George Samuel Reid Family Roots

GEORGE SAMUEL REID (10 Feb 1906 – 10 Nov 1990) was born in Clinton, Davis County, Utah the son of Charles Morgan Reid and Esther Weir Stedman.

George married Lavon Holt in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah on 2 Dec 1925.  He and LaVon had 5 children, all sons.

• Donald Holt Reid, married Beverly Jean Allen in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah.
• Charles Richard Reid, married Ila Howarth Parker in Logan, Cache Valley, Utah.  After Ila’s death, Dick married Patricia Pickworth.
• George Stephen Reid, married Patricia Louise Merrill in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah.
• Paul Holt Reid, married Colleen Bennett in Logan, Cache Valley, Utah.
• Stanford John Reid, married Carolyn Rogers in Logan, Cache Valley, Utah.  After Carolyn’s death, Stan married Patty Jo Quinn.

George and LaVon lived most of their married lives in Sunset, Davis County, Utah.  After LaVon’s death, George lived a short time longer in Sunset and then lived with his son, Charles Richard Reid, in Bountiful until his death on 10 Nov 1990.  George is buried in the Clinton City Cemetery, Clinton, Davis County, Utah.

Of all his storied accomplishments and humble ambitions, nothing except his love of God could remotely rival the great love, reverence, and sense of accomplishment that George had for his posterity.  He was quick to acknowledge that the finest decision he made in life was to marry his beloved sweetheart, LaVon.  George felt that their union was divinely appointed, as was their privilege of bringing forth five noble sons who, in turn, brought them “seven special daughters”. Legions of grandchildren and great-grandchildren have followed.

Such is the enduring legacy of George Samuel Reid.  Those of his posterity who were blessed to know him personally unitedly pronounce that GrandFather and GrandMother George and LaVon would have you remember these two truths about them:

– that they love God with all their heart, might, mind, and strength;

– second only to their love and devotion to God, is their love and gratitude for all things related to their beloved children and grandchildren.

Many remembrances have and will be written of this great man.  As they become available, we will post them here.

In His Own Words

A brief insight to the life of George Samuel Reid as he wrote in a letter to his grandchildren.

Dear Grandson & Granddaughter:

Because of my great love for God and Grandchildren, I write somewhat of my life and ancestry.    My life has been greatly enriched because of them with the assistance of your Grandmother LaVon Holt Reid.  She was and is a beauty, “full of faith”.

Our heritage in this the “Promised Land” began in the 16^th Century.  We don’t have much information concerning them until the Revolutionary War period and then not much.  But remember we have the Lord’s word, that those who came to this land would be brought here for a wise and glorious purpose.  They were numbered among the chosen.  Our ancestry had a hand in winning independence and the Constitution.  They took part in the War of 1812 that gave this nation a respectable standing in the World of Nations.  Remember to always sustain and uphold the Constitution of this Nation.  It is divine and will bless you and your posterity for standing firm in its preservation.  When the Civil War came along Grandfather Reid lived in Georgia and was influenced to support the South, was wounded 5 times.  He was in the Battle of Bull Run.  He told his sons it was a rich man’s quarrel and a poor man’s fight.  He felt the Lord had a hand in preserving the Union.  That’s why the South lost.

After the war his wife died, he later married Nancy Elizabeth Duke.  She was sixteen years old.  Her mother died when she was young and her father remarried.  Nancy Elizabeth Duke is my Grandmother a wonderful lady and Grandfather was always kind and gentle with her.

He was a farmer and raised cotton.  One day he went to town to get supplies and he found the people all excited, they had two Mormon Elders and they were preparing to tar and feather them and run them out of town.  Grand Father didn’t like this idea so he carefully slipped them away and took them home with him.  Grand Mother wasn’t very happy about having strangers in her home under these conditions and in her anger she took a bucket out to the spring for water.  She stooped down filled the bucket with water and as she straightened up she was tapped on the shoulder from behind.  She turned and there stood a man, he had a long white beard and glowing white hair and he said: “Sister Reid you have in your home the Elders of Israel, Servants of the living God; as you care for them your home will be blessed.”  She stooped to refill her bucket and as she turned again he was gone.  She repented and was kind and pleasant to the Elders.  That night here came the mob demanding the Elders.  Grand Father with rifle in hand stood before them and said:  ‘These Elders are my guests. They haven’t harmed any of you and you are not going to harm them until you have killed me and before you kill me I’ll kill some you.  Now go on home.”  So they backed away and went home.

From that experience they became interested in the Gospel and were baptized Feb 10, 1877.  My father was born the following June 6, 1877 and father was named Charles Morgan Reid after Elder John Morgan who the family loved so very much.  While in Georgia Grand Father became Branch President of the Armuchee Branch and served until he came to Kaysville Utah.

My father had a serious illness when he was nine years old and the doctors covered him over with a sheet and pronounced him dead.  His mother didn’t accept the doctor’s statement.  They pulled the sheet off, put a glass to his lips and noticed vapor coming from his mouth.  They worked and prayed for his life and he overcame his illness.  I am sure Satan tried to stop him, “because through him I was born”, the only Grandson that matured in the service of God with the Reid name.  I was born Feb 10, 1906, baptized Feb 10, 1914, ordained a Deacon Feb 10, 1918 a Sunday morning and before the Priesthood Assembly of the Clinton Ward.  I’ll always remember that day.  I did not realize the importance of Feb 10^th until a few years ago when suddenly I realized that’s the day of the month my Grandparents received their spiritual birth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There could be given quite a sermon on the importance of rebirth or baptism as the Savior was.  He is the Way and the Life.

