Scope and Content Note
The Samuel Chester Reid Family Papers span the years 1807-1963 with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1830 and 1897. The papers consist of biographical material, correspondence, diaries, financial records, genealogies, journals, legal papers, legislative bills, lithographs, maps, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, speeches, writings, and miscellaneous material. The collection is organized into the following series: Diaries and Journal, Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, Miscellany, and Addition.
The Family Correspondence consists of letters to and from members of the Reid, Rowan, and Jennings families.
The General Correspondence deals primarily with a claim filed by Samuel Chester Reid (1783-1861) against Portugal over the scuttling of the privateer General Armstrong in a battle with British warships at Faial, Azores, in 1814. This claim was ruled in favor of Portugal in 1853. The Reid family then sued the United States government for reimbursement. The matter was finally resolved in 1882, largely through the efforts of Reid's son, Samuel Chester Reid (1818-1897). Additional material on the General Armstrong and the family's claim can be found in the Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, and the Addition.
The bulk of the General Correspondence is to and from the younger Reid and his contemporaries. Correspondents include John M. Clayton, Millard Fillmore, Rutherford Birchard Hayes, George Wallace Jones, Amos Kendall (filed under U.S. Treasury Department), Charles W. March, Francis Markoe, Charles O'Conor, Franklin Pierce, Daniel Webster, and Fletcher Webster. There are also photocopies of letters from Aaron Burr to the elder Samuel Chester Reid.
Papers in the Subject File concern John Rowan's residence, Federal Hill, built in Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1795 and chosen in 1852 as the setting for Stephen Foster's composition, "My Old Kentucky Home."
In 1818, Congress adopted Reid's recommendation that the United States flag be designed with thirteen stripes, one for each original state, and one star for every state. Material relating to the adoption of this design can be found in the Subject File.
Also in the Subject File is material concerning the Mississippi Valley and Brazil Steamship Company of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded by the younger Samuel Chester Reid and others in 1874, the company provided river and ocean freight service between St. Louis and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Included in the file are correspondence, affidavits, newspaper clippings, financial records, and a corporate prospectus for investors.
The Speeches and Writings File contains handwritten, typed, and published writings and speeches of various members of the Reid family, particularly Samuel Chester Reid (1818-1897). Included are an unpublished autobiography of John Rowan (1773-1843), a congressman and senator from Kentucky and a grandfather of Josephine Rowan Reid. Other writings include essays on the General Armstrong affair, the Civil War, and the Confederacy. The speeches are mostly Reid's political addresses.
Miscellaneous items of several members of the Reid family comprise the Miscellany series. These include an autograph book of Marie Reid, biographical and genealogical material, Confederate military passes, pamphlets, passports, and printed material.
The Addition contains material that pertains largely to adjudication of the General Armstrong shareholders' claims for federal reimbursement. Included are correspondence, a journal, legal and legislative files, printed matter, and reports that document the efforts of Samuel Chester Reid (1818-1897) to secure a congressional appropriation on behalf of the shareholders and subsequent litigation in federal court. In addition to petitions to Grover Cleveland and James Buchanan concerning the General Armstrong, correspondents include Samuel W. Dabney, J. M. Gorden, G. W. Granniss, E. E. McKay, Rodman M. Price, P. H. Wendover, and members of the Reid family. Also in this series is miscellaneous material pertaining to a company of the Sixth United States Cavalry stationed in Texas, 1866-1868.