John Reedy was born in LaGrange, California, 9 September 1861. He was the youngest child of the family which included two sisters and a brother. His father, also named John Reedy, was the County Treasurer, the town of LaGrange being the Stanislaus County seat from 1856 to 1862. During the period of his childhood John's father held important positions both as an elected official and a prominent business leader. The elder Reedy died in 1875, when his youngest son was only fourteen years old. According to the 1880 census, John was 19 years old, living with his married sister, Margaret Dunn, and attending school. The first high school in Modesto was not opened until 1883 so perhaps John, like his older sister Eliza, attended school in Oakland or San Francisco.

There are records of him living and working in the San Francisco area between 1882 and 1886. The Langley City Directories for San Francisco have the following:

1882-83
Reedy, John weigh master C.P. R.R. (Central Pacific Railroad) r 731 Bryant
1883-84
Reedy, John longshoreman r German Hotel
1886
Reedy, John Sheepdriver r Bahama bet. Yazoo and Susquehanna.

The Daily Evening News in Modesto reported on the comings and goings of prominent citizens of the town. We know John returned to live in work in Modesto because on September 12, 1887 the Modesto Daily Evening News noted on the front page:

John Reedy went to San Francisco yesterday morning on a business trip.

On September 15, 1887 his name again appears in the same paper noting:

John Reedy and Miss Eliza Reedy returned from a visit to San Francisco last evening.

Further down in the column another paragraph stated:

Miss Anna M. Horn has been retained as teacher in Lafayette school district, and returned from San Francisco last evening.

John, his sister and John's future wife were on the same train. Could they have been courting at that time? On August 30, 1888 the newspaper again reported John's travels:

John Reedy went to Stockton yesterday.

Perhaps by this time he had opened the stoves and tin ware store he owned with A. R. Jamison. The Daily Evening News made numerous reports about the merchandise supplied by the Jamison & Reedy store:

May 18, 1889: Jamison & Reedy yesterday completed an iron tank of 5,000 gallons capacity for the railroad. The tank was taken to Livingston.

May 20, 1889: Jamison & Reedy today received a large sprung alarm bell to be put in the Sheriff's office as an alarm for the County Treasurer's office.

May 21, 1889: Jamison & Reedy are engaged in making a 10,000 gallon water tank of galvanized iron. The tank will be used at the county hospital.

An ad for the store was also found. A photograph of the Jamison & Reedy store with four men posing in front was found at the McHenry Museum in Modesto. Undoubtedly one of the men is John Reedy but we do not know which one.

John' wife, Anna Marie Horn was born in Stockton, California in 1864 or 65. The only confirmation of the date of her birth comes from the age listed in her obituary, age 36 years. Her father, Henry Franklin Horn, was a Missourian listed in the 1860 census living in Stockton with his wife, Hanora, and a small son, Henry F., born in June 1859. She had no other surviving siblings because her father's obituary clearly states he was survived by a wife and two children. We know her family moved to San Francisco after her father's death. (See Henry F. Horn and Hanora O'Sullivan)

Anna received her California State Teacher's Certificate on 6 June 1884. She began teaching at Junction School near Modesto during the 1884/85 school year returning for the 1886/87 school year. She taught at LaFayette School outside La Grange in the 1887/88 school year. Anita Reedy Nunan often said her mother was a school teacher of Indian children and is memorialized on a plaque on an old school house. We have not been able to locate an old school on the site of Junction school to see if the memorial is still there.

The date and place of John and Anna's marriage has not been located but the search now centers in San Francisco. Anna's mother died in 1885 but her brother Henry F. Horn still lived in the city. We believe the wedding took place after the close of the school year in 1888 or at the beginning of 1889.

Anita Reedy Nunan often said her father "built the first dam on the Merced River". While we cannot find any record of that work we do know that water was always important both to mining and farming in Stanislaus County. John's father was involved in development of water resources on the Tuolumne River. According to L.C. Branch's History of Stanislaus County the first dam on the Tuolumne was a timber dam erected in 1871 in which the senior Reedy held a financial interest. It replaced an earlier mud dam. The timber dam was replaced in 1893 with a new concrete structure, La Grange Dam, on which the younger John Reedy may have worked.

The younger Reedy, like his father, was a Democrat active in politics while living in Modesto. According to newspaper accounts he was appointed a member of the Congressional Committee from the 2nd District in September 1890. In the History of Central California on page 122 John Reedy is listed as one of the "first" Officers - Trustees elected in 1892 in Modesto, CA. He was re-elected in 1894. On page 2 of the Daily Evening News of April 6, 1894 an article recommending certain candidates for election had this to say about him:

Mr. Reedy, another of the nominees, may be truly said to be a man of the people. He is of the present Board, yet, really, not of it. He represented, on most of the issues and interests, a minority in that Board. He was, no doubt, re-nominated as an expression of confidence and an endorsement of his course as a member of the Board. He has, at all times, shown a disposition to act with the people and for their interest.

