent to the Austin schools for three months and that proved a very helpful period in extending his knowledge of the three R's. As captain of a boy's regiment at Austin the young Texan gained his first training in military tactics. His birth had occurred in Morgan county, Ohio, May 26, 1841, and he was therefore twenty years of age at the outbreak of the Civil war. Although he had lived from boyhood in the south, he was of northern blood and sympathies and from the first espoused the cause of the Union, not an easy matter in the heart of a strongly Confederate section. In fact, every influence was brought to bear to secure him as a captain in the southern army, but he could not consent to fight against principles he be- lieved to be right. About fifteen young men joined with him in an effort to remain loyal to the Union, their leader being Hon. "Jack" Hamilton, ex- Governor of Texas and a former member of congress from that state. For three months they were refugees at a mountain retreat known as Bee Cave, from which they started out to find Union troops, July 2, 1862. The next night they camped at Lockhart, Tex., where they were joined by Captain Montgomery, an old Texas ranger. Traveling by night and resting by day, they came to within one hundred miles of the Rio Grande and met their first serious danger when members of a Confederate regiment demanded their passes. As Colonel Hamilton hastily replied, "American citizens do not have to carry passes," every man urged his horse to its greatest speed and this led to a running fight that only ended at the river. Fortunately the northern sympathizers found the Confederate Colonel's boat and in it the sixteen men crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico, their horses swimming across under a terrific fire from the soldiers. Their escape seemed little less than a miracle. Determined to intercept them, the Confederates sent a courier to the Mexican garrison at Mier, commanded by Colonel Garcia, and reported that a band of American robbers were coming down the river. A regiment of Mexican sol- diers at once intercepted the refugees. It happened that Governor Hamilton had entertained Colonel Garcia at his Austin home during his period of service as a member of congress and Garcia therefore entertained the most kindly feelings toward him, so was ready to extend not only hospitality, but also protection. After a month of waiting and a detour of more than four hundred and forty miles to escape falling into the hands of Confederates, the refugees reached Matamoras at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and there they finally boarded a schooner that made its escape under fire of a Confederate transport. After twenty-eight days at sea they were overtaken by a United States blockade runner, and by orders of Admiral Farragut were escorted to New Orleans, whence ex-Governor Hamilton went to Washington to act as one of the southern advisers of President Lincoln. The remaining fifteen men reported to Gen. Benjamin F. Butler and were assigned to the First Texas Cavalry, with Mr. Reid as first lieutenant of Company B. For nine months he was commissioned by General Butler to act on night patrol duty as night officer. Later he was in active service in numerous engagements and several expedi- tions, including the Banks expedition to the Rio Grande at Brownsville, where he engaged in military service for one year. Returning to New Orleans he was sent up the Mississippi river to Morganza, La. For deeds of heroism in the battles of Newtown, Bull Bayou and Franklin he was promoted to be captain in November, 1863. Toward the close of the war he was sent by General Emery to Austin, Tex., with a number of military orders and dis- patches to the mayor of Austin and the governor of Texas, the burden of which was to yield to Union authority. In the face of incredible dangers, he accom- plished the trip alone, delivered the messages, hauled down the Confederate flag and hoisted the stars and stripes from the dome of the state capitol at Austin June 21, 1865, just as the troops of General Custer appeared on the hill east of the city. Having been honorably discharged at Morganza, La., November 26, 1864, he had taken up the recruiting of the Third Texas Cavalry in New Orleans and, but for the close of the war, would have been commis- sioned major of the new regiment. During the course of the Banks expedition while Captain Reid of Com- pany B was serving as officer of the day and riding up the main street of Brownsville, Tex., he accidentally met his father, at the time a refugee; for having refused to enter the Confederate service he had to flee for his life, and was even then trying to find some means of getting to the Union lines. Mean- while the mother with her two daughters had protected the Texas home by means of firearms, but one thousand head of cattle had been stolen and other head of stock aggregating three thousand, besides which all the valuable tools and equipment for the stone and lime business had been stolen or destroyed, so the family faced the direst poverty. With customary energy, backed by youth and strength. Captain Reid set about the difficult task of making a livelihood from the ruined farm, and he succeeded even better than he could have hoped. Meanwhile John L. Haynes, the colonel of the First Texas Cavalry, had been appointed collector of the port of Texas, and he forthwith appointed Captain Reid inspector of the customs in 1869, a position the latter held for seven years. Meanwhile he acquired other interests. On one occasion he took a drove of three thousand head of cattle and one hundred