Tuesday, March 8, 2011

J. Monroe Reid

Colonel Reid was a son of Hugh T. Reid, who was one of the leading Lee County attorneys in his day and won distinction as a soldier in the Civil war. J. Monroe Reid studied law and for many years had an office at 24 North Fifth Street, Keokuk. In 1877 he wrote his "Sketches and Anecdotes of Old Settlers, Newcomers, the Mormon Bandits and the Danite Band." Among the old settlers mentioned in his work were Dr. Samuel Muir, Capt. J. B. Browne, C. F. Davis, Isaac R. Campbell, Chief Keokuk, Edwin Guthrie and George C. Anderson, Keokuk's first banker.

Colonel Reid's literary style is probably more forcible than elegant, but in his book are preserved many incidents connected with the early life of Lee County. He came to Keokuk from Indiana, enlisted as a private in Company A, Second Iowa Infantry, and four years later was mustered out as captain and brevet lieutenant-colonel of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry.

SOURCE: Nelson C. Roberts & S. W. Moorhead, editors, Story of Lee County, Iowa, Vol. 1, p. 285

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