George Samuel Reid Family Roots

UPDATED 5/9/2020 | ORIGINAL 12/23/2009

ELLEN ANN REID (30 Aug 1855 – 1899) was born in Oglethorpe County, Georgia the daughter, and second child of Marcus D Lafayette Reid and Nancy Ann Ramsey.

Ellen was born on her Grandmother Prushy Ramsey’s farm. Her parents, MDL and Nancy were living on the farm at the time of her birth helping her widowed grandmother with the farm.

In May of 1861, Ellen’s father, MDL, enlisted as a soldier in the Confederate Army and remained in the service of the Confederacy for the next 4 years. We assume that MDL arranged for Ellen and her mother Nancy to be cared for by Ellen’s grandmother Hannah Washington Williams Reid Bowles while MDL was away to war. Grandmother Hannah had remarried Benjamin Bowles, and they had relocated to Chattooga County prior to the war. Hannah and Benjamin lived in Chattooga and neighboring Floyd County during the war.

In May of 1865, after the war had concluded, Ellen’s father, MDL, rejoined the family in Floyd County. Soon after, we speculate that MDL, Nancy and Ellen moved for a brief time to the Chambers County, Alabama area near extended Reid family. While living in Alabama on 3 Aug 1869, just 3 weeks before Ellen’s 14th birthday, Ellen’s mother Nancy died. After her mother’s death, Ellen and her father left Chambers County and returned to Floyd County to live with her grandmother, Hannah, and Hannah’s husband, Benjamin Bowles.

Ellen was 15 when her father, MDL, married a young neighbor woman, 20 year old Nancy Elizabeth Duke. It must have difficult for Ellen to have a step-mother whose name was also Nancy, and only five years her elder. Likely driven by her frustration with the circumstances, Ellen was eager to move on with her life. On Christmas Day, 25 Dec 1870, three months after her father’s marriage, Ellen married 34 year-old Samuel Dennington who was working on a neighboring farm after the Civil War as a hired hand.

Ellen and Samuel lived near her father, MDL, in Floyd County after the marriage. Unfortunately, her and Samuel were apparently not well-suited for the marriage, and it ended within 16 months before any children came. We’re not certain, but Ellen likely returned to live again with her father, grandmother Hannah, and step-family in Armuchee, Floyd County, Georgia after her marriage to Samuel ended.

The circumstances of Ellen’s life thereafter are not perfectly clear. According to family records, we know that sometime after her marriage to Samuel ended, Ellen married George Fletcher Pattillo, a tin smith from Cartersville, Georgia who had been previously married to Addie M Calister while both were living in Cartersville. We assume that George and Ellen also lived in Cartersville for a time after their marriage because of public notices advertising George’s business as a tin smith.

Family records indicate that, sometime after the marriage, Ellen and George separated and that Ellen came to Utah from Georgia in November 1885 with her father, MDL, and his family. MDL settled his family in Davis County in the small farming community of Kaysville, 25 miles north of Salt Lake City, and we assume that Ellen lived with them in Kaysville. According to public records, Ellen’s husband, George, remained in Cartersville until about 1888 when he came to Utah in search of Ellen in an attempt to reconcile the relationship or formalize their separation.

Apparently George was successful in locating Ellen in Utah, as he and Ellen are both noted as living in Kaysville as early as 1890, although we do not know if they had reconciled their relationship. On 1 Sep 1890, while living within the boundary of the Kay’s Ward, Ellen was baptized a member of the LDS Church by William Blood. George’s presence in Kaysville at that same time is confirmed by numerous advertisements in local publications where he was conducting business as a tin smith and had become known for his involvement in local government and other community affairs.

Ellen’s father, MDL, purchased land from John and Martha Flint and moved his family from Kaysville to the Sandridge (Clinton, Davis County, Utah) in 1892. We are not certain if Ellen and George had reconciled and were living in Kaysville at the time, or if Ellen and George remained separated and Ellen moved with MDL and his family to Clinton. We do know that in spite of whatever attempts were made to reconcile, Ellen and George were granted a divorce on 6 Apr 1897. George had petitioned the court for the divorce based on a claim of willful desertion, and according to court records, Ellen did not contest the petition. To the best of our knowledge, there were no children of record of Ellen and George’s marriage.

In the years thereafter it becomes even more difficult to track Ellen’s life. She does not appear in any public records in Utah after her divorce from George in 1897. While yet to be confirmed, some records suggest that sometime prior to or after her divorce from George, Ellen moved from Utah to California near extended family and that she died in Los Angeles County in 1899 at the age of 44. We do not know the reason for her move to California, nor the circumstances at the time of her death.

Even after her death, Ellen’s influence on George (Fletcher Pattillo) continued indirectly through her family. In February of 1898, nearly one year after his divorce from Ellen, George was baptized a member of the LDS Church and soon thereafter married recently widowed Esther Hannah Clark Ross on 11 April of 1898 in Kaysville, Davis County, Utah where he and Esther lived until his death. Public records and reports from family members of that era report that George and his new family remained close to the MDL Reid family long after George and Ellen’s divorce. On 11 Nov 1898, seven months after George’s marriage to Esther, George was asked to witness the marriage of Ellen’s half brother, George Washington Bailey Reid. Pattillo family history also records that “Mr. Reid (MDL) liked George and brought watermelons to the (G.F. Pattillo) family”.

We hope to someday better understand the dynamics of the relationship between Ellen and George, but we are grateful to know that there was much good that resulted from their personal and family association.

Historical facts for ELLEN ANN REID:

• 30 Aug 1855:  Oglethorpe County, Georgia, born to Marcus D Lafayette Reid and Nancy Ann Ramsey
• 11 Jun 1860:  Oglethorpe County, Georgia US Census, living with parents
• 2 Aug 1869:  Alabama, death of mother Nancy Ann Ramsey
• 2 Sep 1870:  SubDivision 49, Floyd County, US Census Record, living with father and grandparents
• 11 Sep 1870:  SubDivision 49, Floyd County, Georgia, marriage of father Marcus D Lafayette Reid to Nancy Elizabeth Duke
• 25 Dec 1870:  SubDivision 49, Floyd County, Georgia, Marriage to Samuel Dennington
• 1872:  Floyd County, Georgia, divorce from Samuel Dennington
• Date Unknown: Marriage to George Fletcher Pattillo, date and place unknown
• 1889:  Presumed to be living in Kaysville, Davis County, Utah with husband, George Fletcher Pattillo
• 1 Sep 1890: Baptized member of the LDS Church in Kaysville, Davis County, Utah by William Blood, confirmed by WR Jamison, Kay’s Ward. (Kaysville 1st Ward LDS Church Records – Ellen Reid Pattillo Baptism Certificate)
• 6 Apr 1897: Divorce from husband George Fletcher Pattillo, as granted by 2nd Judicial District Court, Judge Rolapp presiding. (Ellen Ann Reid George Fletcher Pattillo Divorce Court Record).
• 1899:  Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, death at age 44, Circumstances unknown