R. M. J. Reed

Who was this R. M. J. Reed? He was the son of James and Mary Robinson Reed, born on February 3, 1844.^[1] His father was a farm laborer who moved from farm to farm in the western section of Chester County, Pennsylvania. The 1850 federal census located the family in West Fallowfield Township^[2] and by 1860 they were in Cochranville in Londonderry Township.^[3]

In 1863 Reed registered for the Civil War draft, recorded as a 20-year-old farmer. On July 19, 1864 he enlisted in the 192^nd Pennsylvania Infantry for 100 days service. Corporal Reed was stationed with Company P in Gallipolis, Ohio guarding a supply depot used by Union troops in West Virginia and Tennessee area. He mustered out on November 11, 1864, with his company.^[4]

After the war, Reed worked on a farm with his father in Highland Township. Reed is identified in the 1866 tax list for Highland Township, Chester County, PA as a laborer, with a fine horse valued at $75. In this listing his full name is given Richard M. J. Reed.^[5] His status is that of an inmate/single freeman.

Also that year he married Annie J. Young, daughter of deaf tailor Robert P. Young and Sarah P. Bradway. Desiring to get out of farming, Reed made the move to the county seat of West Chester to become a photographer. The sale of his valuable horse may have given him some working capital.

An entry for Reed was found in the West Chester, PA tax list for 1867, where he is recorded not as a photographer, but as a “gentleman” with a tax status of a tenant/single freeman^[6]. It is likely that his studio was only in business during that year.

R. M. J. Reed had only a very brief career as a cartes-de-visite photographer in West Chester, PA. He is represented by only one example of a carte-de-visite in Chester County History Center’s photo archives^[7]. The vignette portrait of an unidentified man bears the negative #270. According to the imprint information, he advertised himself as a “Photograph Artist” at No. 7 West Gay Street, over Worrall’s bookstore. This location was used by a rapid succession of photographers in the 1860s.

Photographers Batten & Finney occupied the studio at 7 West Gay Street before Reed in the spring and summer of 1866. It is not known if Reed purchased & learned the business from them.

His photographic career finished, the 1870 federal census recorded Reed as a policeman in the Borough. His family with Annie had grown to two sons, Robert, age three and Theodore five months old.^[8]

By the 1880 census, the family had moved to Philadelphia where Reed found employment as a park guard.^[9] A third son, Benjamin Franklin Reed (1874-1898) had joined the family.

The Reed family was not without turbulence. Annie and Richard were divorced in Philadelphia, and Richard married a woman twenty years younger than himself, Florence Daland in 1893.^[10] The couple had two sons together, Richard Warren (1894-1981) and Alden Reed (1900-1966). His ex-wife, Annie returned to Chester County, living with a cousin and her father in Newlin Township where she worked as a dressmaker.^[11]

By the time the 1900 census was taken, Reed was now a dealer in uniforms and military regalia in Philadelphia.^[12]

Richard M. J. Reed died at age 78 on June 10, 1922 in Philadelphia of acute indigestion, and was buried in the Mount Peace Cemetery in that city.^[13] His obituary published in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that Reed had served as a major in the Third Regiment of Philadelphia. He also engaged in the politics of the 28^th Ward. He was a member of the G.A.R., Sons of Veterans, P.O.S. of A. and the Knights Hospitallers.^[14]

©Pamela C. Powell, 2023.