The Lord has blessed me with goodly parents and ancestry.  He blessed me with a wonderful eternal companion and we have the most choice posterity.  I love you all more than life itself.  There isn’t enough room to elaborate just conclude by saying “I know the Gospel is true how choice and precious is a true testimony.  Almost every day a special challenge is given and when accepted in faith and humility yet without fear the challenge becomes a choice experience.  Just last night a family was here all happy and wonderful.  Three weeks ago they were worried and filled with gloom; the mother was very sick and discouraged.  Her husband brought her here and I was privileged to be the Lord’s servant in pronouncing a blessing upon her that restored her courage and her illness was conquered.  Through the Priesthood and faith; ‘Cancer was stopped”.  My heart was full to overflowing as they held their Home Evening with joy and rejoicing one with the other.  “Live for Joy” and not pleasure.  Joy is eternal.

We love you with all our heart and soul.

Grand Father Reid & Grand Mother Reid

P.S.  We decked the Christmas tree with each of your pictures.  Beautiful.  Thanks very much.

History of George Samuel Reid

(By Douglas Parker Reid)

The young family sat at the breakfast table, hurrying to finish their meal so the father could begin the labors of the day.  He had a 20-acre farm to take care of, and he had a lot of work to do.  In fact, that morning they were in such a rush that they had not knelt in prayer before sitting down to eat, as they were accustomed to do.  Suddenly, they heard a thud and a cry outside near where the horses were watering.  It was then that they realized that little two-year-old George had slipped outside unnoticed.  The parents rushed out into the yard.  Imagine their panic when they found their little boy lying in a pool of water and blood, near the water trough where the horses and colt stood drinking.  George had been kicked in the face!  There he lay, losing blood by the minute, the right side of his face torn open.  In despair they picked him up.  Just then a neighbor, Joseph Fife, drove into the yard and advised the young mother, Esther, to wash the wound and pack it with flour, offering to take them to the doctor in his new buggy.  He had just purchased a fine, spirited traveling horse.  Esther quickly washed the mud and blood off as best she could, applied some flour, and wrapped little George’s face in a clean white sheet.  Then they rushed to the doctor in Ogden.  Joseph pushed the horse to the limit, despite the knowledge that such a pace would ruin him.  They covered the 12-mile distance in 29 minutes.  The horse was spent – but the boy was safely in the hands of the doctor.  He was Edward I. Rich, the same doctor who had driven to Clinton in a buggy to deliver the new baby boy two years earlier.  Dr. Rich informed the anxious parents that the blow had come within a needle’s width of severing a nerve that would have killed the boy.  As it was, he was able to dress the wound and stitch it up, using 18 stitches, and George recovered, though he carried a scar throughout his life.  His father, Charlie, had promised the Lord that if He would spare the son, he’d raise him up to be a good and faithful servant, and never again be too busy to kneel with the family in family prayer each morning.  He fulfilled his promise.

So began the experiences of George Samuel Reid, patriarch, missionary, and saint of God.  He had entered mortality on February 10, 1906, and was the fourth of nine children of Charles Morgan and Esther Steadman Reid.  Their oldest child, Ethel Esther, had lived for only a month before passing away; and Charles Marcus died at the age of 2-and-a-half, when little George was less than a year old.  Mark, a younger brother, died at birth, leaving only Myrtle four years older than George Samuel, George (nicknamed “Judd” by friends), Zilpha Elizabeth (“Beth”), and Lenora, who was born in 1911.  Twins also died at birth, unnamed.  Thus, only one boy survived to carry on the Reid name.  How grateful Charlie and Esther must have been that George wasn’t killed by the blow on the forehead!  Always thereafter, the family knelt in prayer before breakfast, never in too big of a hurry to give thanks and ask the Lord’s blessings upon them.

George Samuel was blessed and named by Samuel P. Owen, his Mother’s Step-Father, when he was two months old.  He was named after his Father’s favorite brother, George, who had joined Charlie in purchasing the Clinton property and had passed away from cancer a month after George Samuel’s birth.  Samuel was the name of his Mother’s Father as well as her Step—Father.

George had a happy childhood.  With his many friends, he played such games as “run sheep run”, “dare”, baseball, and marbles. His sisters were good to him, and he got along well with everyone.  He began working with his Father at a very early age.  When he was only five, he walked behind a hand plow to cultivate the farm for planting.  He also drove the team of horses with a wagon-load of peas to west 25^th Street in Ogden, where he waited for someone to unload the peas, then returned home to Clinton.  Already, he was learning to be responsible and to work hard.

Two experiences taught him the importance of honesty.  When he was 5, he took fancy to the padlock on the door of the blacksmith shop.  The twin boys of the blacksmith, Mr. Rampton, were friends of his.  When they learned of his interest in the padlock, they told him he could take it, since their father had several other ones.  George carried it home in his shirt pocket, taking it out when he was inside the house.  While he was looking at it, his Father saw it and asked, “Where did you get that?”  “You shouldn’t have taken it.” He returned with George in the wagon to the blacksmith shop, 3 miles away.  Mr. Rampton put his arm on the young boy’s shoulder and said, “You’ve got a good Daddy.”

Another time, when he was 8 or 9 years old, his friend Leonard Patterson told him of a place he knew of where they could catch some tame ducks that he thought didn’t belong to anyone, the two boys rode on horseback to the marsh in West Syracuse, near an old pioneer resort.  On the way, they passed a farmer who was sitting on his porch watching them.  They each caught a duck, and then returned past the same man, who was still sitting on his porch.  He said nothing.  George later wrote,”When I got home and showed my parents what I had and told them how I got it, Father said, “Son, I want you to take it back where you got it and Myrtle will go with you to help you.” So I took the duck back and when I got to the gate this gentleman came out and met us and he said, “Son, I knew if you had good parents you would bring back my duck and if you didn’t you wouldn’t.” He always remembered the lesson of integrity he thus received.

