Two RS Joseph Reids
Separating
Two Same-Named
South Carolina Revolutionary War Soldiers
Compiled June 2011 by Linda Sparks Starr
Two Joseph Reid/Reeds served in the
South Carolina militia during the Revolutionary War; but, they were
combined into one individual when the Revolutionary-era papers were
organized at the Archives. This has resulted in widely circulated
erroneous statements about both men. Joseph Reid who married
Isabella Baskin[s] was not the Joseph Reed who was wounded at Kings
Mountain. That Joseph married Elizabeth Fiel[d]s. Cited entries
herein clearly distinguish the two men. In an effort to assist the
reader, I’ve
color-coded entries relating to the “wounded
Joseph” in blue and entries relating to Joseph Reid, Esquire
in red.
Italicized comments following entries, always beginning with initials
LSS, should be considered as my own personal opinion, or facts gathered
from other than the cited source. Linda Sparks Starr.
c1750 birth Joseph Reed
[Graves: Joseph Reed W1484 Elizabeth] LSS: The one wounded at Kings
Mountain. He had a brother John.
1756 June 5 birth Joseph Reid
[Starr: National Archives: Widows File #9249 citing Family
record on a blank leaf in first volume of Witherspoon’s
Works] LSS: Son George
Reid; birth in Rowan County, North Carolina although some researchers
say Augusta Co. Virginia.
c1759 birth Elizabeth Fiel[d]s
[Graves, Joseph Reed W1484 Elizabeth]
1760 October 15 birth Isabella
[Baskin] [Starr: National Archives: Widows File #9249
transcribed by LSS citing Family recorded on a blank leaf in
first volume of Witherspoon’s Works] LSS: birth in Augusta County, Virginia,
daughter of Thomas Baskin and Margaret Hartgrove.
1775 January 1 prior to this date Joseph Reed
resident of Ninety-Six District (in area that became Edgefield
County/District 1795) [SC Archives: Comptroller General Accounts
Audited AA#6326 frames 413 to 434: Roll #123 Joseph
Reed] LSS: Joseph
Reid was living with his
father at Reid’s Mills on Long Cane Creek; this was also in 96th
District, but in the area that became Abbeville District in 1795.
1775 November 9 Camp Ninety-Six: Capt. George
Reid was in command of 25 men, under Major Williamson. Joseph
served first as private and then as Lieutenant under Capt. John
Bowie. They were in the Regiment organized by Col. Robert
Anderson. [Jaynes]
LSS: Capt. Reid is Joseph’s father and Capt. Bowie his
brother-in-law. The battles in North Carolina mentioned in the
Jaynes article belong to the wounded Joseph Reid. Although a definitive
list isn’t available, it is likely Joseph was at Cowpens (SC) and Kettle Creek, GA
(14 February 1779) plus any and all fighting near Ninety-Six, Savannah
River and specifically the Georgia cities, Savannah and
Augusta.
1776 March 1 to 1 June 1777 Joseph Reed,
25 years old, five feet seven inches high, “Gray ays and Sandy
Complaction enlisted for 15 months in my Company of Ragular
soldiers” /s/ Bengeman Tut, Captain, Fifth SC Rifel man,
Commanded by Col. Huger ... discharged at Forte Rutlig 1 June 1777.
[Graves: Joseph Reed W1484 Elizabeth] LSS: “Benjamin Tutt” is
the Justice of Peace who married Joseph and Elizabeth (Fields) –
my reason for coding this as I have.
1780 October 7 Battle on Kings Mountain ... wounding
of Joseph
Reid who was removed with other
wounded to Quaker Meadows where
he “lay under the Doctor upward of twelve months”. [SC
Archives: Comptroller General Accounts Audited AA#6326 frames 413
to 434: Roll #123 Joseph Reed]
1782 February 28 marriage Joseph Reid
of Reid’s Mills, Long Cane Creek, 96th District and Isabella
Baskin of Rocky River. [National Archives: Widows File
#9249] LSS: In 1769 her Uncle William Baskin
married Joseph’s older sister, Ann Reid.
1783 October 15 marriage in Edgefield, South Carolina
by Benjamin Tut[t], JP Joseph Reed
and Elizabeth Fiel[d]s. [Graves: Joseph Reed W1484
Elizabeth] LSS:
Edgefield District wasn’t created from 96th District until
1795.
1784 March 14 I do certify that Joseph Reed
a Refugee belonging to the state of South Carolina Joined My
Ridgment and was wounded on kings
Muntain ... 7 October 1780 /s/ Benj.
