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REID, WILLIAM BROWN, chief engineer in the Supreme Court Building at Springfield, Ill., comes of an old Scotch family in which the men for generations back have been connected with mechanics, and both his father and grandfather were experienced miners. He was born at Silver Creek, Schuylkill County, Pa., September 15, 1857, and is a son of Thomas and Maymie (Brown) Reid, and a grandson of Walter Reid, who returned to Scotland and died in his native land.
Thomas Reid was born in Dalkeith, Scotland. He came to the United States before his marriage and worked as a miner for a number of years in the Schuylkill coal regions in Pennsylvania, then came to Illinois and worked in Morgan County until 1867, when he came to Springfield. He was superintendent of the old Loose Mine and later had charge of the Wabash Coal Company mine at Athens. He died at Springfield, when fifty-nine years old, May 28, 1892. He was survived by five children: William Brown, Walter, Mrs. Henry Kusswall, Jennie and Minnie.
William Brown Reid was quite small when his parents came to Illinois, where he attended the public schools until he was fifteen years of age, at which time he became a clerk for C. M. Smith, in his grocery store, where he remained for four years, then accepted a position at the Illinois Watch Company, remaining five years. For one year afterward he was a fireman on the Wabash railroad and for three more years operated a stationary engine at a coal shaft. Mr. Reid then traveled fifteen years in all parts of the United States as an erecting engineer for the Ide & sons Engine Works, and for seven years was chief engineer for the Springfield electric plant, one year for the water works and in 1909 accepted his present position.
Mr. Reid was married September 13, 1895, to Miss Lizzie Morris, of Springfield, a daughter of the late George Morris, and they have six children: Charles F., Janetta M., Jessie, Gladys, Willa Dorothy and Margaret Ann. Mr. Reid and family attend the Second Presbyterian Church. He is a Republican in his political views and fraternally he is prominent in Masonry, having attained the thirty-second Degree, and is a Knight Templar and a Shriner. He belongs also to the Knights of Pythias, in which he is Past Chancellor, and to the Woodmen, in which he is Past Venerable Counselor.