How Accurate is That Biography, Anyhow?

In the 1800s and the early to mid 1900s, biographical compilations were published across the United States; there were publishers at the time who specialized in such books.  Some were serious works of biography.  Many were less rigorously assembled, with the entries being written by the subjects themselves, as these books were intended to “pump up” the town in a wave of “boosterism.”  Some of these subjects seem not to have been able to resist the temptation to pad the resume, as we say today.  So, when you find an ancestor listed in one of these compilations, can you put full faith and credit in what is said in the entry?  What pitfalls may await the unwary family historian in such an entry?

             Let’s take a case study.  My grand-uncle Don Francis Reed (1887-1930) has an entry in a compilation titled A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley (Chicago, Lewis, 1918, five volumes).  I found this particular entry while searching the World Wide Web, and was surprised to find Uncle Don’s information.  At that point, I didn’t have much on the Reed family, my mother’s people, and I was happy to find the information.  I have to say I became a little less happy once I started accumulating other documentation and discovered that the information in Uncle Don’s entry was less than 100% reliable and that there is a source of confusion lurking in the information..

             I will reproduce here a portion of the entry, as it is, then I will discuss the errors and confusion that exist in the text.  Points in the text where these errors occur are marked with a consecutive number in square brackets; each error is discussed at the end of the quoted portion of text, by number.  I suggest reading the text without pausing, first, as the text will give the reader a flavor of the type of biography that appears in these compilations.

             “Don Francis Reed has been identified with Harper, Kansas, successively as a blacksmith, farmer, and lawyer.  Admitted to the bar a little more than two years ago he has won his spurs in his first legal contest and is now well established with a general clientage [sic] drawn from all over Harper County.

             “Mr. Reed was born at Logansport, Indiana, January 10, 1887, and is a member of a family that has three living generations.  He is of Scotch ancestry.  His great-grandfather, Herriman Reed [1], was born in Scotland, came to this country in early times, settling in Philadelphia, and died there.  By trade he was a cooper.

             “The grandfather of the Harper lawyer is Charles Reed, who was born in Jay County, Indiana [2], in 1846 [3], and has spent all his life in that section of Eastern Indiana as a farmer.  He has been identified with the republican party for many years, and saw 3 ½ years of active service with an Indiana regiment of infantry in the Civil war [4].  He was at the second battle of Bull Run [5], where he was shot through the arm [6], and later participated in the Atlanta campaign [7] and was at the battle of Kenesaw Mountain [8] and other engagements.  He married Miss Wright, who was born in Pennsylvania [9] and died in Jay County, Indiana.  Ten of their children are still living, namely:  Sarah, wife of S. C. Milton, a farmer in Jay County, Indiana; F. H. Reed; James J. [10], an oil well driller near Portland, Oregon; William M. [11], who is also in the oil well business in Oregon; Solon M. [12], a merchant at Portland, Indiana; Sallie, wife of Ernest J. Louden, who is agent for the Salt Lake Railroad Company at San Pedro, California; Nellie, wife of Waldo Twiggs, an employee of the Warner Gear Company of Muncie, Indiana; Carrie, unmarried and living at Portland, Indiana; John, agent for the Lake Erie and Western Railway at Anson, Ohio; and Leslie, an oil well driller near Portland, Oregon. [13]

             “F. H. Reed, father of Don Francis, was born in Jay County, Indiana, November 19, 1861 [14], and is still living at Logansport in that state.  He has spent practically all his life in Logansport and is a veteran of the Pennsylvania Railway service, still having a run as passenger conductor out of Logansport, which is one of the division points on that road.  He is a republican, very active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and one of the church trustees.  He married Florence McKee, who was born in White County, [15] Indiana, November 17, 1861 [16].  They are the parents of a family of eleven children:  Perry W., a resident of Chicago and connected with the Interstate Commerce Commission [17]; Don Francis;  Benjamin Franklin, a passenger conductor [18] with the Wabash Railway Company, living at Detroit, Michigan; Charles C., a lieutenant in the Aviation Corps of the United States Army; Merritt W., a farmer in Cass County, Indiana; Edmund McKee, cashier of the Wabash Railway Company at Detriot, Michigan; William E., a student in the Detroit College of Medicine; Lawrence L., now serving with the United States Cavalry stationed at Louisville, Kentucky; Florence G., living with her parents; Paul P. and John, both students in the high school at Logansport.”

