Alexander William (Will) REID

1869 - 1941  (71 years)

• Name	Alexander William (Will) REID
  Born	27 Nov 1869	Chico, Butte, California   [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
  Gender	Male
  Died	4 Sep 1941	San Francisco, San Francisco, California   [1]
  	Died in St. Mary’s Hospital.
  Cremated	6 Sep 1941	Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Colma, San Mateo, California
  	Plot: Garden / Section: E Row/Tier: TIER 6
  Health	Died of cancer which started in the cheek and spread to the throat.
  History	Obituary - From the obituary, transcribed from photo copy: Alexander William Reid, husband of Alice E. Reid. Father of Cecil A. and David W. Reid. A member of Ingleside Lodge No. 630, F. & A.M. and Mutual Business Club of San Francisco. Services at Martin & Brown's. San Francisco Examiner, Saturday, September 6, 1941, page 11.
  Occupation	Drayer
  Notes	Alexander William Reid was born in Chico on the dairy, the oldest of the brothers. He drove a team for the American Express Co. in Chico after he had spent some time delivering milk for the dairy. In 1895, he went to San Francisco to work for the San Francisco Railroad, and not long after that went into drayage business for himself. He remained in drayage business until his death. Generally he was involved in hauling heavy stuff like machinery. In the early days he had low bed wagons and later, low bed trucks. He preferred to do this instead of competing head on with many other firms. His office and garage for many years was between Fourth and Fifth Streets on Minna where the Fifth Street parking garage is now. The redeveopment agency took over and the business moved to Clara Street. His two boys, Cecil A. and David William ran the business while Will spent most of his time visiting and working with his customers. During the 1930's, when I was at Berkeley, and later, when I was working, I used to visit him often. He would usually say, "I have to go over to such and such an address (often several places), want to go with me?" We used to tour much of downtown San Francisco rarely going by streets, but rather through buildings, basements, alleys, etc. He knew every location in downtown by street address. Will was very warm, friendly, and most kind. He did a good deal for the brothers and sisters - partly, but not entirely because he was the best well off. Although his business wasn't super, it still was a substantial one. At one point as I remember, he was operating about 35 trucks. He married Catherine Wertsbaugher on 23 Jan 1897, she died on 28 Oct 1931. Mother was never very warm towards Kate - Kate was a city girl who had everything nice and was socially inclined. My father was actually living with Will and Kate during the big 1906 earthquake. On 14 Dec 1932, Will married the nurse who had taken care of Kate, Alice Axford. She seemed fairly nice at first, but she turned into an old "bitch". She never had a pleasant word to say to Will, or anyone else, but Will seemed to ignore it and maintained his happy countenance. Will was always doing something for his brothers, and one day in the mail, Dad got two shares of a shale oil company stock. On my next visit, I asked him about it. Well, it seems that someone had gotten him interested in an outfit in Alameda that claimed they had a novel way to refine oil shale. Will had a dentist friend who was usually getting involved in get-rich-quick schemes, and he and Will got together on this thing. They had gone over to the lab of these people in Alameda and were shown the oil shale and its preparation for retorting and the charging of the retort. Then on the other side, they were shown the clear, pure oil from the retorting. They were not shown the actual retorting since that was the secret of the invention. Will went for this and just to be big, bought two shares for each of the brothers and sisters, and a dozen or twenty shares for George. He felt this was adequate to make George self-reliant for the rest of his days. I told Will I wished he had asked me about it, for no matter how good the process was, even if it did work, it couldn't possibly compete with just pumping crude oil out of the ground. It was probably a month later when the headline in the Oakland Tribune screamed the story of swindlers in Alameda who had sold a lot of stock to gullible buyers and it was entirely worthless. He developed cancer that resulted in a swelling just below the eye, and it got progressively worse. He travelled over the West to healers he had heard of with the hope they could do something for him. The last six months or so were really pitiful. His eye was sort of popped out on top of the swelling. I was in the Army, just leaving for the Aleutians when he died. His sons ran the business for a number of years, and they too passed away in the 70's, and David William's son, William David Reid, ran the business for about a year and then sold it (about 1975). William David now owns the Globe Wally Lift Co. at #1 Townsend Street, San Francisco. Cecil died of cancer of the throat after a long siege, and I don't know about David William. Of all the uncles, I knew Will best, and he was my favorite. Mom liked Will a lot, but wasn't very warm towards his wives. [8]
  Person ID	I24	Reid Family | David's side of the family
  Last Modified	19 Mar 2017