George began attending school in 1912, when he was six years old.  He walked a mile and a quarter to school every day.  The first and second graders met together in the same room, with Sister Wade as the teacher.  George liked school, and felt his teachers were, “Just Super”, except for the fourth grade teacher, who insisted that each of the boys tat a marble bag.  He got out of that chore by having his friend’s mother tat one for him.  A favorite teacher was Lucy Lovell.  She let the students call her Lucy; Sister Wade had insisted they use more formality in addressing her.  But he was used to being polite.  His Father and Mother had taught him to say “Yes, Sir,” and “No, Ma’am,” and to tip his hat whenever he met a lady.  Once, his Mother told him how impressed her friend, Sister Grace Mitchell, had been that he was the only one of a group of boys to tip his hat to her when they entered her small grocery and candy store.

When he was in the third grade, George’s schoolmates began calling him “Jud.” From that time on, hardly anyone except his immediate family called him George.  The young schoolboy was satisfied with a passing grade.  His favorite subject was arithmetic.  He liked history, didn’t like English but was good in spelling.  He probably could have done better in school than he did, but he preferred sports over studying.  Once, while he was “just going along” in the eighth grade, his teacher, Brother Patterson, challenged anyone in the class to try and out do the sharpest girl in the class in arithmetic.  She was an A student, but Jud thought he could down her, so he volunteered and, sure enough, he came out on top.  He suspected that Brother Patterson was just giving him a chance to show what he could really do as a student.

Judd loved sports, especially baseball and marbles.  He played on the first team in baseball while he was only in 5^th grade.  He used to practice for hours throwing a ball at a knot on the grain barn near the house.  The Clunk! Clunk! Clunk! Must have annoyed Mother in the kitchen, but she didn’t complain, and Jud developed a good throwing arm.  Once, he caught a fly ball in center field when a runner was on third base.  The runner tagged up and sprinted for home, but Judd threw straight and true to cut him off.  The play caused quite a stir among his schoolmates.  That same year he and his teacher, Brother Henry Call, collided when they both ran after a fly ball.  Judd, the center fielder, caught it before Brother Call ran into him from his second baseman position.  They were fast friends always thereafter.  Jud marveled at how nimbly his teacher was able to vault over a barbed wire fence to chase balls hit into Patterson’s field.  His favorite position was second base.  As a hitter, he singled most of the time; then he’d steal second, then third, and at times he even stole home.

The young athlete was also good at spinning tops and playing marbles.  “Diamonds” didn’t challenge him at all; he preferred “rings.” He was the school champion at marbles.  When he cut the second finger on his right hand in a potato planter, his friends insisted that he play marbles anyway, so he played left handed and soon was champion again.  “That which you set your heart on doing you can do by perseverance,” he later taught.  He once won 85 marbles at one time from a newcomer who thought he was good.  Jud cleaned the ring after his friend had missed on the first round.

He was always active in Church.  He never forgot the day of his baptism his birthday, February 10, 1914.  Myron B. Child, the first counselor in the Bishopric, baptized him in Lee Hadlock’s 3-foot-deep cement water trough.  It was a fair day, but two feet of snow lay on the ground.  Brrr!  He was confirmed in Hadlock’s home following the baptism.  As a Deacon, he missed only two meetings—once when his mother was critically ill in the hospital, and once when the family was visiting Uncle Walt in Blackfoot, Idaho.  (Uncle Walt didn’t go to church.)  He never missed a meeting as a Teacher and as a Priest.  He served as Deacons’ Quorum President, as Second Counselor in the Teachers’ Quorum Presidency, and as Secretary of the Priests’ Quorum, always carrying out his priesthood assignments faithfully.  Even so, he felt a lack of speaking and leadership ability, especially as he grew older and his friends returned from missions with confidence and experience.  He never bore his testimony until he was a Bishop.  While he was ward clerk for 9 years, he pretended to be extra busy taking minutes of the meeting whenever it appeared he might be called on to speak.

Among his peers, Jud was respected and well-liked.  His popularity grew with his success in sports.  Baseball was his favorite, but he also played some basketball and gained a berth on the football team as a halfback.  While playing football, he outran a teammate who later became a state champion runner.  He had quick reflexes, and he never panicked in a crisis.  Because of his ability, whenever he and his school friends were driving somewhere where an expert driver was needed, they said, “Let Jud drive.” On one occasion, while he was courting LaVon, they were returning home with a group of friends from an outing at Bear Lake.  Driving down the windy road in Logan Canyon in the family Nash, with Lawrence and Verna Holt, LaVon’s brother and Sister-in-law, also in the car, he gleefully passed up all of his friends.  Suddenly, as the car rounded a corner near the dam, he realized he was going too fast.  The gravel road made it so that he couldn’t turn or stop fast enough.  At the edge of the roadbed was a cliff, with the creek far below.  Staying in control, he turned enough so that only the rear of the car swung out over the cliff.  Then he hit the throttle so that when the back wheels hit the bank, they grabbed and the car lunged back onto the shoulder.

But he wasn’t always able to get out of a tight situation by himself.  When he was 6, he was driving a team of horses pulling a wagon load of peas, when he skirted around his cousins who were playing next to a pond, and got stuck in the mud.  He had to return home and get his Father to bring another wagon so they could transfer the peas and pull the wagon out of the mud.