             Now to discuss the errors and confusions in the text.

 [1].  This is one of those traps for the unwary.  Here the term “great-grandfather” is being used loosely.  Uncle Don’s great-grandfather on the Reed side was Harvey Reed, not Herriman (or Harriman; remember, we need to be aware of alternative spellings in our research), and he was born probably in Gallia County, Ohio, according to information developed by a distant cousin, Shirley Reed.  The term “great-grandfather” here may simply mean a distant ancestor, not his actual great-grandfather as we define the term.  There may very well be a Herriman Reed, immigrant from Scotland, back in the ancestry.  So far, searches in such sources as the 1790 census for Philadelphia, ship passenger lists, and other references have turned up no Herriman (or Harriman) Reed.

 [2]  According to Charles Reed’s invalid pension claim, obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration1, Charles Reed was born in Gallia County, Ohio.  His family moved to Jay County, Indiana when he was a youngster.  This is probably one of those instances where the biography’s subject is not certain of his information, but goes ahead anyway because he’s close enough for government work, as we say.  In fact, I doubt that many mistakes such as these which appear in these biographies are intentional, and certainly they’re not malicious, in the main.  They’re simply the result of slips of memory.

 [3]  Charles Reed’s birth year, according to his invalid pension file, was 1840, not 1846.

[4]  Charles Reed’s active service in the Civil War was less than a year.  He enlisted on 13 October 1864 and was mustered out 11 July 1865 (however, he had been invalided home, actually, on 30 June 1865).  His service consisted mainly in being ill with “camp diarrhoea” (probably amoebic dysentery) and “break-bone fever” (the old name for dengue fever).

 [5]  Since 2nd Bull Run (or 2nd Manassas) was fought in 1862 and Charles Reed enlisted on 13 October 1864, this is unlikely, to say the least.

 [6]  Charles Reed’s invalid pension file, which includes a number of reports of medical examinations complete with illustrated body diagram, makes no mention whatsoever of any wounds received in service.  His disability claim was based entirely on bacterial and viral diseases and their complications.

 [7]  According to Charles Reed’s pension file, which includes statements by himself as to his service, as well as reports of service from the War Department, his regiment was nowhere near Atlanta.  The regiment’s service was entirely in Tennessee and North Carolina.  A report on the movements of the regiment, the 140th Indiana Infantry, is found at the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System website, maintained by the National Park Service, located at web address http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/regiments,htm  on which none of these campaigns attributed to Charles Reed by his grandson are mentioned.  Here the case might either be faulty recall, complete ignorance of the facts coupled with a desire to pump up the resume, or remembering tales grandpa spun out of whole cloth because he didn’t care to admit that he spent most of the Civil War in hospital.

 [8]  Again, this campaign is not mentioned in Charles Reed’s pension file nor on the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System as having been engaged by the 140th Indiana Infantry.

 [9]  According to research so far, it appears that “Miss Wright,” (Clarissa Haney Wright) was born in Xenia, Green County, Ohio.

 [10]  Here, Uncle Don has misremembered his uncle’s name.  The middle initial for James is M., not J., for his name was James Marcellus Reed.  Information for these name corrections comes from Charles Reed’s pension file and from a typescript in the family begun by Charles’s son John (John Robinson Reed)2 and continued by another family member after John’s death.

 [11]  This is simply another misremembered name.  Middle initial should be I.; his name was William Irvin Reed.

 [12]  Another misremembered name.  Middle initial should be E.; his name was Solon Ernest Reed.

