My Genealogy Hound

JAMES T. REAMS is a pioneer and a commonwealth builder. He comes of pioneer ancestry, his parents having been early settlers of Kentucky, his grandparents early settlers of Tennessee and his great-grandparents Virginians and Marylanders. He is originally of Irish extraction, both his fathers and mother’s families having come from the Emerald Isle some time in the colonial days, the tradition as to the Reams side being that there were three sons, who lived during the Revolutionary period, the two older ones serving in the war. These subsequently became the heads of families and started the several branches in this country. They intermarried with the Harrisons, of Virginia, and in that way the name of Benjamin Harrison became introduced in the family and has since run through it, the mother of the subject of this sketch being a cousin of William Henry Harrison, better known as “Old Tippecanoe.” The father of James T. Reams was Harrison Reams, who was born in Virginia but reared in Tennessee, whither his father, John Reams, moved at an early day. Harrison Reams married Lida Daugherty, then of Tennessee, but whose parents, Benjamin and Elizabeth Daugherty, were natives of Maryland, who moved to Tennessee at an early day. Benjamin and Lida (Daugherty) Reams were the parents of eight children, of whom the subject of this notice is the second in age. James T. Reams was born in Tennessee September 3, 1826. When he was three years old, his parents moved to Kentucky, and he there grew to manhood. He married in Kentucky in 1847, taking to wife Miss Mary A. Dowis, a daughter of Isaac and Betsey Dowis, who was a native of Kentucky, but whose parents were South Carolinians. In 1857, Mr. Reams moved to Indiana, a year later to Missouri, and in 1863 to Nebraska, settling in Douglas county, near Omaha. For a while he farmed in Nebraska, but afterwards became a contractor on the Union Pacific railway, and followed that till the completion of the railroad in 1869. He then returned to Omaha, and after making a prospecting tour through the southwestern part of the state, he again engaged in contracting, grading streets in Omaha and railroads running out from that place. He gave this up in 1872, and, with his family, moved to Franklin county and took a homestead, filing on the southwest quarter of section 10, township 1, range 14 west. The same year he bought the northwest quarter of the same section, which was owned by the railroad, and there he located and began his improvements. Having been raised in a wooded country, he managed to settle where he would have plenty of timber, and his first house was a log one with a stone chimney. He encountered the usual amount of hardships that fall to the lot of the first settlers of a country, but, having already been considerably on the frontier, he was not discouraged by these. The chief difficulty he met with in those days was in securing bread stuffs. Meat was plentiful, the prairies abounding in buffalo, antelope and deer; but the grasshoppers and drouth played havoc with the crops, and the question, “What shall we do for bread to eat?” frequently became one hard to answer. Even when corn and wheat could be had, there were no mills within reasonable distance, the nearest one being at Beatrice, one hundred and fifty miles away. He continued on the farm, however, seeing, as he says, some good times along with some pretty tough ones, till 1879, when, the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company having built up the Republican valley and a station established where the town of Franklin now stands, he built a hotel there and moved to that place and began to manage the hotel. He was engaged at two different times in the hotel business in Franklin, but never relinquished his farming interest, and finally returned to his farm to live the remainder of his life. He has a beautiful place, well improved, and one that, under his careful management, yields him a competence. Mr. Reams is recognized as one of the best farmers of his community, as well as one of the first settlers and most influential citizens. He has been identified with the best interest of his locality, having served his township as supervisor, and having been almost continuously on the school board since his school district was organized. In politics he is a democrat and a stanch supporter of the principles of his party. He belongs to the Farmers’ Alliance of Franklin county, and takes an active interest in all matters relating to the farming interests of his community. He is also a member of the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Reams has had born to him a family of ten children, as follows — Isaac (who died at the age of six), Margaret, Benjamin H., Sarah, John F., Andrew J., Bartlett, Lucy, Alice and Rosa.