Samuel J. Reader

Samuel J. Reader (1836–1914) was an American diarist and artist who wrote about his experiences living in Kansas including during the Bleeding Kansas and American Civil War eras.[1]

Samuel J. Reader, diarist and artist (1836–1914)

Biography

Reader was born on January 25, 1836 in Greenfield, Pennsylvania,[2][lower-alpha 1] the son of carpenter and millwright Francis Reader and Catherine (née James) Reader.[3] His mother died May 19, 1836 and he was raised by his maternal grandparents and an aunt, Eliza James. He lived in La Harpe, Illinois from the age of five to 18.[2][3][lower-alpha 2] He had a sister, Eliza Matilda,[3] who later became the wife of Dr. M. A. Campdoras.[2]

A sketch of Indianola, Kansas in 1860, by Samuel J. Reader, published in The Topeka State Journal in 1901

He began recording events of his life in journals in 1847 after being inspired by the documentation of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.[2] In 1855, he traveled in a wagon from Illinois[4] and settled on a farm near Indianola, Shawnee County, Kansas with his sister and his aunt.[2][4] An early settler of Shawnee County who remained a resident of the state until his death, his continuing journals captured the history of the territory and early years of the state. He illustrated his writings with primitive watercolor and oil paintings and pen and ink illustrations.[5] They were written in English and French.[2]

John L. Magee, Forcing slavery down the throat of a freesoiler, 1856, depicts the struggle between the abolitionists and those who were proslavery

He served as a sergeant of the Indianola Guards, a local militia group, and was a member of John Brown's forces, opposing slavery and supporting Kansas as a free state prior to the Civil War.[2] In 1856, he participated in the conflict against the Border Ruffians and fought in the Battle of Hickory Point, coming "under fire" for the first time.[2][3]

Samuel Reader, Battle of Mine Creek, Kansas, February 13, 1865

He was a second lieutenant and later paymaster of Company D of the Kansas state militia during the Civil War and fought in the Battle of Little Blue River (October 1864).[2][3] He was captured and escaped three days later.[3] He depicted the conflict in an oil painting,[2][3] which is now in the collection of the Kansas Historical Society[6] with four of his other paintings.[5] His journal includes accounts of several Civil War battles,[7] and his painting Before Dawn is used on the cover of the book Kansas's War: The Civil War in Documents (2011) by Pearl T. Ponce.[8] He retired from service on October 30, 1864.[3]

On December 18, 1867, he married Elizabeth Smith at La Harpe, Illinois. They had three children, the only one of whom survived was their daughter, Elizabeth. His wife died in 1898 in Topeka.[2][3] He died at his home on September 15, 1914 and was buried in Rochester Cemetery.[2]

Notes
  1. Greenfield may have been the borough named Greenfield that became Coal Center, Pennsylvania, where his father settled in 1847 upon his second marriage,[3] or Greenfield, Pennsylvania, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh.
  2. While Samuel moved to La Harpe, Illinois with his aunt and sister,[2][3] his father remained in Pennsylvania and married a second time in 1842 to Eleanor Bentley Smith. After having three children, his wife died of typhoid fever in 1847.[3] Although it is said that Samuel lived in La Harpe, Illinois until he was 18, Jordan states that he was reunited with his father upon his third marriage in 1849 to Mrs. William Duvall Jackson, who died in 1854.[3]

References
  1. "Samuel J. Reader – Kansapedia – Kansas Historical Society". www.kshs.org.
  2. "Samuel J. Reader Was Shawnee County Pioneer". The Topeka Daily Capital. September 18, 1914. p. 6. Retrieved May 28, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. John W. Jordan, LL.D. (1914). Pennsylvania. pp. 529-530.
  4. "Samuel James Reader Papers, 1853–1955". Kansas Historical Society. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
  5. Kansas, a Guide to the Sunflower State. Best Books. 1939. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-62376-015-1.
  6. Glenn Dedmondt (2009). The Flags of Civil War Arkansas. Pelican Publishing. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-4556-0432-6.
  7. "Samuel J. Reader's autobiography, volume 3 – Kansas Memory". www.kansasmemory.org.
  8. Pearl T. Ponce (February 15, 2011). Kansas's War: The Civil War in Documents. Ohio University Press. pp. iv, xv. ISBN 978-0-8214-1936-6.
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