 [13]  Uncle Don has forgotten that there were twelve living children of Charles Reed at the time he made his entry for this biography.  Mary Catherine didn’t die until 1932, and Lawrence Elbert died in 1942.3

 [14]  F. H. (Francis Harvey, or “Frank”) Reed’s birthdate is November 17, 1862, according to a family genealogy prepared by the children of Frank Reed and Florence McKee Reed on their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1934.4

 [15]  There is a point of confusion here, possibly.  On his application for a marriage license in 1913, Florence Reed’s son Benjamin Franklin Reed gives her birthplace as Warsaw, Indiana,5 which is in Wabash County, not White County.  Florence and Frank Reed were married in White County, and that may be the source for confusion.  Her birthplace will need to be investigated.

 [16]  Florence’s birth date is November 19, 1862.6

 [17]  According to the birth certificate of Perry’s daughter Mary Elizabeth, he was a “traffic manager” (railroad) in 1910.  The answer is provided by my uncle Bob, Perry Reed’s son, in an article in Pensacola History Illustrated7:  “[Perry Reed] was a mathematical whiz, a freight rate expert with a license to practice before the Interstate Commerce Commission.”  So the connection was simply this license, which does not make him an employee of the ICC.  It simply means he could represent his employer, the railroad, in matters brought before the ICC.  By the letters that he wrote to his wife Mary LeSourd between 1907 and 1914 on letter head of various railroads, he worked for the railroads, not for the ICC.  By 1920 he was living in Pensacola and working as the general freight agent for the Gulf, Florida, and Alabama Railway.8

 [18]  According to his obituary in the Logansport, Indiana, Pharos-Reporter, Benjamin Franklin Reed's occupation was as a switchman, not a conductor.9 ( He died in a railway accident 22 October 1917; this book apparently went to press before a correction could be entered noting his death.) 

             It pays to be wary when reading these biographies of our ancestors in compilations such as these.  One probably can rely on the information concerning activities in the geographical area covered by the compilation.  A subject would not be able to get away with padding the resume where there are many fellow citizens who would be likely to say, “That isn’t exactly right, now, is it?” to the subject’s face once the book came out.  But activities which took place away from that region, or information about ancestors, is more suspect, as we see here in this case study.  These biographies can be a useful springboard for further research, but we must beware of the traps they may contain.

 1  Charles Reed, Civil War Pension Application File SO 816,345; SC 697,707; Records of the Veterans Administration, Record Group 15, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

2  John Robinson Reed, and others, “Births and Deaths in the Reed Family to April 1, 1913,” typescript, copy in possession of the author. Added to the list are dates after 1913; those added after 1918, the year John Robinson Reed died, were added by another family member, identity unknown.

3  Ibid.

4  “Reed Family Genealogy,” typescript prepared by Rosanna Jane Breese, granddaughter of Francis Harvey Reed.  In possession of the author.

5  Frank (Benjamin Franklin) Reed and Ruth Nave, marriage applications, license, and certificate, Clerk of Circuit Court, St. Joseph County, South Bend, Indiana, Marriage Book 26, page 88.

6  “Reed Family Genealogy.”

 7  Robert Reed, “Little Man,” Pensacola History Illustrated (Pensacola Historical Society, vol.1 no. 4, Winter 1985) pp. 27-32

8  Letters of Perry Wilmer Reed and Mary LeSourd, 1907-1920.  In possession of the author.

9  “Engine Kills a Switchman,” Logansport, Indiana, Pharos-Reporter, October 22, 1917 (n.p.)

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 20: Wheels

This week in 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, Amy Johnson Crow asks us to post about wheels in our family history.

In the spring of 1850, my great-great granduncle Major W. Packard set out from Bloomington, Illinois, with a wagon train to the gold fields of California -- to Sutter's Mill.  No, he was not going to pan for gold.  His purpose was simple curiosity, as he wanted to observe and write about the people who were attracted by the possibility of becoming rich by coaxing shiny little flakes out of streams.

