Nevada Genealogy Trails EurekaCounty Robert James Reid Biography

ROBERT JAMES REID, who has been carrying on a fine business as blacksmith and carriage-maker in Eureka for over thirty years, came to Nevada in 1869, and has been one of the most industrious and capable citizens since that time. He derives his intelligent industry and solidity of character and business ability from good Scotch ancestry, and is a representative of the class of men who have done most for the industrial, intellectual and moral life of his state. In other words he has been the opposite of the parasite on the body politic, and has been able to do more than pull his own weight in life, with the result that he has been helpful and useful in all departments of life and to all with whom he has come in contact in business or domestic relations.

Mr. Reid was born in Calais, Maine, May 14, 1848, and is a son of James Reid, who was born in Scotland and emigrated to the United States when a young man. Mr. Reid was educated and learned his trade in New Brunswick and in Maine, and was twenty-one years old when he came to the state of Nevada. He worked for wages of five dollars a day at White Pine, and also had a shop of his own for a year. In January. 1871. he arrived in Eureka, where he opened his own shop, and in 1879 built his present shop. His scale of prices when he first came here was twenty-five cents for sharpening picks, two dollars for steeling picks, four dollars for shoeing a horse. He made money and saved it, and has never had to lose a day on account of sickness. For some years he was engaged in the cattle business in White Pine county, where he had twenty-eight hundred acres of land and kept as high as a thousand head of cattle. He has since disposed of this property to advantage, and his principal interests are now centered in his trade, in which he takes great pride and is known everywhere as a skilled and thorough mechanic.

Mr. Reid has been a life-long Republican except during the silver movement, when he devoted all his influence and votes to the cause of bimetallism. He has shown deep interest in educational matters, and for ten years had been a school trustee. He was made a Master Mason in Eureka Lodge No. 16, F. & A. M., in 1872, and has since received the Royal Arch degree in St. Johns Chapter No. 5. R. A. M., and was made a Sir Knight Templar in Eureka Commandery No. 2 ; he has been an active Masonic worker, and is a past high priest of his chapter and holds the office of captain general in the commandery.

In 1873 Mr. Reid married Miss Louisa Barber, a native of his own town in Maine, and the following children have been born to them in Eureka: Nellie A. graduated from the high school and then from the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston, and is now an accomplished teacher of music; the son, M. R., died in his eighteenth month: and Robert Albert Blaine and Stella Louise are the youngest. The family have one of the pleasantest homes in Eureka, and they are all bright and popular members of the social circles of the town.

Source:
A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People
By Thomas Wren, Lewis Publishing Company
Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1904
Contributed by Barbara Z.