My Sister Ellen

Mary Ellen Reed Fuseler

My beautiful, brave sister Ellen died yesterday morning.  She valiantly fought health problems for the last five years and most recently a 15 month struggle with cancer. I will tell you more about her as soon as I can.  For now, I just want you all to know.  This is extremely hard.  I miss her more than I ever imagined.  Please keep us in your prayers, especially her husband Henry, her sons Hank and Joey, and my parents, Joe & Mary Duke Reed.

Visitation will be Tuesday, August 11, 6-8pm at Dunbar Funeral Home on Devine St. here in Columbia.  Memorial Service will be Wednesday, August 12, 3pm at St. Joseph Catholic Church also on Devine St. here in Columbia.

Eulogy for William D. "Bill" Reed

Eulogy for William David Reed
Lexington Baptist Church
May 3, 2010
By J. O. Reed, Jr.


Lamentations 3:7
“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning.  Great is Your faithfulness, The Lord is my portion, says my soul, Therefore I hope in Him!”

The saga of William David Reed begins in the mercies of God.  The story commences when a red headed Irish young man met a raven haired young woman on the University of South Carolina campus.  His name: John Osborne Reed.  Hers: Carrie Belle Strickland, a nurse student in the infirmary.  Of this union came six children:  Myself, J. O. Junior; another little lad who didn’t survive and went to Heaven as a babe; then Carolyn, Bob, Florrie, and Bill.

William David … Mama had a way of honoring the attending doctor; hence the David from Dr. David Brocker in Swansea.  A giant of a baby and a giant of a man.  One of his long legs was broken at birth.  Can you imagine an infant in a splint? Those legs and arms and stature grew tall and strong. 

I can’t believe I was trusted to hold him while Mama shopped at Belk for all of us.  Later, I had the chore of helping him with his turn in the Saturday night washtub family bath and earned the rebuke of my Uncle Kense Strickland when I impatiently popped Bill on his naked leg. 

But one vignette I’ll share:  Bill, a youngster then, along with a friend and I accompanied Dad all the way to Lancaster one day on Highway business.  The day was long, hot, and tiresome.  In our fun making, we older boys invited Bill to “shake on it.”  Tired as he was, he offered his right hand palm side up and gave us his look which said, “You rascals!”  So, he’s had to be patient with me a lot of times down life’s path. 

But let me share a sweet note that triggers the parable of his life.  Of all the things I’ve heard his girls say is this:  “Dad found a way to get things done.”  This roots well into a great scripture about the Lord, Isaiah 40:3:  “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth.”  Add to this the poet’s word:  “To every man there openeth A way, and ways, and a way. And the high soul climbs the high way, And the low soul gropes the low: And in between, on the misty flats, The rest drift to and fro. But to every man there openeth A high way and a low, And every man decideth. The way his soul shall go.” [John Oxenham]

Bill was the only one of us who caught the vision of our Dad to be an engineer of highways – the Highway Department.  This noble task:  “The Highway Department” now the “Department of Transportation.” 

The other word of scripture for you:  Jesus in John 14:7 said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the father except through me.”  Bill saw in his Lord the way to go, the truth to know, the life to live.  Not just to work for the South Carolina Highway.  He shared God’s work as a Gideon in hotels, motels, classrooms, nurses’ stations, detention centers, and around the world.  He introduced people behind bars to the giver of true freedom and life.  His neat affirmation when he heard truth was, “Oh yes!” 

So, I choose to celebrate the noble Bill, father of four, devoted husband, and my big baby brother.  And for all the people who get home safely today riding on roads and bridges he helped to build and maintain, I would say to Bill and family:  Thank you.  And from all of his family, I say to him:  Thank you for loving us, even if you have to leave us for a while. 

Now just this word:  as Paul Harvey said, “The Rest of the Story.”  You see it today in the bright eyes, happy smiles, and determined dedication of his family here present and in the eternal ripple effect of every jail visit, Bible shared, Sunday school lesson taught.  YOU are the rest of the story.  Your legacy is to choose the high way of life who is the Lord Jesus Christ, to take seriously the claim of love that Jesus has on your life, to join Bill in hearing Jesus say:  “Well done, good and faithful servant.  Enter the joys of your Lord.”