He made some sharp observations about the gold-attracted:  "Now it is the nature of such news that the further it travels, the bigger it gets, and the more wonderful.  So it is not strange that when the news of the discovery reached us in the then border states, the size of the sand-like particles really found in that far-off, insignificant mill-race, had increased to very respectable nuggets."

On setting out from St. Joseph, Missouri, Wellman (as he's known in the family) observed other wagon trains preparing, in his opinion inadequately, for what was to come.  "[V]ery many started out without the necessary preparation, and suffered the penalty of their want of foresight in much suffering and unnecessary hardship and privation."

At one point along the journey, the travelers encountered one of the enormous buffalo herds that once roamed the plains, this one in full stampede and "bearing down directly upon us in fine style, causing no little apprehension for our safety."   Men from the wagon train, mounted on every horse in the party's possession, rode out with screams and gunfire aimed so as to frighten, not harm, the beasts.  They concentrated their attention on the patriarch buffalo leading the herd, and managed to turn the herd so that it avoided the wagons and their human population.  As the herd turned, and the rear of the huge long line reached the mounted men, a designated few set after them with firearms, and brought back two tender specimens to furnish a celebratory feast.

 A different sort of wheels played a big part in my mother's family, the Reeds of Logansport, Indiana.  Francis Harvey Reed, my maternal great-grandfather, was a conductor for the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis line, known by the nickname "Panhandle Route."  The line was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system.  

My grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Reed was a switchman in the Wabash yard in Detroit, Michigan.  He was hit by a yard engine in October of 1917, and died, leaving his wife with three small children.  My mother was not yet a year old when she lost her father.

Perry Wilmer Reed and his wife Mary LeSourd adopted my mother after her father died.  Perry was a general freight agent with the Pennsylvania System, based in Chicago.  He was licensed to practice before the Interstate Commerce Commission, representing his employer.  In 1920, he moved the family to Pensacola, Florida, where he became the general freight agent for the Gulf, Florida, and Alabama Railway.

My husband's grandfather, Andrew Lewis Rhodes, was a conductor for the Pullman Company.  He lived in Jacksonville, Florida, and covered routes all over the state.  When my husband was a little boy, he would from time to time ride with grandpa on the train.

 References:

Packard, Major Wellman.  Early Emigration to California, 1849-1850. (Fairfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press; reprint of the original, 1971). 

You can read more about my railroad Reeds in my post from last year, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 28: Trains

"Employee's Statement of Compensated Service," (Form AA-15), dated Nov. 19, 1938, Andrew Lewis Rhodes pension file, Social Security Number (redacted for security reasons); National Archives Record Group 184: Records of the Railroad Retirement Board, 1934- ; RRB--Congressional Inquiry Section, Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Be a Time-Traveler

In this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Randy Seaver wants us to be a time-traveler.  

1)  We all wish that we knew more about our most elusive ancestors - the ones we might not know the surname for, or the one who was probably adopted, changed his name for some reason, or lived through war or a natural disaster.

2)  Be a time traveler - where would you go, who would you speak with, what would you ask them?  

2)  Share your time traveler adventure on your own blog, on Facebook or other social media, or in a Comment on this blog.  Share the link to your stories on this blog, so readers can respond.

 

I would go back to Beloit, Wisconsin, about 1880, to talk to my great-great-grandfather Nelson Reed McKee.  He disappeared from his home in Monticello, White County, Indiana, the night of 4 June 1879, and turned up in Wisconsin.  I would ask him about the details revealed in the Monticello Herald of 5 June 1879, these questions:

1.  Why did you leave great-great grandma Sarah, and your children, in Monticello and end up in Beloit?

2.  There was mention in the Monticello Herald of a forged deed and mortgage in your name, with an endorsement supposedly by a justice of the peace who swore he never set eyes on the document.  It was dated the day before it was supposedly executed.  Do you have any information on that? 