Cleaveland, Col. of Wilk County [SC Archives: Comptroller General
Accounts Audited AA#6326 frames 413 to 434: Roll #123
Joseph Reed]
1785 May 6 paid Vardy McBee for Joseph Reid,
wounded in thigh & knee in service. One year 13? in annunities.
[South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research vol. 1:
Revolutionary Service]
1785 June 1st Joseph Reid
assigned his indent to another
[SC Archives: Comptroller General
Accounts Audited AA#6326 frames 413 to 434: Roll #123
Joseph Reed] LSS:
Signature certified by his brother-in-law John Bowie, J.P.
1786 November 23 (will date) George Reid of 96th
District, proven 6 April 1790. Exrs Maj. John Bowie, Capt. Hugh
Wardlaw, Capt. Wm Baskin. Children: Rose, wife of John
Bowie; Ann, wife of Capt. Wm Baskin; Margaret, wife of Hugh Reid;
Sam’l ... “the Mills, with all the Land that belongs to
them, be Equaly Divided between my Two sons, Alexander and Joseph”
... [Young p. 431 citing Box 109 Pack 3119; SC Archives copy in
hands LSS]
1791 July 2 move Joseph and
Isabella Reid from Reid’s Mills on Long Cane Creek to the
Keowee River area of “what became” Pendleton then Pickens
District. [National Archives: Widows File #9249]
1795 June 24 Deposition in Pendleton District Joseph Reed
... suffers much with the Wound received
... very indigent
circumstances with a hapless family consisting of wife and four small
children which he cannot support ... has neither Negroes nor land in
his own right ... [SC Archives & History:
Comptroller General Accts Audited AA#6326 frames 413-434 Joseph Reed
Roll #123]
1796 Received in Full satisfaction /s/ John Bowie
Indent No. 9 Book S to Joseph Reid
for Duty as Private & Lieut for
Col. Anderson’s ___
£499./5/_ Stlg £17.7.10/4. Mr. Joseph Reed,
his acct of Duty in militia as Private and as lieut’t performed
altunately before and since the reduction of Charleston ... [SC
Archives: Comptroller General Accounts Audited AA#6326 frames 413
to 434: Roll #123 Joseph Reed]
1800 Pendleton District Census:
[Stewart p. 33; 34; 62; 67]
17. Joseph Read
1 white male 16-26; 1 white female 16-26, no slaves
38. Joseph Read
1 male under 10; 2 males 10-16; 1 male 16-26; 1 male over 45; 1 female
10-16; 1 female over 45. No slaves
704. Josedph Read
2 males 10-16; 2 males 26-45; 1 male over 45; 4 females under 10; 1
female 10-16; 1 female 26-45; 1 female over 45. 10 slaves
774. Joseph Reed
1 male under 10; 1 male 10-16; 1 male 26-45; 1 male over 45; 3 famales
under 10; 1 female 10-16; 1 female 26-45. No
slaves.
LSS: Summer 1795
Joseph Reed said he had a wife and four small children, no slaves or
property of his own. This fits #38 best; but, Stewart suggests #38 sold
his 1793 land grant to Charles Stevens in 1795. Another problem is lack
of date when Joseph and Elizabeth left South Carolina.
1820 August 5 (will date) Joseph Reid of
Pendleton District ... to son Thomas Baskin Reid, all land I own
on east side Keowee River opposite where I now live, 650 acres in two
tracts, one granted to John Ewing Calhoun Esqr and the other to Jesse
Spears .... to son Samuel Reid all the plantation on West side Keowee River, about 900
acres, in two tracts; one granted to Major. Felix Warley, the other to
myself. ... to wife Issabella Reid ... divided among my six Daughters,
vizt: Margaret Baskin, Mary Gates, Elizabeth Reid, Issabella Lawrence,
Rose Gates, Sarah Hartgrove Reid. To son Joseph Reid ... wife
Issabella and son Thomas Executrix and Executor ... witnesses: Nathan
Boon, Patsey Boon, James Guthrie. Proven 15 December
1828 [SC Dept Archives & History, Will Bk 1, pages
1-3] LSS:
Some researchers add a son George W[alker] to this family group.
He’s not mentioned in Joseph’s will; or even more telling,
the list of births submitted by Isabella in her pension claim.
1828 September 29, Knoxville, Tennessee deposition Joseph Reed: 11 June 1823 he was placed
on the pension roll of East TN as an invalid pensioner of the U. S.
[which is] insufficient to afford him a comfortable maintenance now
that he is in the decline of his life .... aged 78 years ...
Joseph Reed, formerly a volunteer of Capt. Joel Lewis Co. in Col.