[This eulogy was given at Bill's funeral by my father, Joe Reed.]

William D. Reed, 1931-2010

William David “Bill” Reed died on Saturday, May 1, 2010. He was born in Swansea, South Carolina, on April 10, 1931, the youngest child of John Osborne Reed and Carrie Belle Strickland Reed.  He was a great-great-great grandson of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed and my dear uncle.

The Reeds moved from Swansea to Lexington in 1933.  Bill graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1959 with a degree in civil engineering. He followed his dad into a lifelong career at the South Carolina Department of Transportation, retiring in 1994. A member of Lexington Baptist Church, he was a Sunday school teacher for over 25 years, a longtime Gideon, chaplain at Lexington County Jail, and Boy Scout leader. 

He is survived by his wife Mary Ella Jordan Reed of Lexington; his daughters, Cynthia Nowak (Jonathan), Margaret Williams (Ron), Mary Allen (Chuck) and Rebekah "Becky" Beck, all of Lexington; his brothers and sisters, Rev. J.O. Reed, Jr. (my father) of West Columbia, Carolyn Grobe of Columbia, Florrie Brown of Lexington and Robert E. Reed, Sr., of Lexington; 10 grandchildren (Heather, James, Adrienne, Caitlin, Ethan, Will, Meghan, Carter, Jordan and Joleen) and three great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 2pm on Tuesday, May 4 at Lexington Baptist Church with interment in Lexington Memorial Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6pm until 8pm on Monday, May 3 at Caughman-Harman Funeral Home in Lexington. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Gideon's International, 5106-B Two Notch Road, Columbia, SC 29204 or Prison Ministries.

The Family of John Osborne Reed Sr. and Carrie Belle Strickland Reed

Back, L to R: Bob, Florrie, Carolyn, Bill

Front, L to R:  Joe, Osborne, Carrie

(Portrait taken about 1945)

 Obituary from The State at Legacy.com.

General Sherman Meets the Reed Family

Roger Ganis is a great-great-great-great-grandson of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed. The fourth of five children born to Woodrow Ganis and Annie Mae (Fogle) Ganis, he was born in 1944 in Horry County, SC. At age six, he moved to Orangeburg and then to Charleston in 1954.

He has been married for 38 years to Mary Florence Riols, to whom he refers as “the love of my life and best friend.” They have two children: a daughter (35) and a son (32). Roger retired from Charleston County in April of 1994 where he worked as a patrol officer, detective, and pilot in the Aviation Division. He started working on his family history when he retired.

Roger’s line to Samuel and Mary: Samuel Reed and Mary Clark; Hugh Reed and Jane McSpeddon; James William Reed and Anna Rebecca Tyler; Michael Joshua Reed and Mary Alice Fanning; Lula Emma Reed and James Sumter Fogle; Annie Mae Fogle and Woodrow Ganis; Roger Ganis.

Recently Roger shared a special story with me. It could be considered a “legend,” but, I agree with our cousin Henry Singer who says, “I believe that most family stories have a lot of truth to them. However, as oral traditions they are subject to forgotten and/or embellished details.”

In this case, consider the fact that the Roger’s primary source was his grandmother Lula Emma Reed (1898-1973), a daughter of Michael Joshua Reed (1851-1924). Michael Joshua was 13 years old when he witnessed these events and actually met General Sherman. That’s a pretty direct route, in my opinion, with less time and telling to forget details and/or embellish.

So, without further ado, here is Roger’s story in his own words. He hopes other members of our Reed family would like it and may be able to confirm or correct it. Many thanks, Roger, for sharing this story with us!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gen. William T. Sherman Meets Anna Rebecca Reed

As told by Roger Ganis

In December 1864, Anna Rebecca Reed received the news that Union Army troops under the command of Major General William Tecumseh Sherman had marched from Tennessee to Savannah, GA, during the summer and fall of 1864.

During January & February 1865, Anna Rebecca was at home on the Reed Plantation with her nine children while her husband, Capt. James William Reed, was off serving with the Confederate Army. The children were: William Hugh, age 19, George Sylvester, 16, Michael Joshua, 13, Henrietta, 11, Adella Ellen, 9, Ann Rebecca, 8, James Alexander, 5, Stanmore Judson, 2, and Mary Salina, 1.

