Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 779

JAMES G. REED     On another page of this work will be found a sketch of the life of Robert C. Reed, brother of our subject, and in the connection is incorporated much interesting data concerning the prominent and honored family of which the two brothers are representatives.  The Reed family was one of the first to settle in Butler county, the grandparents of the subject having located here long before the admission of Ohio to the Union, while the fact that the father of James G. was the first male white child born in the county bears all of significance as showing how early must have been the period when the faily name became identified with the annals of this division of the Buckeye state.  To the article mentioned we would refer the reader for further genealogical data, which it is unnecessary to recapitulate in the present connection.  The lineage is of Scotch-Irish extraction, and the paternal grandparents of our subject America and were among the first to establish a home in the sylvan wilds of Butler county, as has already been noted. 
     James G. Reed, the immediate subject of this review, has passed his entire life in Butler county, and is one of the prominent, representative and highly esteemed farmers of Lemon township.  He was born on the old homestead farm, in this township, the date of his nativity having been Apr. 30, 1857, while it may be said that he was the second in order of birth of the two children of Thomas C. and Rachel (Gordon) Reed, the former of whom was born in the same township, in 1797, while the latter was born in New Jersey in 1824, being a daughter of James and Mary (Slack) Gordon, who were likewise pioneers of Butler county.  The father was summoned into eternal rest in 1874, and the mother lived to attain the age of seventy-two years, her death occurring in 1896.
     The subject of this sketch was reared on the old home farm and has never lapsed in his allegiance to the great basic art of agriculture, which he has found altogether worthy of his best efforts and through the medium of which he has attained distinctive prosperity and temporal success.  He received his educational training in the public schools of his native county, having completed a course in the high school at Amanda where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1874.  He owns a quarter section of most arable land, and to the improvement and cultivation of this place he has given his undivided attention since 1888, when it came into his possession.  His farm is well improved and is devoted to diversified agriculture, while he also gives considerable attention to the raising of live stock.  In politics he is a stalwart adherent of the Republican party, with which he has been affiliated from the time of attaining his legal majority, and he and his entire family are members of the United Presbyterian church.  Mr. Reed is a man of progressive ideas and liberal views and takes a consistent interest in the questions and issues of the hour and in public affairs of local nature, though he was never sought official preferment, He has been a warm friend of the cause of education and has been influential in the securing of the best possible advantages in the line for his township, being at the present time a member of the school board of his district.
     On the 20th of November, 1879, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Reed to Miss Geraldine S. Conover, who was born in St. Luke's Place, New York city, on the 3d of November, 1856, being a daughter of Samuel C. and Mary Conover, both of whom died when she was a mere child, and she was reared in the home of her uncle.  John L. Schenck, in Butler county.  Her father was for a number of years superintendent of the Eaton & Richmond division of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad.  Mr. Roberts was an elder in the United Presbyterian church for the long period of forty years, was a man of fine mental gifts and well-fortified convictions and was an able and effective public speaker.  Mrs. Reed received her educational discipline in the public schools of Hamilton, and there attended Professor Starr's' high school for three years, while she also attained marked proficiency in music.  She was a woman of noble character and gentle and gracious presence, endearing herself to all who came within the sphere of her influence, while her beautiful attributes of character shone most resplendent in the sacred precincts of her own home, where her devotion to husband and children was unmeasured and unselfish in the extreme.  She was summoned into the life eternal on the 20th of April, 1890, and in her death came the great loss and bereavement of the subject's life.  She was survived by her six children, the youngest being at the time but six months old.  Mr. Reed managed by great care and solicitude to keep his mother less children together in the home and has given them the best of educational advantages available, while five of the number still remain with their father on the old homestead. Verna is now the wife of Charles I. Wykoff, an employe of the Big Four Railroad; and the names of the other children are as follows: Robert R., Harold T., Gordon J., Rachel M. and Wallace W.
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 729

