My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN H. REAMS is an old Nebraskan and a prominent and influential farmer of Franklin county. He comes of Southern parentage, originally of Irish extraction. His father, James T. Reams, whose sketch appears in this work, is a native of Tennessee and a son of Harrison Reams, who was a Virginian by birth and a son of John Reams, also a Virginian by birth and an early settler of Tennessee. The Reamses were near relations to the Harrisons in Virginia, Mr. Reams’ great-grandmother being a full cousin to William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States. Mr. Reams’ mother bore the maiden name of Mary A. Dowis, whose parents were Isaac and Betsey Dowis, natives of North Carolina, being early settlers of Kentucky. James T. and Mary A. Reams had a family of ten children, of whom the subject of this notice is the eldest son living and the third in point of age. He was born in Kentucky, in 1849, and was reared partly in Indiana, partly in Missouri and partly in Nebraska, his parents being successively residents of these states during his childhood and early youth. They moved to Nebraska in 1863 and settled in Douglas county, near Omaha, where the father engaged first in farming and afterwards in contracting, being one of the builders of the Union Pacific railway. He worked on that railway till 1869, when it was completed. He then returned to Omaha and engaged in grading streets and afterwards working on other railroads in that vicinity till 1872. He then moved with his family to Franklin county, where he took a homestead and located. The subject of this sketch, accompanying him to Franklin county, parted with him there and went to Burt county, where he took a homestead and lived for eight years. Abandoning his homestead he returned to Franklin county, and, purchasing a tract of railroad land adjoining his father’s homestead, settled there and has resided there since. He has a pleasant place and one which in time will be valuable. He began on the raw prairie and now has his farm in a fine state of cultivation and fairly well improved as to buildings and other conveniences. Mr. Reams has taken an active interest in the affairs of his township and has filled a number of local offices with credit to himself and satisfaction to his neighbors. In politics he is a democrat, and is, besides, a member of the Farmers’ Alliance.

When Mr. Reams went to Burt county to live he was a single man, but there he met a lady who afterwards became his wife. Her maiden name was Louisa Hannick, she being a daughter of Frederick M. Hannick, a native of Germany, who came to this country and settled in Burt county in 1849. Mr. and Mrs. Reams have had born to them a family of six children — Ezra, Emma, Maud, Pearl, Elsie and Ai Therman.