  
  

  Father	David William REID,   b. 28 Dec 1832, Murray Harbour North, Lot 63, Kings, P.E.I., Canada ,   d. 11 Jun 1911, Reid Farmhouse, Oasis, Monterey, California  (Age 78 years)
  Mother	Lamira Lovina LILLIE,   b. 8 Aug 1847, Edwards, St. Lawrence, New York ,   d. 25 Sep 1914, Reid Farmhouse, Oasis, Monterey, California  (Age 67 years)
  Married	22 Jun 1865	Idaho City, Idaho Territory
  Photos		Reid, David W.-1832 Family & Home(~1890) This picture was taken in 1890 and is the Reid Family home in Chico on Dayton Road, just below the railroad tracks.. They left the Bidwell dairy in ~1878 for a year and lived in this house, then returned to the Bidwell dairy. In 1887 they again left the dairy and lived in this house until ~1890 when they moved to Monterey County (San Lucas and Oasis).
  		Reid, David W.-1832 Family (~1890) Back Row: David Edwin-1876, Alexander William-1869, Bertram McClure-1880, Alice Lovina-1868, David William Reid-1832, Mary Ann Lillie-1851 (Lamira’s younger sister), Barbara Ann-1867. Front Row: George Lillie Reid-1885, Lamira Lovina Lillie Reid-1847 (sitting in chair), Warren Irving-1883, Charles Cameron-1888 (Charles died in 1892 and this is the only known picture of him).
  Headstones		Reid Monument KC Cemetery
  Family ID	F15	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Catherine C. (Kate) WERTSBAUGHER,   b. 27 Nov 1877, Chico, Butte, California ,   d. 28 Sep 1931, San Francisco, San Francisco, California  (Age 53 years)
  Married	23 Jan 1897	San Francisco, San Francisco, California
  Children	+ 1. Cecil Alexander REID,   b. 28 Feb 1905, California ,   d. 30 Jul 1965, Alameda Co., California  (Age 60 years) + 2. David William REID,   b. 25 Apr 1909, San Francisco, San Francisco, California ,   d. 29 Nov 1973, San Mateo, San Mateo, California  (Age 64 years)
  Family ID	F18	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Alice Elizabeth BENNER,   b. 8 Dec 1879, Weaverville, Trinity, California ,   d. 6 Dec 1949, San Francisco Co., California  (Age 69 years)
  Married	14 Dec 1932
  Photos		Reid, Warren I.-1883 & Extended Family (~1936) Back Row: Maurice Allen Reid-1913, Alexander William Reid-1869, George Lillie Reid-1885, Warren Irving Reid-1883 Front Row: Alice Elizabeth Benner-1879 (second wife of Alexander), Joyce Elaine Reid-1923, Bertha Violet Ramage-1884 (wife of Warren) Taken about 1936.
  Family ID	F397	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Born - 27 Nov 1869 - Chico, Butte, California Married - 23 Jan 1897 - San Francisco, San Francisco, California Died - 4 Sep 1941 - San Francisco, San Francisco, California Cremated - 6 Sep 1941 - Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Colma, San Mateo, California  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Reid, Alexander William-1869 (~1897) Taken around 1897.
  		Reid, Alexander William-1869 (~1925) Taken around 1925.
  		Reid, Alexander William-1869 (1936) Taken about 1936.

  
  

  Documents

  Reid, David-1832 1906 letter to son Alex Courtesy of Connor Jeffrey Reid-1997.

  
  

• Sources

  [S198] California Death Index (CDI), San Francisco County, California. [S235] United States Federal Census, Chico, Butte, California; Enumeration District #1, Pg. 67. [S237] United States Federal Census, San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Enumeration District 92, Pg. 3A. [S238] United States Federal Census, San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Enumeration District 134, Pg. 6A. [S239] United States Federal Census, San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Enumeration District 312, Pg. 7A. [S240] United States Federal Census, San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Enumeration District 105, Pg. 10B. [S241] United States Federal Census, San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Enumeration District 38-334, Pg. 61A. [S13] REIDS, ROGERS, and EUGENE B. REID, by Eugene Bernhard Reid (1914 - 2012), (Self-Published).