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 616

ROBERT C. REED.     Wilmott was aptly designated biography as the "home aspect of history," and thus it is  within the province of true history to commemorate the lives and characters, the achievements and labors of those who have played well their parts in their respective fields of endeavor.  No more definite and clear perspective can be given to the generic annals of any section than to offer a record of the careers of representative citizens, and the data thus perpetuated will prove of cumulative value during all the years to come. It is a noteworthy fact that Ohio's sons always have a deep attachment for their native state, and in many senses her history has been a wonderful one.  Her sons have been prominent in every walk of life, and several have become the nation's leaders, occupying the chair of chief executive of our great republic, so that the Buckeye commonwealth may well dispute with the Old Dominion state the title to being the "mother of presidents."  One man alone or even a select coterie of men do not constitute the strength of the commonwealth.  It is the aggregate endeavor of loyal citizenship on the part of the vast majority which makes for this end, and in this respect Ohio has been signally fortunate, for hers have been enterprising, resolute men and gracious, self-abnegating women, from the early pioneer era to the present day, when the wonderful twentieth century rolls into the cycle of the ages.  No history of Butler county could be consistent with itself were there neglect to make definite mention of the honored pioneer family of which the subject of this sketch is a worthy scion, and no better or more significant evidence as to the long identification of the name with the annals of this section of the state can be offered than that implied in the simple statement that the father of our subject was the first male white child born within the limits of the county.  The subject has passed his entire life in Butler county and has ably upheld the high prestige of the honored name which he bears.  He is one of the prominent and influential farmers of Lemon township, where he controls a large and valuable landed estate, and it is with much satisfaction that we offer in this work a review of his genealogical and personal history.
     Robert C. Reed was born on the old ancestral homestead, in Lemon township, this county, on the 31st of October, 1854, and is a son of Thomas C. and Rachel (Gordon) Reed.  The genealogy in the agnatic line is of Scotch-Irish derivation, Thomas C. Reed having been a son of David and Elizabeth (Carrick) Reed, both of whom were born in county Tyrone, Ireland, near the Scottish border.  David Reed immigrated to America when a comparatively young man, being accompanied by his family, including his venerable father, Robert Reed.  He soon made his way westward and became one of the first settlers of Butler county, Ohio, where he took up his residence about the year 1797.  He set to himself the task of grappling with the wilderness and literally hewing out a farm in the midst of the primeval forest.  He secured a considerable amount of government land in what is now Lemon township, and here erected his primitive log house, which was the family domicile for a number of years.  The tales of the pioneer days have often told, and it is needless to here recapitulate the same, for privations, vicissitudes and strenuous labors of the early settlers have been so recorded as to make specific mention in a work of circumscribed native of superfluous, though it is well in such a connection as this to refer to those who lived and labored so earnestly in laying the foundation for the opulent prosperity which marks this favored section of the Buckeye state at the present time.  On this pioneer farm was born Thomas C. Reed, the father of the subject, the date of his nativity having been Oct. 3, 1797, and was has been already noted he was the first male white child born in the county, the Reed family having been one of the very first to take up permanent abode here.  Thomas C. was reared amid the scenes of the pioneer epoch, and thus became early familiar with woodcraft, forest lore and hard work, while it is needless to say that in a specific sense his educational advantages were most limited, owing to the exigencies and conditions of time and place.  He learned to turn his hand to almost every sort of labor, and in the early days he constructed two flatboats, which he launched on the Great Miami river.  These he loaded with flour from the Adam Dickey mill, one of  the first in this section of the state, and transported the product down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, where he disposed of his cargoes and boats, after which he returned to his home in Butler county, walking the entire distance.  He became one of  the successful farmers of the county and ever commanded the unqualified confidence and esteem of its people, while he was influential in local affairs and ably carried forward the work of development and progress which had been inaugurated by his honored father.   He died in 1874, at the age of seventy-seven years and is held in grateful memory as one of the sterling pioneers of the county of which he was one of the founders and builders.  It is related that Thomas C. Reed walked from Butler county, Ohio, to Detroit, Michigan, for the sole purpose of taking a pair of shoes to his brother, who, as a private soldier in an Ohio regiment, was encamped there.  After delivering the shoes.  Mr. Reed returned on foot to his Butler county home, passing through dense forests infested with hostile Indians and British soldiers.  Thomas C. Reed was twice married, first to Miss Mary Dickey, who bore him five sons and three daughters, of whom two of the former and two of the latter are still living.  After the death of his first wife he wedded Miss Rachel Gordon, who was likewise born in this county, being a member of another leading pioneer family.  Of this union were born two sons, Robert C., the immediate subject of this sketch, and James, who is a resident of Lemon township.  The devoted mother was summoned into eternal rest, having been a zealous member of the United Presbyterian church, as was also her husband, who was an elder in this church for about forty-eight years.
     Robert C. Reed to whom this sketch is dedicated, passed his youthful years upon the old homestead farm upon which he was born and a portion of which he owns at the present time.  He assisted in the work  of the farm during the summer months and attended the district schools in the winters, the educational advantages thus afforded enabling him to lay a firm foundation for the broad fund of practical knowledge which he has since gained through personal application, well-directed reading and through the experiences of an active and successful business career.  He owns one hundred and sixty acres of valuable land just south of Middletown, while Mrs. Reed is the owner of the farm of one hundred and seven and one-half acres which constitutes the family home and which is located in section 31, Lemon township.  The farm buildings are of the best type and the residence is a commodious and attractive brick house of two stories.  Mr. Reed supervises the operation of both farms, is known as an able and discriminating business man and has attained a high degree of success, being numbered among the substantial and highly esteemed farmers of the county in which he has passed his life.  Mr. Reed was the first vice-president of Butler County Fair Association, which he assisted in organizing.  He, with his brother, bought the first shorthorn cattle from England to this section of the country, from which time he kept on his farm a herd of good registered cattle.  In his political proclivities he is a stanch Republican, having cast his first presidential vote for U. S. Grant and having never wavered in his fealty to the party, though he has never been ambitious for official preferment.  He and his wife hold membership in the Seventh Day Adventist church at Dayton, Ohio.
     On the 12th of October, 1882, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Reed to Miss Anna M. Britton, who was born in this township, being a daughter o Ezra and Angeline (Conover) Britton  She completed a course in  the high school at Middletown and is a lady of gracious presence and distinctive refinement, being accomplished in music and painting and through her talents in these lines being able to add much to the attractiveness of her charming home, which is a center of social hospitality and a favored resort for a large circle of friends.  Mr. and Mrs. Reed became the parents of two children, Gladys and Thomas, both of whom died in early childhood.
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 683-686

