Eric Musgrove
Contributor
Suwannee County has seen many "out-of-towners" make their mark on its history, and the topic of today's article is just one of them.
Robert Alexander Reid was born in Benton, Polk County, Tenn., on July 24, 1843. His parents were James Napoleon Reid and the former Polly B. Thompson. He had five brothers and four sisters, all older than him. Some of Reid's siblings moved to Suwannee County in their later years.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Reid enlisted on July 19 in M. H. Hancock's Company of the Confederate Army. He later served in Captain R. M. O'Neal's Company B of the 29th Tennessee Infantry as a lieutenant. At the Battle of Chickamauga on Sept. 19, 1863, he was shot through the left eye by a Union Minie ball, which exited under his right ear and broke a large portion of his jaw bone. Reid survived the gruesome wound but suffered from health problems for the remainder of his life because of it. In his 1889 Florida pension request, he claimed that "said wound has never got well."
Some of Reid's kinsmen believed that he had been killed, but one eventually discovered the truth. Despite his wound, Reid continued serving the Confederacy until the end of the war. He was listed as a prisoner-of-war who surrendered to Major General Sam Jones on May 10, 1865 and was paroled on June 1, 1865, in Albany, Ga.
After the Civil War, Reid moved to Suwannee County, eventually settling in the Pinemount area south of Live Oak. Reid married Harriette "Hattie" Brannan, the daughter of Robert H. Brannan and the former Mary Boatright, on June 5, 1872. It appears that they had five children, four of whom were still living in 1910. Another source says that there were only two children, but that listing is most probably incomplete.
Reid served as Suwannee County Clerk of Court from 1877 to 1885. In 1885, he was also among a list of businessmen prominent in agriculture or timber in the community of Padlock, south of Live Oak. In the same year, the Florida State Census showed him to be a merchant. Reid was also a State Senator from 1893 to 1894 and again from 1896 to 1897 for District 17 in Suwannee County.
Reid was chairman of the Suwannee County Democratic Party and commander of a Confederate Veterans' camp in 1895 when he wrote a letter to David Lang (former Confederate officer and one-time native of Suwannee County) regarding his concerns about pensions for former Confederate soldiers. Reid suffered from rheumatism (which may or may not have been caused by his war injuries), and he would often visit the resort at Suwannee Springs to relieve his symptoms.
Reid died on Feb. 20, 1897 and was interred in the Macedonia Cemetery in Suwannee County. His wife, Hattie, died on May 12, 1922, and was buried by his side.
Join me next week as we discuss more of Suwannee County's history.
Eric Musgrove can be reached at ericm@suwgov.org or (386) 362-0564.