The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 149

DAVID C. REED.

David C. Reed, manager of and one of the partners of the Yakima Title Guaranty &
Abstract Company of Yakima, is also prominently known as one of the chief
promoters of the splendid public school system of the city. In fact, no history
of Yakima would be complete without extended reference to him, so important a
part has he played in relation to the development of the educational system. He
arrived in this city in 1906, although he has been a resident of the Pacific
coast from 1879, having been a youth of eighteen years when he removed westward
to California.

Mr. Reed was born in Homewood, Pennsylvania, on the 6th of January, 1861, a son
of John and Isabella (Craig) Reid, who were natives of Scotland and came to the
United States in 1852. The father spelled his name Reid, but his son adopted the
orthography which he now uses. The father was a soldier of Company C, of the One
Hundred and First Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and died in
Andersonville prison. He had a family of ten children and two of his sons were
also soldiers of the Civil war, Walter J. serving as orderly sergeant with
General Kearney and later with General Meade. He was wounded at the battle of
Gettysburg. He became a prominent resident of the northwest, arriving in Yakima
in 1878, taking up a claim from the government near what are now the fair
grounds of the city. As the years passed he played a very prominent and
important part in shaping public thought and action and his influence was ever
on the side of progress and improvement. He served as mayor of Yakima and gave
to the city a businesslike and progressive administration. Later his fellow
townsmen, appreciative of his worth, ability and public spirit, called upon him
to represent the district in the state senate and he was a member of the upper
house of the general assembly when death called him in 1908. The other brother
who was a soldier of the Civil war was James C. Reid, who died in the prison at
Salisbury, North Carolina, ere the war was brought to a successful close.
Another son of the family, John Reid, came to the Yakima valley with his brother
Walter in the year 1878. He, too, became a prominent factor in the public life
of the community, serving as secretary of the State Fair Association and at one
time as mayor of the city, so that the name of Reid is most honorably interwoven
with the history of Yakima. The mother died in Pennsylvania.

David C. Reed was but four years old at the time of his father's demise and his
early education was acquired in the Soldiers' Orphans' School at Uniontown. He
afterward worked his way through Duff's College and through the University of
California, and throughout his entire life he has remained a man of studious
habits, constantly promoting his knowledge through reading and research. It was
in the year 1879 that he made his way westward to California, where his sister
Isabel, lived, and there he took up the profession of teaching, which he
followed in that state for twenty-seven years, becoming recognized as one of its
most eminent and able educators. It was in California that he attended the Los
Angeles Normal School and he also became a student in the Throop Polytechnic
Institute at Pasadena, from which he was graduated in 1898, in order that he
might know the real value of manual training. He also pursued a course in
kindergarten work and he was thus able to speak with authority on these
questions when later he became a prominent factor in connection with the public
schools of Yakima. While still a resident of California he served as principal
of the schools of Redding and of Yreka and later became superintendent of
public schools at Eureka, California, and county superintendent of schools in
Plumas county. For ten years he occupied the responsible position of
superintendent of schools at Redlands, California, and thus made valuable
contribution to the educational development of that state during the
twenty-seven years of his connection with its public school system. In 1906 he
arrived in Yakima to accept the superintendency of the schools of this city, in
which capacity he continued until 1911, and during his connection with the
office various school buildings were erected, including the high school, the
Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Fairview and Summit View schools. Practically all
of this work was done under the immediate direction of Mr. Reed and during his
superintendency the attendance of the high school increased from one hundred and
fifty to five hundred, while the number of teachers was increased from
forty-eight to ninety. It was Mr. Reed who was instrumental in introducing the
commercial course, also domestic science, manual training, the agricultural
course and the arts course, thus making the high school most efficient in its
scope and purposes. The graded schools also more than doubled in attendance
during his superintendency and he ever had the ability to inspire teachers and
pupils under him with much of his own zeal and interest in the work. While in
California he organized many of the manual training schools of the southern part
of that state and 211 acknowledge that he laid the foundation for the present
splendid school system of Yakima of which every citizen is justly proud. He was
also a member of the library board of Yakima when the public library was built.

In 1911 Mr. Reed gave up school work to enter into active connection with the
Yakima Title Guaranty & Abstract Company, which had been organized in 1906 by J.
O. Cornett. George S. Rankin, W. J. Reed, Sylvester Peterson, E. G. Peck, H.
Stanley Coffin, H. M. Helliesen and W. L. Lemon. Of these Mr. Peck became the
president, Mr. Peterson the vice-president, secretary and manager, and Mr. Lemon
the treasurer. They first had their offices at No. 7 North First street but in
1908 the company erected a building at the corner of A and Second streets and
has since occupied it. In 1910 H. H. Lombard was elected to the presidency and
so continues. David C. Reed became the secretary in 1911 and in 1917 was made
both secretary and manager, so that he is the active executive officer of the
business. In 1912 W. J. Aumiller became treasurer and in 191? I. H. Dills was
elected vice-president. The corporation is capitalized for one hundred thousand
dollars. It guarantees titles to real estate and has very complete records of
Yakima county property. The business has been developed to extensive proportions
and the company has today over fifty leading citizens of Yakima among its
stockholders.

In 1897 Mr. Reed was married to Miss Jean MacMillan, of Carnegie, Pennsylvania,
and their children were: Emily Judson, now a student at Smith College in
Massachusetts; and Jeannette, deceased.

The family attend the Presbyterian church and Mr. Reed also belongs to the
Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
and the Commercial Club. In the Masonic order he is well known as a member of
lodge, chapter, commandery and Mystic Shrine and he is a past master of the
lodge with which he held membership in California. His political endorsement is
given to the republican party but the honors and emoluments of political office
have had no attraction for him. Outside of his professional duties and his
business he has preferred to choose the point at which he would render service
to the public. He has taken an active part in promoting moral as well as
intellectual progress in the community and has been most active in bringing
about the erection of the Young Men's Christian Association building at Yakima.
His life has ever been characterized and actuated by the highest principles and
ideals. He is continually extending a helping hand, not in that indiscriminate
giving which fosters vagrancy and idleness, but in intelligently directed effort
to assist his fellowmen. He gives liberally when material aid is needed, but he
also makes it his purpose to stimulate the pride, ambition and self-reliance of
the individual by speaking an encouraging word. He is known as one of the best
loved men of Yakima.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.