Sylvester Perry Reeder (1855-1933) - 52 Ancestors

Hello and welcome to week three of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. This week's prompt is "Out of Place" and could refer to anyone or anything that you find in your research who is out of place. As I started to think about this topic, the Reeder family was the first one that popped into my head but I had already written about two of them. 

Corydon Bloomfield Reeder, my wife's 3rd great-grandfather, left his home in Ohio and got married in Indiana in 1850. His wife died and then he moved to Iowa and was married again in 1852. After that wife's death he moved to Oregon and married a third wife in 1875. That marriage ended in divorce and he moved to Washington. He worked in a lumber camp and the last place we find him is in Wyoming in the 1880 census. His constant movement proved to make him a difficult subject to research.

His grandson, Glenn Reeder, my wife's great-granduncle, was also somewhat "out of place" due to his military service. Glenn was born in Oregon in 1890. His mother, Ella Millicent Faul, was born in Connecticut but had migrated to Oregon in her childhood. While his father, Sylvester Perry Reeder (son of Corydon Reeder) was born in Oregon. Glenn enlisted in the military in 1911 and became part of the US Marine Corps, Company A, 37th Company, Marine Detachment, American Legation Guard. Between 1911 and 1915, when he was discharged, he was stationed in Manilla, Philippines and Peking, China. After he was discharged, he returned to Oregon where he lived a bachelor's life until his death in 1965.

Sylvester Perry Reeder

For this week's topic, I decided to write about the middle generation, Sylvester Perry Reeder (1855-1933). Sylvester was somewhat like his father Corydon in that he moved around the country.

He was born on 19 April 1955 in Rossburg, Douglas County, Oregon. He had four brothers, Leonidas, Micajah, Andrew, and Gamalion, and one sister, Priscilla. His parents were Corydon and Mary Jane Reeder. Corydon and Mary Jane were both Reeders and may have been distant cousins since they both had roots in Montgomery County, Ohio. 

By the 1860 US Census, Sylvester's family had moved to Lower Umatilla Precinct, Wasco County, Oregon, over 300 miles away from Rossburg. In the 1870 US Census he is living in Pendelton, Umatilla County, Oregon and in the 1880 US Census he is living in Philomath, Benton County, Oregon. For a while, Sylvester worked in the lumber industry like his father but then he married Ella Milicent Faul in 1885 and became a farmer for a few years. He and Ella had five children (Chester, Leslie, Glenn, Mabel, and Ethel) born in the area between Forest Grove and Greenville in Washington County, Oregon.

Sylvester & Ella Reeder

Sylvester's wife, Ella, did in 1901, leaving him to care for the children ages 4 to 14. And again, Sylvester went on the move. In 1910 he is living with his two daughters (ages 14 and 16) in West Bertha, Multnomah County, Oregon. He is listed as retired and his oldest daughter, Mabel, is working in the overall factory.

In the 1920 US Census, Sylvester moved across the country, nearly 3,000 miles, and lived in Waldo, Alachua County, Florida where, at the age of 64, he is a truck farmer. If you haven't heard that term before, a truck farmer is basically a farmer who transports and sells his goods at market. 

In the 1930 US Census, Sylvester (age 75), is living at the home of Frank Vickery Coker in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida. Frank Coker had married Sylvester's daughter, Mabel and they had three children (Beatrice [my wife's grandmother], Dorothy, and Frank Jr.). Sylvester lived with the family for his last years and died 29 June 1933 at the age of 78.

As you can see, Sylvester was a difficult one to track down due to all of his moves. We like to joke that the Reeder family migrated from Ohio to Florida in their retirement. But unlike most snowbirds, they did it by way of Oregon.