Throughout his school years, Jud helped his Father on the farm.  He used to ride his horse up to the Bamberger track and take the train to the Junior High School in Kaysville, later to Davis High.  Then he’d return on the train in the afternoon, jump on his horse that had been patiently waiting all day, and ride back to the farm in Clinton.  He also attended North Davis High School in Syracuse for a brief time.  He enjoyed farming, and planned to continue farming with his Father.  His third year of high school was the end of his formal education.  He didn’t start until November because of having to help harvest the crops, and he only attended for six weeks before he dropped out because of being too far behind, especially in geometry.

He was active socially, both in group activities and in dating.  He learned to dance early, and was careful to date only top-notch girls.  His first date with his future sweetheart, LaVon Holt, was arranged by his friends, when he was out of school to help with the farm while his Father was recovering from appendicitis.  Their first date was to a dance—and dance they did, then and many times thereafter.  Fox trot, waltz, square dance—nothing was too difficult for Judd and LaVon.  They won many dance contests through the years, among them a waltz prize at Saltair (a tire) and a contest at Lagoon.  They later served as Dance Directors in their Ward in Clinton.

The two first saw each other when they were youngsters helping their Fathers with farm work.  (LaVon did every kind of farm work imaginable as a child.) At about age nine, they were at a canning factory, each of them on top of a stack of peas.  Judd was impressed with the pretty dark-haired girl from West Point, in her black stockings and long braided hair.  Later they saw each other again when he and a group of friends rode their horses to a candy store in West Point.  Some giggly girls were there, Lavon among them, and when they asked to ride the boy’s horses, and LaVon chose Judd’s beautiful black pony “Dawn,” he was flattered.

LaVon was as bright as she was pretty.  She skipped both the third and the fifth grades, and later graduated in 6 months from the Smithsonian Business College in Ogden after having attended North Davis High School in Syracuse briefly.  She subsequently taught shorthand, and was offered a scholarship to Washington but didn’t accept it because she didn’t want to go by herself.  She took a secretarial job with the Goddard Company, a brokerage in Ogden.  While in Ogden, she lived in an apartment; Judd used to visit her by riding the Bamberger to near where she was living.  He’d stay until he just barely had time to run to catch the train.  Another time, she was working as a secretary in a canning factory in West Point; Judd, there unloading tomatoes, worked extra hard to impress her.

Two memorable dates were one up Weber Canyon and the one up to Bear Lake with a group of friends.  A married couple, both times member of LaVon’s family, served as chaperons.  Judd dated only LaVon after the Bear Lake outing, and when she was called on a mission about a year before their marriage, the Stake President, Governor Henry H. Blood, told her that her most important responsibility was to marry and raise a family, so she willingly declined the mission call.  Judd’s parents were reluctant to lose his services on the farm, but he proposed and they were married by Joseph Fielding Smith in the Salt Lake Temple on December 2, 1925.  Over 350 came to the reception in the Holt home, where LaVon’s mother served hot chicken.  A common practice of the time was to “chivalry” the newlyweds on their wedding night; friends let the air out of the tires of the old Nash, dressed Jud in an old flannel nightgown and locked him in a bedroom in the Holt home, and took LaVon to a friend’s home in Ogden.  The next night they found their bed filled with corn flakes and rice.  Thus began their married life on the Clinton farm.

Judd had enjoyed farm work and planned to be a farmer as he was growing up.  The next several years saw him farming in the summer and doing other work in the winter time.  LaVon also worked some at the cannery during the canning season, later at the Arsenal (Hill Field), and finally at the Clearfield Department Store, a half-day for some 16 years.  During the first spring following their marriage Judd worked with his Father on a road construction crew building the Uintah to Ogden highway.  They used a “Fresno Scraper”—scrape, dump, and around again.  That fall, a white fly epidemic ruined much of the beet crop.  Judd had a chance to go to Castle Gate with LaVon’s brother Harold to work in the coal mines.

They drove down in September in a Model-T Ford, and Judd became a “sprinkler” in the mines, keeping the sidewalls washed down to prevent an explosion from the coal dust such as the one that had killed 184 miners the previous year.  The vein was 32 feet high, with shafts 15 feet wide and 10 to 12 feet high, way back in the mountainside where the temperature was the same the year around.  When LaVon’s Father, John William Holt, became seriously ill, the couple returned north, arriving just in time to see him before he passed away.  A friend who needed employment returned with them to Castle Gate, and the two men worked together as coal diggers until Therence’s constant grumbling about the low pay irritated Jud to the point that he asked to be reassigned.  One day as the two were working together, the roof was loose and they were told to be careful and to not remove any coal from the sides of the shaft; but Therence noticed a large chunk on the sidewall that looked particularly fine.  He pulled it loose and suddenly with a crack and a groan the roof gave way.  Judd got out of the way with the first sound of cracking, but Therence was right in the middle of the falling coal.  Fortunately, he was unhurt.  After Judd requested another assignment, he was given the job of helping to lay track in the mines.  One day his name was mistakenly left off the work list, so that when he reported for work he was told he could not go into the mine.  He had been thinking of returning to Clinton anyway, so in his frustration he checked out for good and left with LaVon for Clinton.  This was in March.  Less than two months later, LaVon gave birth to their first of five sons, whom they named Donald Holt Reid.

That summer, Judd farmed sugar beets, potatoes, tomatoes, and peas, and peddled fruits and vegetables as far north as Blackfoot, selling particularly to restaurants.  He bought a truck to use in the business, using it to also haul cattle feed and manure.  In addition he began driving a school bus for $45 a month, a job he had for several years.  As the bus driver he would take aside problem youngsters and counsel them privately a “choice experience.”

