Bio: John Reeder, Claiborne Parish, LA
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville, 1890
Submitted for the LAGenWeb Archives by: Gwen Moran-Hernandez, Jan. 2000


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John Reeder, a well-to-do planter of Claiborne Parish, La., was born in 
Christian County, Ky., October 27, 1818, and is a son of William Reeder, a 
South Carolinian, who was reared in that State, and was there married to Miss 
Sarah Evans, a native of South Carolina also.  They were pioneers of Kentucky, 
to which State they moved in 1816, and he was the second man to take a wagon 
across the Tennessee River, locating in Christian County.  He afterward went 
back across that river into Calloway County, and there remained to his death 
in 1845, having been a farmer and blacksmith throughout his life.  His widow 
survived him until 1876, when she, too, passed away.  Of a family of sixteen 
children born to them-three daughters and thirteen sons-four sons are all that 
survive: Martin (of Kentucky), John, Jacob (of Texas), and Elbert (of Missouri.  
In the State of Kentucky John Reeder was reared to manhood, and there he was 
married to Miss Frances Short, also of that State, and there he spent the first 
ten years of his married life.  In 1851 he moved with his family to Louisiana 
and settled in Claiborne Parish, where he now resides, having always lived on 
the farm which he now occupies, which he has made himself, converting it from a 
wilderness into a valuable plantation.  He has over 533 acres in one body, but 
at one time was the owner of over 1,000 acres, but gave some to his sons and 
sold some.  He now has about 200 acres under cultivation, well adapted to raising 
all the products of the South.  In 1864 he enlisted in McNeal's regiment and served 
until the close of the war, then returning home.  He lost his first wife July 21, 
1865, she leaving him with a family of eight children to care for.  He was married 
December 13, 1870, to Miss Martha Hunt, a native of Missouri, reared and educated 
in Greene County, a daughter of Elijah Hunt.  Five children blessed this union.  
He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church and are well known and highly 
honored throughout this section of the country for their many amiable qualities.  
The names of Mr. Reeder's children by his first wife are: William (who died in 
New Orleans, October 23, 1861, while serving in the Confederate Army), Martha 
(wife of T. M. Bolin, of this parish), Amos (in Arkansas), Elizabeth (wife of 
E. D. Waters), George, John (both married and living near their father's home), 
Jane (wife of William Bean), Emma (wife of John McElroy) and Luella (wife of 
Sidney Mixon).  The children of his last union are: Minnie A. (wife of Jeff Rowe), 
Sallie, James Marion, Elva E. And Effie.  He has thirty-five grandchildren.  
Although he received no advantages in his youth, he took up a course of study 
after his marriage and has had a fair business education, and is a well-informed 
man on the general topics of the day.

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