Alfred Reid Biography


	This biography appears on pages 900-901 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	ALFRED REID is a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, where he was 
born on the 16th of January, 1870, being a son of Alexander and Sarah 
Reid, both representatives of staunch and honored Scottish ancestry. 
The father of the subject is a stone contractor by vocation; both he 
and his wife are now residents of Aberdeen, Scotland.  

	They became the parents of ten children, of whom nine are living. 
The subject was reared in his native city, in whose public schools he 
received his preliminary educational discipline, after which he was for 
two years a student in Gordons College, a prominent educational 
institution in Aberdeen. In 1887, at the age of seventeen years, Mr. 
Reid came to America, whither two of his brothers had preceded him, and 
he made his way directly from New York to Sioux Falls, where he was 
employed as a hotel clerk for some time, and thereafter followed 
various vocations until 1890, when he located in Rowena, where he 
engaged in the general merchandise business, conducting the enterprise 
individually until 1899, when he admitted his brothers James R. and 
Alexander to partnership, and they have since continued the business, 
in connection with their other important industrial enterprise. From 
1894 to 1897 Mr. Reid was the local manager of the Minnehaha Granite 
Company, of Chicago, said company operating the quarries at Rowena, and 
he then entered into partnership with his two brothers and acquired the 
quarries, which they have since successfully operated, controlling a 
large and profitable business. The products of the fine quarries 
include granite paving blocks building and dimension stones, broken 
ashier, range rock and crushed granite, and the firm makes a specialty 
of contracting on all kinds of street improvements in their line.  

	Mr. Reid is a staunch adherent of the Republican party and has 
been a most active worker in its cause for a number of years past, 
while he has been a frequent delegate to the county and state 
conventions of the party. He has been incumbent of the office of 
postmaster at Rowena since 1897, served for nine years as treasurer of 
Split Rock township, and was for seven years a valued member of the 
board of education, having at all times given a ready support to all 
measures and enterprises tending to conserve the general welfare and 
progress. Fraternally, he is identified with Sioux Falls Lodge, 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, at Sioux Falls.  

	On the 27th of May, 1896, Mr. Reid was united in marriage to Miss 
Nellie M. Davidson, a daughter of James F. Davidson, a well-known and 
influential citizen of Rowena. She was born in the state of Iowa and 
has been a resident of South Dakota for the past fifteen years. Mr. and 
Mrs. Reid have four children, namely: Emma Ray, Alfred Nelson, 
Alexander Davidson and Nellie May. Mr. Reid is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America at Rowena and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
at Sioux Falls. Mrs. Reid is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church 
and a prominent worker in the same.