REID, Wit rrEr.Aw, b. Ohio, 1837; graduated in 1856 at Miami university; was super intendent of public schools in South Charleston, Ohio, and then editor of the Xenia News. which he purchased about 185S, and which was one of the earliest newspapers in the west to advocate Mr. Lincoln for the presidency. In the winter of 1860-61 Mr. Reid was in Columbus, Ohio, as a correspondent, and next became city editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, and acted as war-correspondent of that paper in 1861, his vivid descriptions of battles which he witnessed gaining for him a wide reputation as a writer of remarkable brilliancy. He was attached to the staff of gen. Rosecrans, was present at the battle of Landing, and in the spring of 1862 was sent to Washington by the Gazette. He was appointed librarian to the house of representatives, was present at, and wrote a graphic description of, the battle of Gettysburg, and had by this time become recog nized as one among the few leading war-correspondents of any nation. In 1865 he traveled through the south with lion. Salmon P. Chase, and described the condition of that section in his After the War. He was for two years a cotton-planter in Alabama and Louisiana, but in 1863 became one of the principal editors of the Cincinnati Gazette.
He had already (in 1869) been offered by Mr. Greeley a position on the editorial staff of the New York Tribune; and this offer being renewed in 1869, it was accepted, and SIr. Reid became managing editor of that journal. He was editor-in-chief while Sir. Gree ley was running for the presidency iu 1872, and on the death of the latter became pro prietor of the Tribune, a position which he Still occupies. Mr. Reid has become prominent in a charitable movement originating with some benevolent person whose name has not been made public; and, as his almoner, has expended large sums and given much time and labor in sending New York street-boys to the west, and placing them in positions there, among the farming population. In dispensing this charity he has been remark ably successful. He should also be credited with the accomplishment of the difficult task of sustaining the Tribune at a high point of success, in the face of more than ordi nary obstacles; and particularly that of the loss of Mr. Greeley, who was identified with that paper from its foundation, and whose relations to the American public were calcu lated to make his death ruinous to its future career.