Calaveras
County
Biographies
MYRON HOLLINGSWORTH REED
Of the “art preservative of arts,”
Myron Hollingsworth Reed is a representative, being the well known proprietor
of the Mountain Echo, having founded the paper in 1879. He was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, on the 4th
of May, 1835, and is of Scotch ancestry.
His father, Frederick D. Reed, entered Ontario County, New York, in
1819, but removed to Ohio in 1838, where he married Roxanna McClellan and
reared nine children. Two of the sons
served in the Union army during the Civil War and one of them served in the
Confederate service. The father died at
the age of fifty-one years, the mother surviving until her eighty-seventh
year. They were people of intelligence
and education and are well remembered in the community where they lived.
Mr. Reed received his education in
Kentucky, where he remained until he was seventeen years old, then followed the
army that was making its way, by ox teams, across the plains to
California. Without serious accident he
reached Volcano, Amador County, without much means, his trip having cost him
one hundred and eighty dollars; but he set to work immediately in the mines at
Springfield, Tuolumne County. His first
work was that of casting out the dirt and washing for gold. His largest nugget amounted to forty-one
dollars, but his success was not such as to make him desire to continue long in
the business. Unfortunate speculation in
mining property about dissipated his earnings.
Always loving law and order, Mr.
Reed was at one time associated with a party who took the law into their own
hands, sometimes in those days an example having to be made for the protection
of the helpless.
In 1879 Mr. Reed turned his
attention to the newspaper business and started the Mountain Echo, a weekly
five-column folio. Since that time
various enlargements have been made until now it is an eight-column folio and
is regarded as the most effective medium for the dissemination of knowledge
concerning this section and very instrumental in the upbuilding of Angel’s Camp
and Calaveras County. Since 1884 he has
been ably assisted by his son-in-law, Lewis J. Hutchison, who had been
connected with the Chronicle at Mokelumne Hill, the oldest paper in the state. He had also been connected with the Alta in
San Francisco, and the jobbing department of Bancroft & Company. He is a newspaperman of experience and his
business connection with Mr. Reed strengthens the Echo. In politics it was formerly an independent
paper, then for two years was conducted in the interests of the Prohibition
Party, but now its leanings are toward the Republican Party, of which Mr. Reed
is a stalwart member.
The
marriage of Mr. Reed took place in 1862 to Miss Mahala
Watson, a native of Indiana who came to California in 1861. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Reed are happily
settled near them and are as follows:
Ida, the wife of L. J. Hutchison; Roxana; Jessie, the wife of J. H. Rulofson; Charles D., engaged in mining; Sadie I., the wife
of B. K. Stone.
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Reed are
pleasant and congenial and their cottage in Angel’s Camp has often been visited
by well known literary men of the day, Mr. Reed numbering among his friends
Mark Twain and Bret Harte. He has
labored hard to build up the best interests of his section and has been most
successful. Mr. Reed socially is a
member of the Knights of the Golden Eagle and of the Foresters, and at one time
of the Sons of Temperance.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 515-516. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Calaveras County Biographies