3.  Did your brother, who was married to great-great grandma Sarah's sister, know where you had gone?

4.  Did he tell his wife, who then told her sister?

5.  Did he tell you about Sarah eventually suing for divorce?  Did you know that after the divorce was final, she married Luke Rogers?  Had Sarah's sister maybe told her that you married Ida Josephine Colby while still married to Sarah?  Did Sarah get the divorce at least in part to save you from a charge of bigamy?

6.   Did you ever know that your daughter, my great-grandma Florence Elizabeth McKee, had to go to work just before her 17th birthday as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse to help support her mother and brothers?

7.  Did you ever know that she married Francis Harvey "Frank" Reed and had a passel of children?

 

 Sure, I have other ancestors of whom I'd like to ask questions, dozens of 'em.  But this mystery has intrigued me for years, now.  These are some questions I'd like answered.

 

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks -- Week 28 -- Trains

 First, a note.  I apologize for not keeping up with my blog in recent weeks.  Other matters intervened.  I'm going to post the current 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and I am also going to try to catch up on the past 8 weeks of this series, as there are some topics Amy Johnson Crow had selected for those "lost" weeks of mine that interest me quite a bit.

Trains also interest me, as my great-grandfather Francis Harvey "Frank" Reed and a few of his 8 sons were railroad men, including my grandfather Benjamin Franklin Reed and my granduncle Perry Wilmer Reed.

Francis Harvey Reed was a conductor for the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railway Line.  That name was such a mouthful, apparently, that most people referred to it as the Panhandle Line.  This line was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad, handling the bulk of Pennsy traffic to the west of Pennsylvania.  The name Panhandle was used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to identify a group of its smaller lines, including the one currently under discussion.(1)

Perry Wilmer Reed worked also for the Pennsylvania Railroad, on their Union Line, based in Chicago as a freight agent from about 1907 to about 1920.  He was enrolled to argue cases before the Interstate Commerce Commission, representing his railroad in these matters.(2)  By 1920 he and his wife and their children Robert, Elizabeth, and Martha, had relocated to Pensacola, Florida, where he worked for the Gulf, Florida, and Alabama Railway.(3)

Benjamin Franklin Reed, also known as "Frank," was a switchman on the Wabash Railroad, working in the yard at Detroit, Michigan.(4)  He was killed by being hit by a rail yard donkey engine.  His death certificate cites the cause of death as "crushing injuries to head." (5)

My husband's family also has a railroad connection.  His grandfather, Andrew Lewis Rhodes, was a Pullman conductor.  Andrew Rhodes started his railroad career in 1903 as a clerk-messenger for the United States Express Company.(6)  He worked for them in various offices in the upper Midwest until 1912, when he became a conductor for the Pullman Company.  He relocated to Jacksonville, Florida and worked as a Pullman conductor until he retired in 1952.(7)

(1)  Burns, Adam.  "Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Line: 'The Panhandle Route.'" Online: American Rails.com

(2)  Robert Reed, "Little Man," Pensacola History Illustrated, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Winter, 1985), 27-32.

(3)  Letter from Perry Reed to his wife Mary, written on Gulf, Florida, and Alabama Railway letterhead with "Perry Reed, General Freight Agent" on it.  Private Papers of M. K. and K.L. Rhodes.

(4) "Engine Kills a Switchman," Logansport (Indiana) Pharos-Reporter, 22 October 1917, 3.

(5)  State of Michigan, Department of State, Division of Vital Statistics.  Death Certificate, Benjamin Franklin Reed, Registered Number 10695.

(6)  "Record of Employee's Prior Service," (Form AA-2P), filed 27 May 1941.  Andrew Lewis Rhodes pension file; Social Security Number [redacted].  National Archives Record Group 184: Records of the Railroad Retirement Board, 1934--; RRB Congressional Inquiry Service, Chicago, Illinois.

(7)  "Application for Employee Annuity Under the Railroad Retirement Act," (Form AA-1), filed 25 July 1952.  Andrew Lewis Rhodes pension file; Social Security Number [redacted].  National Archives Record Group 184: Records of the Railroad Retirement Board, 1934--; RRB Congressional Inquiry Service, Chicago, Illinois.