Around the last week of January 1865, she learned that Sherman's troops had left Savannah, GA, and were marching through South Carolina. It was thought he was headed to Charleston, SC. The first week in February 1865 she learned that Sherman's Army had been involved in a battle on February 2 & 3, 1865, at "Rivers Bridge" on the Salkehatchie River, near Ulmer & Ehrhardt, SC. She also learned that most of his army was headed toward Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. The Reed Plantation lay directly in Sherman's path between Rivers Bridge and Columbia.

After hearing of the battle at Rivers Bridge, Anna Rebecca learned that Sherman's Army was near The Reed place. She had her children and what slaves were left take all of the valuables from the plantation house and hide them by burying them in the ground and hiding things around the plantation. She also had most of the food that had been canned or preserved removed and hidden along with the livestock in the swamp area away from the house so Sherman's Army could not find them.

She had the slaves and her children start preparing food and setting up tables out in front of the plantation house. When the army scouts from Sherman's Army arrived at the Reed place, she advised them the food was being prepared for Gen. Sherman and his officers. Some of the scouts returned to Gen. Sherman and told him about the dinner that was being held at the Reed Home for him.

Gen. Sherman returned to the Reed home along with the scouts and found a large dinner had been prepared. Anna Rebecca Reed, on meeting Gen. Sherman, invited him and his officers to eat. Gen. Sherman accepted her offer, left, and returned to his camp to wash up and put on a clean uniform. A short time later, Gen. Sherman returned along with some of his officers and ate the dinner with the Reed family. Anna Rebecca Reed offered Gen. Sherman the use of her cotton fields for his army to camp on. Gen. Sherman and some of his army set up camp in the cotton fields for the night.

The next day before his army continued their march northward, Gen. Sherman gave orders to his army that no one was to take anything or burn anything belonging to the Reed Family. Before leaving, Gen. Sherman went to Anna Rebecca Reed and thanked her for her hospitality.

A few weeks later, Anna Rebecca learned that Columbia, SC, had surrendered to Sherman's Army on February 17, 1865, and the city had been burned.


While Sherman was at the Reed House, a soldier was discovered inside the house on the stairs going up to the bedrooms. One of the Reed daughters was upstairs at the head of stairs, and asked him what he was doing there. He replied that he just wanted to talk with her. Some of her brothers saw what was going on and grabbed him and during a scuffle someone hit the soldier on the head with a shovel. The blow killed the soldier, and they decided to hide his body in a closet under the stairs until the other soldiers left.

The next day, after Gen. Sherman left with his Army, they carried the soldier’s body out back behind the house and buried him in an unmarked grave. No one ever came back to check on a missing soldier. Soldiers were deserting from both the Union and Confederate Armies all the time during this part of the Civil War.

What really happened to the 1890 Census?

How many times have you wished for the 1890 census?  It's genealogy's black hole.  What really happened to it?  Click here for a very interesting article all about it. Enlightening ...

Elizabeth Reed Hudlow, 1916-2009

From Josie Reed*:

The last of the grandchildren of Tully Washington Reed (1856-1910) and Katie Thompson (1860-1929) died at the age of 93 on Saturday, November 7, 2009, in Mt. Airy, Maryland. 

Elizabeth Anita Reed Hudlow was born May 11, 1916, a daughter of Norman McCloud Reed (1886-1955) and Florence Heitzman Reed (1892-1960). She spent her early childhood years in Easton, Pennsylvania, then moved with her family to the Washington, DC, area.  She lived in the Maryland suburbs of DC the rest of her life.

About the same age, she and my father Tully Reed, her first cousin, were always close over the years, and we saw her and Bob almost as often as my aunts and uncles. (Right:  L. Tully Reed, Josie's father, and Elizabeth Reed about 1945)

Liz had a heart of gold. And despite more times of great sadness in her life than most of us could bear, she was (almost) always full of fun. To quote my 2nd cousin Kay Hoyle, her niece, "Heaven will never be the same!"    