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 881

MATTHEW RICHARDSON was born in 1758 in  the state of Maryland.  In 1802 he came to Ohio and settled on the farm where he died.  He was one of the first county commissioners of Butler county, and served three terms.  Milford township was organized into a civil township in 1805, and in 1810 he was elected a justice of the peace, and continued to serve the people of that township for about twenty years.  Mr. Richardson was a member of the Ohio legislature two sessions as a representative from Butler county.  He was a man of good sense and of business habits.  The conveyancing and public writing of the township was principally transacted by him for many years.  In all stations to which he was called by his fellow citizens, he served them faithfully and with great honesty of purpose.  His friends were numerous, and he was of that mild, conciliatory disposition that he had few enemies.  He lived beloved and respected and died at his residence in Milford township on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 1838, at the advanced age of eighty years.
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 954

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 935

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 6+

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 958

HON. WILLIAM RITCHIE is a native of Cincinnati, born on the 26th of May, 1839, and is the only son of George Ritchie, a former well-known citizen of the Queen City.  The subject of this sketch remained in his native city, attending the public schools until the age of fourteen, when he came to Hamilton as an apprentice at the machinist's trade.  He made rapid progress along the line of mechanics, and was for many years superintendent of the extensive plant of Owens, Lane, Dyer & Co. (with whom he learned his trade, and continued in that capacity until the firm went out of business in 1879.  After serving two years as chief of the fire department, after this date he became senior partner in the firm of Ritchie & Dyer, and engaged in the manufacture of sawmill outfits, traction engines and small machinery.  This is an extensive manufacturing enterprise which gives employment to forty or fifty mechanics.  It has been operated successfully, and proved a source of profit to the promoters, whose knowledge of the business was acquired in the school of experience.  Mr. Ritchie has accumulated a handsome competence through industry and wise management, and has reached the point on life's journey where he need not be further annoyed by the perplexities of business life.  He is a thorough mechanic, however, and is never better satisfied than when examining and studying the constituent elements of some complicated piece of machinery.  His addresses before the Young Men's Christian Association in Hamilton, touching upon the marvelous expenditure of money and brains in installing the power plants at St. Louis,  are the best evidence of his interest and capability.  But Mr. Ritchie is something more than a mechanic, and loyal, popular and progressive citizen. and progressive citizen.  He is one of the survivors of the great civil strife of the sixties, and has a military record of which any man may feel justly proud.  He was among the first volunteers who responded to the President's call for three-years troops, and enlisted early in 1861 as a member of the Fiftieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  He was subsequently transferred to the Sixty-ninth and served over three years at the front.  He participated in many of the hard-fought battles of the Western army, and went on Sherman's memorable march to the sea.  Soon after the battle of Murfreesboro he was transferred to the engineers' corps of the Cumberland Army, and was there enabled to turn his mechanical knowledge to good account, having charge of the various mechanical appliances of that department.  The uninitiated may draw the conclusion that this position relieved Mr. Ritchie of the exposures of the battle-line.  But not so; the engineers' corps was often the advance guard of an army.  It was one of their duties to lay pontoon bridges across unfordable streams, and this was frequently done, in fact almost always, under a galling fire from the enemy's pickets, skirmishers or scouts.  The examination and strengthening of bridges which happened to be only partly destroyed was another of their perilous duties, and every old soldier knows that the "sappers and miners" (a term equivalent to engineering corps) were not only the most advanced and dangerous positions, but they were often under fire while the main army was sleeping. Their labors were extremely arduous and exhausting to the physical force, hence only strong, able-bodied men, with fearless hearts, were selected.  