A year later, after the death of his sister Lenora in October, he joined his brother-in-law, Roy Davis, to work on a tunnel-building project in Zion’s National Park.  LaVon and Don and 3-month old Dick rode down to Cedar City on the bus, and there they were to meet Judd and accompany him to Springdale where he was staying.  Dick had the chicken pox at the time, and LaVon had only a dollar just enough to buy milk and bread for the two boys.  She waited and waited, and finally checked in at a hotel to spend the night, wondering what had happened to Judd.  He arrived at 3:30 a.m., with news that the old Ford had broken down on the way and he had fortunately gotten a ride with a friend of his Father from Riverdale who happened by.  The next day he paid the hotel bill with the last of the family’s funds, arranged to buy a used car on credit from Petty Ford, and returned with LaVon and the boys to Springdale.  He paid the $125 for the car in three payments with money from his next three paychecks, as agreed.

They rented a cabin in Springdale for a while, and then lived in a tent at the mouth of the canyon, with lizards as their house guests.  In the spring, the red cacti were beautiful, and they enjoyed picnicking at the side of a clear spring of cool water.  One day Judd was operating a tractor that was being used to haul gravel cement, and water on a large piece of sheet metal.  In a hurry to keep the workers supplied, he was driving fast back and forth near the edge of a 50 foot cliff.  Suddenly, the front wheel twisted when it hit a rock, jolting the tractor precariously close to falling over the cliff.  Judd was barely able to keep the tractor balanced.  Thereafter he was more cautious.

The family returned to Clinton in the spring, and Judd continued farming and trucking and driving the school bus for the next six years.  In the summer of 1934, disaster struck.  By then Paul was the baby of the family, Judd and LaVon had lived since their marriage in the three rooms that had been built onto the Clinton home for Grandmother Reid, she having passed away in 1925.  Myrtle and Roy Davis and their children were living with Esther in the main part of the house.  Four year old Steve was playing with his cousin, Alan Davis, in the main kitchen.  Suddenly, a match caught fire in the coal bucket near the stove.  They ran out and hid under some carpet in the car.  None of the parents were around, and the main part of the house had burned nearly to the ground by the time neighbors had notified them and they’d put the fire out.  Fortunately, LaVon and Judd were able to save most of their belongings since their rooms were closed off from the rest of the house, but both families were left without living quarters.  For the balance of the summer, the Reid family lived in a tent in the apple orchard.  One night a strong wind blew the tent down and the boys ran around in their shorts, gleefully, while LaVon went and got into the car and cried.

Jud’s Father had passed away in 1929, leaving the 20 acre farm under mortgage.  After the fire, Judd attempted to get backing from a neighbor to keep the land, but the neighbor secretly wanted the land for himself and refused to help.  Another white fly epidemic in the sugar beet crop compounded Judd’s difficulties and further discouraged him.  He had done well in farming and had sugar beet yields of up to 42 ton per acre, and also had good success with tomatoes but he felt it was time for a change.  He might have been able to find another backer, but he was discouraged with farming.  The land was put up for sale to the highest bidder, and the neighbor who’d refused to back him bought it.  Before they finally built a basement home in Sunset, the family lived in part of Myron B. Child’s home for a few months, in another home for a while, in Roy briefly, and in a home on the corner of 2300 North and Main Street in Sunset.

Judd bought 3 acres of land with a friend, Rulon Bankford, and by a toss of the coin they determined who should have which half.  Judd got the portion on the west.  Soon the city wanted to build a road on that portion, where upon Rulon generously offered to reapportion so that each would end up giving an equal part to the city.  The family financed a new basement home through a loan from State Savings.  Their new home had a kitchen, a front room, two bedrooms, and a bath.  Later they built a brick home on top of the basement, thus providing ample room for five growing boys.  Stan the fifth son was born in 1939.  Judd planted the field in pasture, watering by irrigation from the canal and later from a nearby spring.  He built a barn with a hay loft to house a horse and a cow, and a shed that later burned to the ground when a neighbor’s cigarette butt set fire to a manure pile next to it.

By this time he had begun working at Smith Brothers Grocery Store, as a store clerk and a gas station attendant.  He worked there for about 3 year; then, soon after the United States became involved in World War II, he began working at the Arsenal later to be called Hill Field.  He worked there for 15 months, becoming head of maintenance of the entire plant, and suggesting several innovations to reduce costs and the use of the Emory wheel to salvage bad bullets, the use of a simple chute instead of expensive battleship linoleum to send bullets on down the line, and the use of a special holder for painting bombshells.  He grew tired of seeing the waste involved at the plant, and quit to return to his job with Smith’s.

Mr. Smith soon leased the service station to Judd, and in contract with Continental Oil Company, he entered the gas business.  He felt the move was a good one for his sons, who thus had a job for after school.  He soon had built up a good business and established a reputation for dependable service.  He and the boys serviced brakes, tires, wheel bearings, and batteries, sending tune-up and repair work to Mitchells Brothers mechanic shop next door.  He told the boys, “if you ever make a mistake in servicing a car, tell the owner immediately and work it out with him; then you won’t have anything to hide when you see him again.”  After running a successful business for over 15 years, the freeway came through in the early 1960’s and Judd was told the station must be taken out.  He subsequently bought a station in Layton through financing from the bank, which he sold to Husky Oil Company for a sizable profit after a few months of successful business.