and fifty head of horses to the foot of the Black Hills in Dakota. For three years the served as deputy United States marshal of the western district of Texas, after which he returned to Galveston and for sixteen years engaged in the cotton business. The great flood in that city entirely destroyed property worth $25,000, and thus forced him to face the world anew. On account of his only son developing asthmatic troubles he came to California in 1893, first settling in Los Angeles, but in 1905 he removed to Lake county and purchased forty acres in Big valley. This he sold in 1910 and during the same year bought ten acres in the same district, which he is now improving and on which he makes a home. Since coming to this county he has been one of the leaders in the G. A. R. Post at Upper Lake, and also has been a leader in devotion to the Republican party, whose principles he has never ceased to uphold. Devotion to the Union cost the family heavily, for they lost $35,000 worth of property during the Civil war and were never reimbursed for the amount of their losses or any part thereof, yet in spite of the heavy financial losses he has never regretted having given his time and strength and influence to the cause of the Union. The marriage of Captain Reid took place at Burton, Tex., in 1872 and united him with Miss Anna Fisher, daughter of Rev. Orceneth Fisher, D. D., organizer of the Methodist Episcopal Church South throughout California and Oregon. The first wife of Dr. Fisher was Elizabeth, daughter of ex- Governor Watts, of Georgia, and six children were born of their union, namely : Electa Chase, who married Judge H. H. Allen, formerly of Houston, Tex.; Mary Sophronia (now deceased), who became 'the wife of R. B. Wells, a prominent attorney at Gatesville, Tex. ; Sarah Brittania (now deceased), who was the wife of W. J. Brockett, formerly the editor of the Houston Telegraph; Asbury O. (now deceased), a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, whose eldest son. Sterling Fisher, is dean of the Corronal College at San Marcus, Tex. ; Sterling, for twenty years county judge of Hayes county, Tex., and now deceased ; and Anna Augusta, who was only nine months old when her mother died and was then taken into the home of her brother-in-law, Judge H. H. Allen, to be reared. The second marriage of Dr. Fisher united him with Miss Rebecca J. Gilliland, by whom he had three children, namely : Rebecca J., widow of R. A. Blanford, of Austin, Tex., and now chief clerk of the state pension department; Fannie (now deceased), who was the wife of Frank Noble, a lumberman at Austin; and Orceneth, an attorney in eastern Texas. Mrs. Rebecca J. Fisher, now presi- dent of the Daughters of the Republic and a woman of culture and promi- nence, is a survivor of the Comanche Indian massacre, in which perished her father, mother, two sisters and one brother. The only ones who escaped a dreadful fate were herself and brother, the latter severely wounded by an Indian spear, while she also received a serious wound in the head. The United States rangers reached the scene of the massacre only in time to save her and her brother, and they became wards of Texas, being reared and edu- cated at the expense of the state, from which Mrs. Fisher still receives a pen- sion. Having completed her education! in Madame Howland's private school for girls on Fourth avenue. New York City, Anna Augusta Fisher became in- structor in music in a college at Huntsville, Tex., but resigned her position to become the bride of Captain Reid. One son blessed their union, Seth Barton Reid, whose fine mind brought him admiration in every circle and whose genial temperament won him many warm friends. In February, 1911, he succumbed to an attack of diphtheria and spinal meningitis. At the time of his death he was thirty years of age. Surviving him are two daughters, Lucile and Anna, and his widow, formerly Miss Eva N. Crutchfield, of Gar- vanza, Los Angeles county. Coupled with other gifts of an unusually high order he possessed a poetic strain, and one of his poems, sent to his father. Captain Reid, on Decoration day. May 30, 1907, as given below, indicates his patriotic spirit as well as his native talent in the realm of poetry : "The time is here when our thoughts revert to the days of Sixty-one, When the dark, dread cloud of Civil war obscured the nation's sun. When brother fought brother and son fought sire, When the land was scourged with blood and fire, When to fight and win was each side's desire. For they both believed they were right. "Oh, that was a conflict the like of which the world will ne'er see again, For it was waged by the noblest race on earth and that race's noblest men ; But the mighty God of the universe at the end of four bitter years. Took pity upon His children and acknowledged a nation's tears, And reacning forth His mighty hand he freed the fettered slave. And united the nation ever to stand, the home of the free and brave. "Today there is no North, no South, And the East and the West are one, And every true man in our glorious land From rising to setting sun Is ready to fight as long as there is breath For the weak and oppressed and home. Whether it be where his fathers fought or over the ocean's foam. And even the 'old boys' with hoary hair. Whose ranks are getting so thin. Brace up at the sound of the fife and drum Or the bugle's rousing din. "All hail to the veterans in Union blue and on Decoration day Let every loyal heart in our land remember those over the way. And let the blossoms be piled high and our country's banner wave In honor of the G. A. R. and its noble veterans so brave."