Cleveland’s Regiment ... [Joseph Reed W1484
Elizabeth] LSS: The
explanation for increased support written by Knox Co. TN officials read
in part: “December 17, 1828 ... having
received a gunshot wound in the left thigh which appears to have
fractured the femur in the thigh is three or four inches shorter than
the other and that his disability continues to increase while in the
line of his duty and in said service on the 7th day of October in the
year 1780 at a place called Kings Mountain in the State of North
Carolina ...”
1828 10 October 1828 died at his residence on Keowee River near Pickens C. H. Jos. Reid Esq.
in the 72d year of his age – one of the Revolutionary Patriots,
and one of the first settlers in that part of the country. He has
left a wife and nine children and numerous friends to lament his
loss. [The Pendleton Messenger No. 40 November 5, 1828]
1830 September 6 death Campbell County, TN Joseph Reed
[Joseph Reed W1484 Elizabeth]
1839 June 12 Elizabeth
Reed of Campbell Co. TN, aged 80 years, filed for
widow’s pension. Per her deposition, her maiden name was
Fiels[Fields?], she married her deceased husband Joseph Reed in Edgefield,
South Carolina 15 October 1783; they were married by Benjamin Tut[t], a
Justice of the Peace, she remains a widow and that her husband died 6
September 1830 in Campbell Co. TN [Joseph Reed W1484
Elizabeth] June 17 John Reed and Rhoda Roach gave testimony
in Campbell Co. TN supporting their mother’s claims.
[Ibid fn 16 & 17] The children of Joseph &
Elizabeth (Fields): Rhoda b. 18 Sept 1784;
Rebeckah b. 21 July 1787; Rachel b. 22 August 1790 died 11 June 1796;
Elizabeth b. 22 April 1793; James b. 10 March 1796; Luvica b. 3 May
1798; John b. 29 May 1803; Rachel Dryman b. September 1805. [Ibid fn p.
2]
1839 August 14 Morgan Co. TN Nancy Reed, widow of John Reed, ... brother of Joseph Reed
gave affidavit supporting the claim of Elizabeth Reed ... [one of
Joseph’s legs was] “three or four inches shorter than the
other” ... [Joseph Reed W1484 Elizabeth fn 14]
1844 January 9 deposition Mrs. Isabella Reid, aged 83 years
the 15 of October last ... her maiden name Isabella Baskin ... she
resided with her mother, a widow, on Rocky River in Abbeville District,
SC during the RW, married Joseph Reid, who resided about 20 miles
distant from her at Reids Mills on Long Cane Creek, same
District; was a Private and Lieutenant in the War of Revolution,
... during 1782, the same year of their marriage ... he served
[under] Capt. John Bowie and Col. Robert Anderson ... they resided at
her husband’s place on Long Cane [after marriage] and remained
there until fifty-two years ago the second day of July last, when they
removed to the place where she now resides on Keowee River in Pickens
District. ... She understood her husband to have marched through
part of North and South Carolina and Georgia and that he was at the
Battle of Ninety-Six ... recollects well [Tories] taking her ___ stock
of horses which were in the range ... She was once at her Uncle
William Baskin’s and in company with two other female friends
striped by the Tories of all their clothing except their under garments
... She was married to the said Joseph Reid on the
twenty-eight day of February in the year Seventeen hundred eighty two;
her husband, Joseph Reid, died the tenth day of October 1828 and she
has remained a widow. [National Archives: Widows File #9249]
1851 April 28 Died in Pickens District, SC of Mrs. Isabella Reid, relict of Joseph Reid,
deceased. The subject of this notice lived to the advanced age of 91
years and although unable to walk for a great length of time ...
a member of the Presbyterian Church for sixty years ... [Elliot citing
Issue Sat. May 10, 1851]
SOURCES
Elliot, Colleen M., editor. The
Keowee Courier 1849-1851; 1857-1861; and 1865-1868
Graves, Will transcriber. Pension application Joseph Reed W1484
Elizabeth posted at Southern
Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements & Rosters
Honoring the Memory of two
Revolutionary Heroes: Lieutenant Joseph Reid and John Gresham
compiled by R. T. Jaynes. Reprinted from The Keowee Courier Walhalla, S.
C. (Issues of Aug 7; Aug 14; Aug 21, 1935) Ordered
from the SC Historical Society PAM/929/4/1935
Starr, Linda Sparks, transcriber. National Archives: Widows File
#9249
Stewart, William C. abstractor 1800
Census of Pendleton District South Carolina published by
National Genealogical Society, “Special Publication Number
26” 1993, 4th printing
Young, Willie Pauline, abstractor. Abstracts of Old Ninety-Six and Abbeville
District Wills and Bonds 2004 reprint Southern
Historical Press.