JAMES A. REEDER, M.D., Biography / Clare, Clare County, Michigan 
 
Submitted for use by USGENWEB Clare County, Michigan February 
2003                    Janet Wilkinson Schwartz [wilkinschw@aol.com] 
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Biographical History of Northern Michigan.  B.F. Bowen & Company, 1905. 
 
JAMES A. REEDER, M.D. 
 
Dr. REEDER ranks among the leading representatives of the medical profession 
in Clare county, for earnest, persistent labor and close application have been so 
co-ordinated with distinctive technical ability as to gain him marked prestige in his 
chose calling, his residence being in the attractive and thriving little city of Clare, 
where his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. 
 
Dr. REEDER is a native of the dominion of Canada, having been born in 
Ridgetown, province of Ontario, on the 3d of February, 1863, and being a son of 
JOHN H. and HANNAH (SCARLETT) REEDER, the former of whom was born in 
England and the latter in Ontario, Canada, the ancestry on each side being of 
stanch old English stock.  The mother died in August, 1868.  The father devoted 
the major portion of his active business life to agricultural pursuits and is a man 
of prominence and influence in his community.  The subject of this review 
received his early educational training in the public schools of his native place, 
where he also attended a well conducted collegiate institute, in which he pursued 
the higher branches of learning.  As a young man Mr. REEDER put his 
educational acquirements to practical test and use by engaging in teaching and 
he continued successfully to follow the pedagogic profession for several years, 
within which time he was principal of the public schools at Blenheim, Ontario, for 
five years.  Later he was a member of the faculty of Morgan Park Military 
Academy, in Chicago, Illinois, where he filled the chair of sciences.  His early 
work as a teacher was done in county Kent, Ontario.  The Doctor began the 
study of medicine in 1894 and finally matriculated in the Detroit College of 
Medicine, in the city of Detroit, Michigan, in which well equipped institution he 
completed the prescribed course, being graduated as a member of the class of 
1898 and receiving his well earned degree of Doctor of Medicine.  He initiated 
the active work of his profession by locating in Coleman, Midland county, this 
state, where he was engaged in practice for one year, at the expiration of which 
he came to Clare, which has ever since been the center of his able and 
successful professional endeavors.  He has been unflagging in his devotion to 
his profession, has built up a large and representative practice and is recognized 
as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of this section of the state.  He is 
a valued member of the Clare County Medical Society, of which he is secretary 
at the time of this writing, and is also identified with the Michigan State Medical 
Society.  In his political adherency the Doctor is stanchly arrayed as a supporter 
of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and fraternally he is 
affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, in which he has attained to the 
thirty-second degree, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of 
Pythias, while both he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church 
of Clare. 
 
In his home city of Clare, on the 22d of May, 1900, was solemnized the marriage 
of Dr. REEDER to Miss MILLIE HOLBROOK, who likewise was born in the 
province of Ontario, Canada, her parents at the time having been residents of the 
city of Ottawa.  Dr. and Mrs. REEDER have one child, VERNELL.  They are 
popular in the best social circles of the community and their pleasant home is 
one in which a refined hospitality is ever in evidence.