William E. Reeder Biography


	This biography appears on pages 492-493 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				WILLIAM E. REEDER. 

	William E. Reeder is one of the partners in the Hot Springs 
Transfer, Feed & Fuel Company. He was born at Lacon, Illinois, July 27, 
1858, a son of D. W. and Nancy Catherine (Taylor) Reeder, natives of 
Pennsylvania and Kentucky respectively In early life D. W. Reeder 
engaged in railroad engineering and afterward was employed in a 
distillery at Lacon, Illinois. He subsequently removed to Oberlin, 
Kansas, and there engaged in farming, continuing in that state from 
1880 until 1894, when he went to Hot Springs, visiting his son, William 
E. Reeder. His death there occurred in that year. He had for a decade 
survived his wife, who died in Oberlin, Kansas, about 1884. He was 
never a politician in the usually accepted sense of the term, yet he 
served as mayor of Lacon, Illinois, for a number of years. 

	In a family of seven children William E. Reeder was the second in 
order of birth. The eldest son, Charles, died and was buried at San 
Rafael, New Mexico, in 1880. Two of the children died in infancy. 
Frank, who was called to represent Decatur county, Kansas, in the state 
legislature when a young man of but twenty-three years, and was 
chairman of the committee appointed to locate the state insane asylum, 
resided in Hot Springs for about ten years and afterward removed to 
Twin Falls, Idaho, where he is now practically living retired. 
Elizabeth is the wife of W. A. James, chief engineer of the Canadian 
Pacific Railroad at Winnipeg. Neatta is the wife of W. A. Chapin, who 
is engaged in the lumber business in Washington, Kansas. The Reeder 
family comes of an ancestry honorable and distinguished. Many 
representatives of the name have been popular and prominent and have 
left their impress upon the history of the communities in which they 
have resided. The first governor of Pennsylvania and the first governor 
of Kansas were members of this family. 

	William E. Reeder attended the schools of Lacon, Illinois, and 
when not yet fifteen years of age was employed as a fireman on the 
Chicago & Alton Railroad between Lacon and Streator, Illinois. He 
continued in the business for a short time and was later employed as a 
drug clerk at Lacon. He became a registered pharmacist both in Illinois 
and Kansas and continued in the drug business at Lacon as a clerk until 
he went to Kansas, where he engaged in business on his own account at 
Nickerson for a short time. He then went to New Mexico, where he spent 
some time in traveling, and later returned northward to Boulder, 
Colorado, where he engaged in contract work for a year. At the end of 
that time he located at Kalispell, Montana, which was then a frontier 
town. No railroad entered the place at that time and the work of 
development and improvement seemed scarcely begun in that section of 
the county. He engaged in contract work and also conducted a drug 
store, residing there for more than a year. When the railroad was built 
into the Black Hills in the year 1892 he became timekeeper for the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. When an extension was made into Spearfish 
about ten months later he settled at Hot Springs and established the 
Hot Springs Transfer Feed & Fuel Company, conducting a general transfer 
business and buying and selling all kinds of feed and fuel. His trade 
has now reached extensive proportions and from the beginning the 
business has been a growing and profitable one. Mr. Reeder also owns 
valuable business property in Hot Springs. In connection with A. W. 
Riordan he owns the post office block and he also has other business 
properties in the town. He devotes his entire time to his business and 
his investments, and his capable management has brought to him a most 
gratifying measure of success. 

	In 1888 Mr. Reeder was united in marriage to Miss Maggie Beal, a 
native of Canada. Her parents became residents of Oberlin, Kansas, in 
1880 and there remained until 1894, when they removed to Oregon, 
establishing a new home. Both died in the early part of 1914. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Reeder have been born two children. Catherine, who is now a 
student in Pratt Institute in New York city, graduated from the 
Nebraska University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and for two 
years was principal of a school in Nebraska and for one year in South 
Dakota. Her first year of teaching was spent at Arlington, Nebraska. 
She is now preparing for a professional career as a designer. Alma, a 
high-school graduate, afterward entered the Nebraska State University 
and is pursuing the last year's work of her course. 

	Mr. Reeder is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His political allegiance is given the 
republican party and he has filled some local offices, to which he has 
been called by his fellow townsmen, who recognize his interest in the 
public welfare and his fidelity to duty. He has for two terms been a 
member of the city council of Hot Springs and he also served on the 
board of education for two terms.