Next he leased a station in Ogden in hopes of purchasing it, with the sign “Reid’s Service” on display in the front.  The company he was leasing from made them remain open on Sundays; Judd ached “from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet” each Sunday night, even though he wasn’t personally working on the Sabbath.  He remembered how at the old Conoco station, a young drunk driver wrecked into the building on Sunday, which could have resulted in death from a serious fire or explosion if the station had been opened.  Insurance had paid for the damages to the station; Judd had visited the young man in jail and encouraged him to go back to school, and the young man later become a professor at Weber College.  Now, his station was staying opened on Sundays.  For six weeks, he ached from Sunday until Wednesday.  When the purchase agreement to buy the station didn’t go through, he left the gas business entirely, becoming an office manager in real estate sales for Kent Smith.

Work took up a big part of his and his sons’ time through the years, but life wasn’t all work.  As a youth Jud had hunted jack rabbits in the “sand holes” near Clinton.  Later, as the boys were growing up, he began hunting deer and pheasant each autumn, taking them along and seeing that each son had a gun when they were old enough to handle it.  The deer hunt was a memorable experience each season.  Once they stopped at the Lost Creek check point on the way to Gildersleeve Canyon, and were jokingly told there were no deer in the area.  Later that morning they returned with the biggest buck taken in the area that season, with a 36 ½ inch spread.  They’d had the last laugh.

Jud was involved in community affairs.  He was influential in having an addition made to the Clinton School when Sunset was too small for a school of its own; he suggested the site for the Sunset Elementary School and the name for the Doxey School.  In conjunction with his church work, he arranged for the site of the Sunset Junior Seminary and suggested the site for a new chapel.  He was appointed Justice of the Peace on June 1, 1954, and was subsequently elected to serve a four year term as Justice of the Peace for Davis County Northern District.  He served not because of the income it afforded, but because of the opportunity to help guide those who had become wayward.  Since he performed marriages as Justice of the Peace, he was later able to claim that he had married couples in every conceivable way as a Bishop, a member of a stake Presidency, a Justice of the Peace, a Missionary, and finally  in the only right way, as a Temple Sealer.

Service to others was indeed the central theme of his life.  In his Church activity, he served in many capacities, including M-Men Instructor, Ward Clerk, Scoutmaster, Seventies Quorum President, Bishop, High Councilor, First Counselor in the North Davis Stake Presidency, Stake Patriarch, Missionary, and Temple Sealer in the Ogden Temple.  He had many, many choice experiences, always seeking to help others in whatever way he could, humbly and diligently about his Father’s business.  A memorable experience occurred while he was in the MIA Presidency during the Depression.  He helped organize a Christmas program and dance using the best talent that could be found from Salt Lake City to Ogden.  Trees were cut and brought down from the canyon, and tickets and trees were sold for $1 to those who could afford to pay, given away to those who couldn’t.  Some 300 people came for the program, and they raised $53 above the cost of the orchestra.

Judd’s spiritual depth and faith were manifested at an early age; though he hadn’t read the Book of Mormon clear through until he was 45 years old.  His early days at home taught him the value of using the Priesthood in behalf of illness.  When his sister Lenora was going blind, the Home Teacher, Robert Bingham, joined their Father in giving her a blessing to restore her vision; she never had to even use glasses.  Years later, several months before Grandmother Reid (Esther Weir Steadman Reid) passed away she was in great pain due to cancer.  Roy anointed her with consecrated oil, and Judd sealed the anointing, blessing her that she had been through enough tribulation and would suffer no more pain, but would pass on in the twinkling of an eye when it came time for her to die.  The blessing was fulfilled.  Another time, just before Lenora’s death in 1928, Jud knelt in private to ask that if she couldn’t get better she be taken  He went into her room and found that she was passing away, according to his prayer of faith.  A neighbor later confided that he, too, had prayed for her release at the same moment.

As a Bishop he had many wonderful experiences.  Being the Advisor and leader of the Priests’ Quorum, he asked them if they were content to be outdone by the Deacons and Teachers.  Responding to his challenge, they planned to all attend priesthood meeting or meet in the home of anyone who was absent.  When one of the boys slept in, they walked over and held the meeting in his home.  When another was sick, they did the same thing, and that year they led the Stake with 97% attendance at Priesthood and Sacrament Meeting.  Years later, his assignment in the Stake Presidency included overseeing the Aaronic Priesthood.  Attendance was mediocre.  President Reid challenged the leaders to go for the top, and the Young Men responded by achieving 82% attendance at Priesthood and Sacrament Meeting, placing them among the top 25 in the Church.

Bishop Reid had many opportunities to exercise his priesthood and faith to heal the sick and afflicted.  Concerning his experiences, he emphasized, “I want it definitely understood that I take no credit for the accomplishments of acting as the Lord’s servant in delivering blessings to those in need.” Once, a young bride had rheumatic fever.  The doctors gave her no chance to live, yet she wanted to have a family.  In a blessing Bishop Reid promised her that she would live and have children.  She had a son and a daughter before she was taken.  Another time, a large family in dire circumstances moved in from back East.  The father came to the service station with news that the doctor had said his wife would be unable to work for months.  He asked Bishop Reid to give her a blessing.  They went to the small home, and in sealing the anointing he blessed her to rise from her bed of affliction and attend to her family’s needs.  She was quiet as he finished a beautiful blessing, and told him, “Bishop, you’ve just repeated my Patriarchal Blessing.”