Her remains were interred at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland, near her beloved husband Robert Milton Hudlow (1924-2007) and daughter Lois Hudlow (1959-1983).  (Photo:  Elizabeth, Lois, and Bob Hudlow in Boone, NC, in 1974)

One of the things I always wanted to ask her, but never did, was how her parents met. How DID a young man from Barnwell County, South Carolina, wind up with a girl from Pennsylvania?

*Josephine "Josie" Reed is my fifth cousin who lives in Ontario, Canada.   I was very fortunate to meet her online in March 2008.  Since then I've come to count on her excellent research and judgment.  Thank you once again, Josie, for all your help!  

Click here to see Josie's line from Samuel.  (While you're there, think about adding yours.)

Puzzler: Who was Martha/Mary Cook Reed?

 
Introducing Puzzlers

We all have different resources. My public library has info yours might not have.  Some of us have built significant personal libraries.  I use GenealogyBank.com and Footnote.com in addition to Ancestry; maybe you don't. Just this week I found an item in Google Books that made an excellent researcher/cousin say she really needed to start using that resource. 

And we all have our brick walls – those puzzles that continue to baffle us no matter how hard we look. 

I’ve been thinking that maybe the more people who know about our puzzles, the sooner we may be able to solve them.

Would you like to put your puzzler out there for fellow researchers to take a stab at?  Send me a description of your brick wall along with where you've looked to try to knock it down. (samuelreedfamilyATgmailDOTcom)

I'll start with a big one of mine.

WARNING:  TANGENT TRAP!  I began writing this post about 6AM.  The tangents I’ve been on since then have amazed even me!  Oh, I found some great stuff, but it has certainly slowed down the writing.  Just thought I’d warn you. Try to focus and be succinct. 

Who was Martha/Mary Cook Reed?

She was my great-great-grandmother, the wife of James Henry Reed and mother of John William Cook Reed.  I have not been able to learn when or where she died or where she is buried.  I’m not positive about when she was born, and I have no clue as to her parents. 

Click image to enlarge.

The portrait identified in my Granddaddy Reed's handwriting says Martha. But was her name really Martha, or was it Mary?

The 1860 census has Mary A. Read born abt 1840 (newly married per 1900 census). 

In 1870 we see Margaret Read born abt 1845 (with 4 children).

By 1880, it was Mary Reed born abt 1840 (with 5 children).

In 1900, we are told her name was Mary Reed, she was born February, 1844, had been married for 40 years, and had five children who were still living.  (Of course, it has James as being born in March 1835, and we know that’s incorrect, depending on which source is used.  His tombstone has February 18, 1825 while the family bible of his uncle Benjamin Odom Jr. has February 17, 1826.  No March, and no 1835.)  

In 1900, James and “Mary” and their daughter Bessie were living with their daughter Eula and her husband Levi S. Tyler, Jr. in Bamberg.  James Henry died November 14, 1901.  What became of Mary then?  By 1910, Bessie had married (in 1901, two months before her father’s death), and Eula and her family were living in Statesboro, GA.   Mary does not show up on the 1910 census with either of them. 

On the SC death certificate of her son John William Cook Reed (my great-grandfather), her son Harold W. Reed says her name was Mary Cook and that she was born in Aiken County, SC. 

On the SC death certificate of her daughter Bessie Reed Hudson, Bessie’s husband George listed Mary Cook born in Aiken. 

I’m thinking it’s time to go with “Mary” instead of “Martha.”  Sorry, Granddaddy. 

Her husband, James Henry Reed, is buried in the Gardenia Rd. Reed Cemetery along with his mother, a brother, two sisters, two nephews, and a brother-in-law.  One of the sisters is believed to be Martha Reed born May 10, 1844 and died in 1923.  (I remain forever grateful to cousin Sharon Crowley for braving the briars and bushes to find this out and posting them on FindAGrave.)  The 1900 census has my 2gGM born Feb. 1844 and James’s sister Martha born May 1844.  Even though the stone says simply “Martha Reed,” she is buried beside her husband Henry Kemp.  So I don’t believe this is my 2gGM.

If you go looking in Aiken County pre-1860, know that we’ve already discounted Frederick Cook as her father.  He had a daughter Martha about the same age, but she still shows up on his 1870 census. 

What resources or information might you have to help solve this puzzler?