Their labor consisted mostly in handling heavy pontoon boats, timbers and planks, felling trees for abattis to protect road crossings or bridges, taking up their pontoons and reloading them upon wagons, cars, etc.  And here again they were often exposed, if the troops they served happened to be retreating or abandoning the locality, since the enemy was always anxious to capture this necessary adjunct to military maneuvers.  Every old soldier who was at the front has a well-grounded respect for the brave, fearless and industrious men, whose intelligence and ready action often saved thousands of men from death or the horrors of a prison pen.  Assuredly it was no sinecure to be member of the engineer's corps during the Civil war.  Mr. Ritchie was one of the judges of election in the Cumberland Army, on the re-election of President Lincoln in 1864, and believes that he is the only survivor of that election board. He was in Atlanta at the time the city was burned, and was ordered by General Sherman to return to Chattanooga to conduct a pontoon train to Atlanta.  Returning with the train as far as Big Shanty, he was stopped by pickets, who reported that the Rebel General French was between his train and Big Shanty.  They retired to Moon Station, where they lay until about one o'clock at night, when scouts reported French's advance within half an hour's march of the station.  The train was then backed to Altoona Pass, where there was a fort garrisoned by twelve hundred soldiers while there was a million and a half of rations there awaiting shipment to Sherman's army at Atlanta.  About twenty minutes after his arrival at Altoona he received a dispatch from General Corse, at Rome, Georgia, to unload the train and hasten to Rome for troops.  This was done and the train returned with General Corse and about twelve hundred soldiers to reinforce the garrison at the fort.  They arrived about five o'clock the next morning and immediately after unloading, the pickets were driven in by the advance of French's army.  Here was fought one of the bloodiest little battles of the Civil war.  Out of twenty-six hundred men engaged, twelve hundred fifty were killed and wounded in the fort; but they held possession, thus saving to the government a million and a half of rations, and enabling Sherman to make his memorable march to the sea.   This is one of the "little"things which assisted in crushing the great Rebellion.
     Mr. Ritchie was discharged in January, 1865, at Savannah, Georgia, and returned to Hamilton and the peaceful pursuits of life.  He resumed his former position with the firm of Owens, Lane & Dyer, and thus commenced his future career as previously outlined.  The attainments and achievements of William Ritchie are wholly the result of his own unaided efforts.  Whatever he has accomplished in the business world is chargeable to the sterling qualities of energy, intelligence, economy and personal push.  In American citizenship this combination usually brings success, the degree of which is measurably dependent upon an equal balance of the characteristics included in the "formulae."
     Mr. Ritchie was married, in 1870, to Miss Pattie Nifong, a native of Missouri and a lady of many accomplishments of head and heart.  Chief among these was her congeniality and willing co-operation in making the family home the happiest and most desired place in the world.  The only child born to this union is Oscar N., who was born in 1874.  He is now the secretary and treasurer of the Advance Manufacturing Company, of which hsi father is the president and principal owner.  Oscar N. was educated in the public schools of Hamilton and in the Cincinnati Technical School.  He is a thorough machinist and practical business man.  His home is still under the parental roof.  Mr. Ritchie was appointed in 1892, by President Harrison, as a federal commissioner of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago.  He was chosen as chairman of the committee on machinery, and assisted in planning and installing the marvelous exhibit in Machinery Hall.
     The subject is well advanced in the mysteries of the Masonic fraternity, having attained to the thirty-second degree.  He is also prominently identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the Republic, in each of which organizations he has passed the principal official stations.  He and family are members of the Christian church.
 Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 746

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 957

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 557

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 781

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 698

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 704

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 405

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 560

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 842

Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 880