He didn’t always bless the afflicted one to get well.  The son of an in-active couple was in the Dee Hospital, having swallowed a rubber nipple from a welcome mat.  The boy’s heart stopped beating while the doctor was using a periscope to see the nipple.  He was able to apply heart massage after cutting into the boy’s chest, but he informed the parents that if he lived there would be extensive brain damage.  The parents had contacted the Bishop, and they told him, “We can’t give him up.” Commanding the boy not to die, Bishop Reid asked the parents to meet him in his Ward office in a few minutes.  They were reluctant, but he calmly told them their boy wouldn’t die while they were gone.  They came to his office.  Opening the meeting with prayer, he told them it would be better for their son to be released, that he evidently had a mission beyond the veil.  He said they’d regret it if they kept him, and they would be grateful for releasing him.  They agreed.  Returning to the hospital, they caressed the boy and bid him good-bye, and he immediately left mortality.  Jud later said, “I’ll never forget that.  It was a sad, yet very rich experience.  The father is an active man today in the Church.  His life changed from that experience.”

One Sunday, following Ward Conference, Brother Perry came up and said, “Bishop, we’ve had a very rich conference,” expressing his love.  Early the next morning, his wife called with news that he was quite sick, and asked Bishop Reid to come to their home and give him a blessing.  He called his First Counselor, Brother Knight, and as they entered the home, a voice told him that Brother Perry’s life mission was fulfilled.  In sealing the anointing he gave comfort and spoke of Brother Perry’s many accomplishments.  That afternoon, he suffered a heart attack, passing away the next day.  “His journey was closed, and he went forward.”

Bishop Reid used to observe the congregation during meetings to determine if there were any problems.  He had many experiences with the power of discernment.  Once he could tell that something was not just right with a nice looking couple who had just moved into the Ward.  After the meeting he went down and told them what a lovely couple they were, blessed and evenly yoked together, loved of God.  The next Sunday they called for an interview, giving the report that they had been filing for a divorce, but “What you had to say to us last Sunday opened our eyes, and we canceled the divorcement proceedings.  Oh, how grateful we are for our Bishop, a Bishop that has great love and concern for the membership of his Ward.” Their marriage was happy until her death from cancer two years later.

He had two “really choice” Counselors.  When Brother Knight developed serious back trouble that recurred after he was treated once with traction, his legs became red with soreness during the repeat treatment and he was sent home to heal so he could return for more traction.  As the Bishop visited him, he said, “Oh, I just can’t stand it any longer.” Judd called for assistance in giving the blessing.  In sealing the anointing, he commanded the pain to cease and the back to be healed.  Immediately the pain left.  Brother Knight didn’t return to the doctor, and was able to go back to his work as a butcher, suffering little thereafter.

As Bishop he also had a “great” Relief society President who served during 6 of the 8 years he was Bishop.  About a year before her release, she came to him to discuss the possibility of her being released, but he told her, her work was not yet finished.  The following Wednesday, her husband was seriously injured while hauling manure, and by the time he was found and taken to the hospital the doctors said the gangrene poisoning made it doubtful he could be saved.  Bishop Reid noticed him blinking his eyes as he and Brother Knight entered the hospital room.  In sealing the anointing the Bishop rebuked the pain and commanded the gangrene poison to disband and be cast to the four winds.  When he went back a few days later, he was told, “Bishop, I’ve got something to report to you, I don’t think you are aware.  When you came into the room, a halo of light was immediately above you, and reigned above you as you walked around to the side of my bed.  As you started to give me the blessing, the pain started to leave my body beginning in the soles of my feet, like water would go from a bucket.  I fell asleep and did not know when you left the room.” His wife continued to serve.  She didn’t drive, so her husband faithfully took her wherever she needed to go.  After about a year, she came and asked to be released and her request was carried out.  A month later her husband was killed when he accidentally stepped out of his car and in front of another car at Hill Field.  Jud said, “I’ve always felt his life was preserved that his wife might fill her assignment as President of the Ward Relief Society.”

Once he was sitting at home when the impression came that a mother was critically ill in the hospital, and he was needed.  He went there and found the entire family assembled.  The mother said to them, “See, I told you he would come.” He was mouth in blessing her to recover.  Another time, Priesthood meeting was interrupted with the news that a young expectant mother lay dying in the hospital.  The Bishop called his counselors into his office and led in a prayer to plead for a blessing because of the husband’s faithfulness and love for God.  Arriving at the hospital, he was told that the doctors would sacrifice the baby for the mother’s life.  Stepping forward, he opened the oxygen tent, anointed her and called her by name, rebuked death and told her she would live and bear a choice son without complication and assist him to grow to maturity.  Brother Knight sealed the anointing at his direction, then when the two left the room he asked, “Bishop, do you realize what you just said in there?” He replied, “I realize what was said.  I take no credit; have no fear, Bernice will be alright and she will have their son.” He then called the group into a conference room to kneel and express gratitude and re-dedication to the Master.  Fourteen hours later a son was born normally, to the amazement of those involved in the delivery room.  He lived to be an “outstanding student and Elder of Israel.”

Jud blessed many others, both as a Bishop and in other capacities.  When the one conducting sacrament meeting asked how many had received a blessing at his hands as he and LaVon were speaking prior to leaving for their mission to New York in 1974, a sea of hands went up.  He later testified:

Sometimes we place our faith in the doctor, and not in the greater source of assistance.  I know there is no limitation; Great blessings are received through the priesthood.  It must be used in righteousness and in faith.  The success of a blessing lies first with he who delivers the blessing, and then the recipient. Remember, the disciples of Jesus . . . returned and wanted to know why they were not successful.  The Savior’s reply was, “Oh ye of little faith.:  So when you go out, remember to get on your knees while by yourself, and get prepared to receive and deliver as the Lord’s servant.  If you listen for promptings you will know as you are proceeding.  This I know to be true, I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I love my fellow men.  I’ve never met a man that I’ve felt I was better than he.  I like to profit by his mistakes, and he by mine.  My responsibility is to assist him, and he to assist me, and together we move forward.

