LT. SAMUEL J. REID (A BEDSTUY HERO)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** In 2014, The Brownstone Detectives partnered with the New York City Parks Department to help celebrate the lives of the servicemembers of Bedford-Stuyvesant Heights who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Great War. We researched these heroes to locate pictures, stories, and their descendants to be brought together for a ceremony that dedicated a new “Victory and Peace” war memorial at Saratoga Park. This biography tells the story of one of those servicemembers. LT. SAMUEL JACKSON REID “Today I have lost the best pal I ever had.” So began the diary entry of Lt. Samuel Jackson Reid’s orderly for 22 August 1918. Such words might have been more understandable describing lifetimes friends or companions, but this touching and heartfelt line was written by a man who had known his commanding officer for a mere few months. But Reid was not only a beloved officer in his field artillery battery; he was also popular with the entire regiment, according to Reid’s first sergeant, who explained this to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle after Reid’s death. “Sam, by never having driven the men when it was unnecessary, by his consideration and personal regard for them and by his immediate demonstration of himself as a man of fighting spirit, a lover of justice and of […]
