Lieut. D. M. Reid (biography)

[genealogynut]

Taken from History of the State of Kansas, by William G. Cutler

LIEUT. D. M. REID, Postmaster, was born in New York City in 1816.  In 1859, he located at Macomb, McDonough Co., Ill.  He enlisted in 1861, in the sixty-fourth Volunteer Infantry Sharpshooters, serving until the close of the war, coming in as a private, and was discharged with a First Lieutenant commission, also served as Assistant Commissary of Subsistence and Post Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer at Ottawa, Ill., and Glendale, Miss., had contracts for furnishing beef, etc.; held other important positions while there.  After coming out of the army, he engaged in farming near Macomb until 1877, when he emigrated to Kansas, located in Canola, Howard County, and took charge of a drug store, was appointed Assistant Postmaster soon after, and Postmaster in 1879; he became a member of the Grenola Town Company, of which he was a prime mover, assisted by Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Guy, and June 7, 1879, organized the company with 100 shares.  At the first meeting, the following officers were elected; Thomas Hawkins, President; W. H. Guy, Treasurer; D. M. Reid, Secretary; Directors, R. C. Musgrave, William Dory, R. A. Bowden, J. R. Fletcher.  Mr. Reid has been Secretary constantly since, and has done the greater part of the business. Maj. O.B. Gunn, of Kansas City, has been an active member of the Company, and is now owner of a majority of all the stock of the company. Mr. Reid moved to the present town site of Grenola, and succeeded in locating the post office here and received a commission as Postmaster.  The town site of 160 acres on Section 17, Town 31, Range 9, was laid out into 30 blocks and in July 1881, 16 more blocks were added.  Mr. Reid has disposed of about three-fourths of the lots for the company.  The members of the company are all thorough business men, the most of them having invested largely in building and business enterprises in the place.  The present officers are M. R. Reeves, President; R. A. Bowden, Treasurer; D. M. Reid, Secretary and selling agent; Directors, O. B. Gunn, R. A. Bowden, Thomas Hawkins, M. R. Reeves, William Dory and D. M. Reid.  Besides the business of the post office, which is one of the largest distributing offices in Southern Kansas, and the business of the Town Company, Mr. Reid is serving as Township Clerk of Greenfield Township, and Town Treasurer of Grenola, serving the second term in eash.  Mr. Reid is a courteous gentleman and a thorough business man, and Grenola owes a great deal to his enterprise in being the best business point in Elk County.