He also testified of the value of prayer.  “Sometimes, under certain situations, being surrounded on all sides by people, silently we can go in prayer for assistance on the very moment needed.” One of many examples occurred when he and LaVon were attending an old time square dance during their early married years.  She slipped and fell, throwing her arm out of joint.  He later related: “It looked terrible.  She fainted; I was really sick.  Not a soul there knew first aid.” Asking for the assistance of Bishop Child, he carried her to a bench and straightened her arm back properly in the elbow socket.  Afterward, they took her to the hospital, where the doctor told how lucky they were, both to have administered first aid so that her arm wouldn’t be stiff for the rest of her life, and to have not pinched a nerve or chipped the bone.

Another example of the efficacy of prayer occurred when he was suffering from a recurring numbness in his left side.  Alarmed when it kept getting worse, he went into a basement bedroom and knelt in prayer, telling the Lord he needed help and knew he could be healed without going to a doctor, saying he needed to continue on with his family responsibilities and Stake assignment.  As he rose to his feet, he felt an adjustment in his hip and thereafter had no problem.

One of the greatest moments of his life came when he was attending the General Conference session where President David O. McKay was sustained as the new prophet.  It was a lovely April day, and the tabernacle was filled to capacity.  Joy and harmony abounded as President J. Reuben Clark presented the General Authorities for the sustaining vote of the membership of the Church.  There was a hush as Stephen L. Richards was presented as President McKay’s First Counselor, contrary to the expectation that President Clark would continue in the capacity.  Jud later related that as President Richards addressed the conference, “a reddish beard appeared on his face; his voice was as music with the sweetest of tones.” And when President McKay stood to speak, “his features were as smooth as of a man of about 45 years of age.  His voice was tender yet powerful.  He stood with Herculean stature, solid as the Rock of Gibraltar firm yet tender.” Just then, “Light from the dome of the Tabernacle fell onto Presidents McKay, Richards, Clark, and Smith.  Its difference from sunlight was as a spotlight in a dark room.”  The light diffused out over the congregation like “steam rising after a rainstorm.” In telling of the experience, Jud said, “I’ve been in many spiritual meetings, but that is the most rich I have been privileged to enjoy.  Don’t question our great prophet leader.  He does as he is instructed and guided to do.” He accepted without question the division of the Sunset Ward under President McKay’s direction.

Patriarch Reid has a great love for his wife and family.  LaVon has stood by him faithfully and devotedly through the years, working with him, praying with him, caring for the children and supporting him in his Church duties as he has supported her in hers. LaVon has served well in many Church callings.  Of her, he wrote on their 48^th Wedding Anniversary:

To My Sweet Heart . . . Mother of My Sons

As I sat at my desk, my thoughts reflecting on past, present and future, this picture came into view:  I saw a mighty river filled with swift muddy water; and on the river were boat loads of people drifting with the stream, taking them down to land on the shore of heartache and sorrow because off their yielding to sin.  Then I saw you and I, young and fresh, standing hand in hand on the mighty river edge facing the opposite bank where in golden letters were written plainly “Exaltation and Eternal Life.”

We looked and beheld the challenge before us.  We then looked at each other and with hand in hand made a vow with God and each other; and entered the stream, which was swift and rough, with our goal set for the opposite shore to partake of the sweetness of Eternal Life and joy.

The way has been rough and trying, but as we moved forward each day our gathering and sifting has been rewarding, filling our souls little by little with precious jewels that are eternal.

Now that goal that was so far is much closer.  Our strength to succeed is sufficient by keeping faith, daily refreshing our courage; we must continue our love for each other, for our posterity and ancestry.  Our love for God will see us through.  Great is the joy so near.  Yes, it’s been rough and trying at times, but for God and for you, I’d do it again.”

Your Loving Companion,

Jud

During the time they served as the missionary couple in the Joseph Smith Home in Palmyra, New York, they showed visitors through the home at all hours of the day or night, participating in and helping to create an atmosphere for many spiritual experiences, both at the home and in the Sacred Grove (click here to read of one of many accounts of their affect on visitors at the site).  LaVon seemed never too busy to feed a hungry traveler.  They were loved and revered by all who met them, and touched many hearts with their testimony and example.  Surely, it was not happenstance that they were there during the busy Bicentennial Year.

On their return, Judd continued his service as a Stake Patriarch and both served as Temple Workers.  In December of 1977, they traveled to Salt Lake City, joined by their Sons and “Daughters,” and Patriarch Reid was set apart as a Temple Sealer by President Spencer W. Kimball.

George Samuel Reid gives this tribute, counsel, and blessing to his posterity:

I’m humbly grateful for each and every one of my family.  I want all of you to know that I love each of you with all of my heart.  You are remembered in our prayers.  May we continue to move together forward, being faithful, being humble, being prayerful, that we may not get entangled in the ways of the world and lose our close companionship because of neglect.  I ask God to bless us to not fail, in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen

This account has given only a glimpse into the life and experiences of this man of God.  At this writing he continues to serve his fellow men devotedly and unselfishly.  Countless lives have been influenced by his service, his counsel, and his example.  And so it continues; and so it shall be throughout eternity.

George Samuel Reid – Died 10 Nov 1990 – Buried in the Clinton, Utah, City Cemetery

View the Photo Album of George Samuel Reid

WHERE IS YOUR FAITH, BROTHER? – A personal account of great faith exemplified by George Samuel Reid while serving as a missionary host at the Joseph Smith Home in Palmyra, New York.

SGT ROCK:  LAST WARRIOR STANDING.  A personal account of the miraculous influence of Patriarch George Samuel Reid on one the members of his Ward and Stake.