My Genealogy Hound

A. A. Reid is engaged in tilling one of the finest farms in this section of the country, it containing 320 acres, of which his father became possessed prior to his death. A. A. Reid was born in Columbia County, Ark., December 6, 1861, being one of nine children born to W. H. C. and Jane M. (Joiner) Reid, who were native Georgians. The former came to Arkansas in 1848 or 1849, and settled in Columbia County, having lived in Louisiana a short time prior to this, and being much pleased with this country, he continued to make his home here until his death, which occurred on August 10, 1881. He made for himself an honorable name in this community, and three different times represented this county in the Lower House of the State Legislature, and one time in the State Senate, his first election being in 1869, his subsequent elections being in 1875, 1877 and 1879. His career is but another evidence of the possibilities young men have for advancement, for he commenced life a poor boy, and before his death had won the esteem and respect of all; was an honorable and useful member of society, and possessed a comfortable competency. As a husband, father and friend, he was loyalty and kindness itself, and his death was universally lamented. He died at the age of fifty-nine or sixty years, being an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and from the time he was twenty one years of age, he was a worthy member of the A. F. & A. M., being, during the latter years of his life, a member of Columbia Lodge No. 82. His widow still survives him, is sixty-three years of age, and makes her home with her son, A. A. Reid. Mr. Reid was a commissioned officer of the Confederate army during the war, and faithfully served the cause he espoused from the beginning until the close of hostilities. The war left him in a very embarrassed condition, financially, but as above seen he surmounted the difficulties which strewed his pathway and was soon in independent circumstances. His farm is now successfully managed by his son, A. A. Reid, who was educated in the public schools of this county. He is an intelligent and industrious young man, and for the past four years has filled the office of justice of the peace. He was married in 1889 to Miss Mary Bird, of this county, her father and mother, nee Martha Dees, being early settlers of this section and natives of Alabama. Of a family of ten children born to W. H. C. and Jane M. Reid, six are now living: Leonard W. (a successful school teacher of Ouachita County), R. V. (a farmer of Tulip, La.), J. W. (a farmer of Clifton, Tex.), W. J. (a farmer of Charlie, Tex.), Ellen J. (wife of W. P. Couch of this county), and A. A. (the immediate subject of this sketch).