A to Z Challenge On the Move: D is for Detroit

I have devoted three blog posts in this series to my father's line, so it is time to talk a little about my mother's.

My mom, Martha Shideler Reed, was born in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan.  She and I had something in common:  we each did not like our middle names much.  Family history has reconciled me to mine.  The fact that hers came from the surname of a young social activist in Logansport, Indiana at the turn of the 20th century apparently had no effect on Mom.

Her family was not as peripatetic as my father's.  I have not gone back far enough to discover the family's origin.  The name Reed could be either English, Scots, or Irish.  From some things I know about the Reeds and their attitudes and behavior, I have a sneaking suspicion that they were "lace curtain" Irish.  But as yet, I have no evidence.  I find the family in the United States in the early 1800s, in a slow westward movement that ended up in Ohio and then in Indiana.  In Indiana, towns associated with my Reed line are Monticello, in White County, and Logansport, in Cass County.

There were railroad men in the Reed family.  My great-grandfather Francis Harvey ("Frank") Reed was a conductor.  My grandfather Benjamin Franklin (also called "Frank") was a switchman in a railroad marshaling yard.  My adoptive grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Reed's oldest brother Perry Wilmer Reed, was a freight agent.  

Francis Harvey Reed married Florence Elizabeth McKee 10 September 1884 in Monticello, White County, Indiana.  Francis H. had been raised in Monticello when his family lived there.  His work for the railroad had stationed him in Logansport, and that is where the new bride and groom set up their house.  That was the end of their migrations.  Their children, however, ended up scattered to the four winds, ending up in such places as Washington state, California, and Florida.

Benjamin Franklin Reed married Ruth Ella Nave, who was from South Bend, Indiana.  She worked to support her widowed mother, a situation frowned upon by many whose notion was that "nice" girls did not work, no matter the circumstances.  But eating is preferable to starving, so Ruth became a telephone operator.  Married in November of 1913, the couple had three children by December of 1916.  They got an early start, according to some in the family.  In October of 1917, Benjamin Franklin Reed was killed in a railroad accident in Detroit, where he worked in a railroad yard.  

According to my aunt, my mother's sister, the Reed family was not fond of Ruth Nave, possibly both because she worked for a living, and because the growth of her and their son's family had been, shall we say, rapid beyond the customary.  My aunt said that the Reeds "ganged up" on Ruth Nave, and took her daughters, Margaret, the second child, and Martha, my mother, the youngest.  The oldest, a son named Donald, was 16 by the time all the family rearrangement had taken place in the early 1920s, and he stayed with his mother.  These three siblings were not reuinted until the 1950s, when all had ended up in Florida, scattered among the Tampa Bay area (Uncle Don), Orlando (Aunt Margaret) and Jacksonville (Mom).

My mother was placed with the oldest Reed brother, Perry, and his wife Mary LeSourd, of Sleeth, Carroll County, Indiana.  There is not much left of Sleeth; it's practically a ghost town, so I've been told.  The town was named for Mary Reed's mother's family.  Perry Reed and his family are found in the 1910 census in Chicago, where their daughter, their second child Elizabeth, was born in 1910.  They are missing from the 1920 census. I have looked in Chicago, in various locations in Indiana, and in Pensacola, Florida, where Perry was a railroad freight agent.  My theory is this:  in April of 1920, there is a very small notice in the Logansport Pharos-Reporter to the effect that Mr. Perry W. Reed, of Pensacola, Florida, was visiting relatives in the area.  The visit was to take custody, I'm fairly certain, of four-year-old Martha.  I would imagine Perry's wife Mary was with him, to care for the child on the journey home to Pensacola.  They were on the move from one location to the other, and that is the way they got missed in the census.  The final adoption decree was issued later in 1920 in Pensacola.  My mom's journey to Pensacola was but the first in many migrations, as she married a young Navy officer, Arden Packard, in Pensacola, 16 July 1937.  Their story is told in the first in this series of posts, On the Move: A is for Arden.