Freestone County, Texas Biographies Biography of James Phillips Reed (Feb. 19, 1849- Nov. 16, 1921, buried Oak Hill Cemetery in Goliad, TX.) Source - Historical and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry and the Cattlemen of Texas. By James Cox. 1895. Published by Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co. of St. Louis. JAMES PHILLIPS REED was born in Rusk County, Texas, in 1852, when almost any part of Texas could be regarded as the frontier. He was the son of Alexander H. Reed and Nancy M. Phillips. His father was brought to Texas by the grandfather of our subject, when he was but a mere lad, and grew up and practically spent his whole life in Texas. J. Bailey Reed the grandfather, was what is termed an "old timer," in the State of Texas. He was a veteran of the War of Independence which Texas waged with Mexico, and was wedded to frontier life. The father was married while yet a very young man, and seven children resulted from the union: James P., Thomas M., Anna H., now the wife of James Pettus, a prominent cattleman of Goliad, and George B., are the four living. Thomas and George are both cattlemen and living in Goliad, Texas. The father, like his father before him, was a frontiersman and raised his family in the midst of pioneer life. Young James Reed spent the early period of his life during boyhood in almost every county of Texas, lying between the Trinity and Rio Grande Rivers. His father was a cattleman of more than ordinary prominence in the State, and his operations were carried on on a very extensive scale, consequently his sons acquired a wide experience on the range and learned to love the wild out-of- door life of the plains of Texas. His education was received principally at home from a private tutor, although he attended school for a time at Rockport, Texas. A private tutor was always kept for the children, but notwithstanding such opportunities, our subject was too much interested in running cattle, roping mustangs and hunting wild game to secure an extensive education. He was unusually fond of outdoor sports even for a boy born amid such favorable surroundings, and made a greater effort to excel with the lariat, rifle and six-shooter than he did in his lessons. He has killed several panthers in one day. His father being killed in 1871 by a Mexican bandit, and James being the eldest son, the management of the cattle business devolved upon him. There was a large estate left the family, but before it was settled up the attorneys' fees and other expenses just about ate up the whole property. When Mr. Reed first began to manage the business himself, he secured a nice little start, but the industry of cattle stealing was at its height, and he had a world of trouble to keep his stock from vanishing away. His father left a stock of cattle at the time of his death of between 12,000 and 18,000 head, and from managing these, James Reed acquired a wide insight into the cattle industry. He has ranched, fed and dealt in cattle all of his life, and has owned all the way from 700 to 12,000 head at a time, and has taken part in some very large deals in that part of the State. He has very naturally seen a great many ups and downs on account of the large scale on which he has operated. In the early times he has seen his father purchase cattle for a dollar a head, and even less than that on occasions. He has known just as good cattle to sell at a dollar a head, as have brought twenty- five dollars a head a few years later. It was this wide variation in price that made the business so uncertain during the earlier years of its development. Mr. Reed relates that during the reign of the old Maverick law, a man could secure and place his brand on as high as seventy-five head of unbranded cattle in a day. When the family moved to the extreme western frontier in the Rio Frio country in McMullen County, the range was covered with old cows and bulls, fifteen to seventeen years of age, without an owner or brand of any kind upon them. Wild horses were also too numerous to count. He has seen as many as 1,000 wild mustangs in a single bunch. It was here that he became proficient in roping wild horses, and all kinds of wild and unbranded stock. There were no fences at all in McMullen County when the family moved there, and land was of no value. Wild horses and cattle roamed at will, and many of them strayed away from their owners and became wild and were the property of any who could catch and brand them. There was not a single house west of the Reed ranch for one hundred miles, and young Reed states that he never saw a sheriff or an officer of the law in that country until after the war. While cattle were considered the property of any man who could place the first brand upon them, a sacred regard existed for all other possessors. Cattle dealers frequently came into camp with sufficient money to purchase a large number of cattle and threw it down upon the ground around the camp, where there were Mexicans, negroes and all descriptions of cattlemen, and allow it to remain there unguarded until it was needed in their business transactions, and not a cent of it was ever touched, although it would probably lay around for several weeks at a time. They lived in Freestone County, and from Freestone County they moved to Bee County in 1858 to 1860, and from Bee to McMullen; lived in McMullen County from 1860 to 1867, and then moved to Rockport and lived there until 1877. Mr. Reed came to Goliad County in 1877, where he resides now, and is the owner of about 9,000 acres of land, and has at the present time about 500 head of cattle, and between 500 and 600 head of horses and mules. The marriage of Mr. Reed to Miss Ella Davis, a daughter of H. G. Davis, of Kentucky, was celebrated in December, 1874. Mrs. Reed after bearing him two children, T. N. and J. E., died in 1878. Both of these sons are now grown men, and the father married again in December, 1880, this time taking for his wife Miss Ida York, daughter of Captain J. A. York. Six children resulted from this marriage, two of whom are dead. The living are: Willie, Alex., Alma and George.