Posted on: Perry Co. Ar Biographies Board URL: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ar/PerryBios?read=5 Surname: REEDER, ROSS, SMITH, BRADLEY, WESTBROOK ------------------------- The following information was sent to me on James King Reeder and family. This is info taken from the "History of Perry County"....... I found the following in the Max Milam Library, Perryville, in a work entitled "The History of Perry County." It was in a loose bound volume in a 3-ring binder with no cited publisher, date, or author: "James K. Reeder, in connection with agricultural and stock-raising affairs, hereabouts, has resided in Perry County for the past ten years, sufficient time to render him well known. He was born October 20, 1828, in Carroll County, Tenn., and is a son of John K. and Elizabeth (Harris) Reeder, who were the parents of four children: James K. and Thomas R. (twins), Ephraim R. and a sister who died four days after her birth. Ephraim was killed at Richmond during the war, and James and Thomas are the only two living. The father died in 1834, when James was but seven years old, and the mother followed him ten years later. At twenty-one years of age James was engaged by William Harley, a wealthy Mississippian, to oversee his plantation in that State. He remained with him two years and then returned to Tennessee, where he married, February 5, 1850, Miss Ruthie Ross, daughter of Samuel Ross of that State. Four children were born to this marriage, of whom two are still living: Ephraim T. (who resides in Perry County) and Sarah E.(wife of P. Westbrook, living at Beebe, Ark.) Mr. Reeder lost his first wife and was married a second time, the next wife being a charming widow lady by the name of Smith, by whom he had five children all living but one: William M.(residing in Faulkner County), Joseph R. (of Perry County), James E.(Perry County), Judith C. (wife of Martin Moss, residing in FAulkner County), Martha S. (deceased.)" "Mr. Reeder was again saddened by the loss of his second wife, in 1870, but on February 20, 1872, was married to Miss Mary E. Bradley, by whom he has had eight children: Henry A., George A., Columbus F., Newton C., Nathan B., Mary F., Eva A. and Harriet E. During the war Mr. Reeder enlisted in Company I, Fourth Arkansas Infantry, under Gen. McCrea, and took part in the battles at Prairie Grove, Helena and the hot engagement on Cash River. At the engagement of Little Rock he was taken very ill, and thinking that his days were numbered, and preferring to die surrounded by wife and children rather than by the panoply of war, he made his escape and returned home. In two months he recovered and went back to Little Rock, where he was mustered in on December 13, 1863, becoming a member of Company G, Third Arkansas, in which he served until the surrender in 1865. He took part in a great many battles but was never seriously wounded, except on one occasion when he was stationed at Louisburg and was sent to round up a number of horses, one of them kicking him very badly. He first came to Arkansas in 1860, and in 1861 settled with his family in Conway County. After the war he moved to the forks of the Cadron, where he bought 160 acres of land and resided twelve or thirteen years, and then moved to Perry County, where he bought 200 acres of improved land." "Since then he has sold some of the land to his boys and has now only ninety acres, with a comfortable dwelling, stables and a fine orchard. In religion he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church, but in politics he sides with no particular party, preferring to cast his vote for the man he thinks most entitled to the office. He is also a member of the Masonic fratenity and the G. A. R., and no man is more interested than he in the welfare and advancement of his county." >From this we can deduce that James K. moved to Perry County about 1873/4 and that this document was written about 1883/4. I found deed and marriages for this family, but could not identify them as related to my family though I am certain they are. Sarah Johnson, my grandmother, married a Joseph E. Reeder born in Johnson City, Washington Co., TN (location per a son's funeral record), on August 16, 1885, location unknown. Sarah and her family seem to have attended the Baptist and Methodist churches and lived in Houston, Perry Co., AR from sometime after 1880 (when they were still in Huntingdon, Carroll Co., TN). Joseph E. Reeder, grandmother's first husband, was born July 29, 1865 in Johnson City, TN and died December 01, 1892 in AR, location unknown but probably either Malvern or Houston as children born on both sides of the death were born in those locations. All other info I have is from a Johnson family Bible which I copied back in the 1960s and which has since been lost. So far the dates and locations given in the Bible have proven accurate when checked against public records. They had 4 children: Ellis Franklin Reeder, b. 8/18/1888 in Houston, buried in Ft. Smith George Edger Reeder, b. 1/10/1890 location unknown, d. October 11, 1892 in Houston Colonel David Reeder, b. 4/4/1891 in Malvern, buried in Ft. Smith Joseph Edward Reeder, b. 9/7/ 1892 in Houston, buried in Ft. Smith Link: Ancestors of Michelle Denise Moore and James Richard Bardin URL: <http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/b/a/r/Michelle-D-Bardin>