John and Anna had four children three of whom were born in Modesto. Their children were:

Anita Juliet Reedy, born 3 February 1890 in Modesto, married John Francis Nunan 24 December 1908 in San Francisco, ten children, died 30 June 1972 in San Francisco, California,

John Henry Reedy, born 29 June 1891 in Modesto, marriage date unknown to Frances (last name unknown), two children, died 23 December 1955 in San Francisco, California,

Albert Stanley Reedy, born 2 November 1892 in Modesto, marriage date unknown to Mabel Tadich, no children, died 19 August 1940 in San Francisco, California, and

Irene Reedy, born 1897 in San Francisco, marriage date unknown to Warren Cain, two children, died August 1983 in San Francisco, California.

Sometime before 1896 the family moved to San Francisco because the San Francisco Voter Registration lists dated 1888-1904 has John Reedy listed as follows:

Anna died in San Francisco on 10 February 1900. She was originally buried in San Francisco at Mt. Calvary cemetery and moved to the Horn family plot at Holy Cross Cemetery when all the cemeteries were closed in response to a 1914 San Francisco city ordinance banning cemeteries within the city limits. Because of the 1906 earthquake and fire we have not been able to obtain a copy of her death certificate. Her obituary appeared in the San Francisco Call on Sunday 11 February 1900 on page 30:

REEDY - In this city, February 10, 1900, Anna M., dearly beloved wife of John Reedy, beloved mother of Anita, John, Albert and Irene Reedy, and sister of Henry F. Horn, a native of Stockton, Cal. aged 36 years. (Stockton, Merced and Mariposa papers please copy.)

Friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend the funeral tomorrow (Monday), at 909 Dolores street, thence to St. James Church, Twenty-third and Guerrero streets where a requiem high mass will be celebrated for the repose of her soul, commencing at 9 o'clock. Interment Mount Calvary Cemetery.

Later that month, on the 23rd, John's mother Eliza Reedy died. While the 1900 census lists John Reedy as a widower living as a boarder without the children, the 1900 San Francisco City Directory shows him living with sons Albert and John Jr. at 156 Belvidere. All were working at Pacific Hardware & Steel Co. The same census lists his daughters living with their Aunt "Maggie" Dunn in Modesto. In 1910 the city directory shows the three men continuing to live at the Belvidere address but the 1911 directory give their address as 422 Frederick.

John maintained close contact with his sisters, Margaret and Mary Eliza. While he does not seem to have had much contact with his brother Andrew, John and his wife were mentioned as attending Andrew's funeral in October 1907 (see chapter regarding Andrew Reedy).

John bought a small orchard in Cupertino and commuted to work in San Francisco. He married a second time and his daughters came to live with their father, brothers and new step-mother, Annie. It is clear from statements made to her children that Anita Reedy Nunan resented her step-mother. This may have been one of the factors that influenced her defiance of her father's wishes and marriage to John Francis Nunan in December 1908. John continued his civic activities being a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in San Francisco. A newspaper article with his picture appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, August 8, 1910 on page 2 reporting his election as vice-president of the general relief committee from Western Addition Lodge No. 285.

Several letters written by John survive giving a picture of his later life. The first dated May 6, 1933 was written to his granddaughter Helen Nunan on the occasion of her 18th birthday. It reads:

Cupertino 5/6/33 To Miss Helen Nunan San Francisco My Dear Grand Daughter Your Nana and I are sending you a small package for your 18th Birthday.  We hope you will be as good for the next 18yrs. as you have been in the past. We are sorry we are not able to send you more. So please accept it with our best wishes for many many Happy Birthdays. When you were here last after you had left we found a nice picture and your Nana has been going to thank you for the same several times but kept putting it off from time to time. We could both feel better than we are. With love and best wishes to you all. We are your Nana & Granpa Reedy

The second letter was written to his daughter, Anita Reedy Nunan. In it he explains why he and his wife did not attend Helen's wedding on July 16th:

At Home Saturday July 22nd, 1933 My Dear Daughter Well the wedding is all over and suppose you are all settling down to business once again. We came home the Tuesday after we saw you and had Jack Reedy as our guest. JH Reedy met us at Mt. View and we noticed he had been drinking. We all came home and the next day the 2 Johns went to San Jose as usual. Well at 11-30 A.M. the phone rang and it was a nurse from the Ocimor Hospital saying that a J.H. Reedy had been brought in to the hospital from the effects of a eleptic (sic) fit and for us to come and take him home. Well the 2 poor old bums went down and paid the hospital and brought him home. We then sent for our Dr. and he gave him a good examination and told him to quit all cigarettes and liquor of all kind. We paid the Dr. 3.00 medicine 2.00. The next day a bill came for the ambulance 7.50. We will not pay the same. So now you wonder why we didn't attend the wedding. Helen sent him an invitation for the wedding and of course he was all set to go at our expense. Your Mother gave him to understand that if he went Frances R. would not go, so we all had to stay home. We surely felt bad to think your Mother could not go. We had Jacky here for 3 weeks and went home yesterday. We are both tired and worn out in trying to look out for our fruit. So now you can see our position and we hope no one will be offended at us. We had a call from the bride & groom. Come and see us when you can. I wonder how long we have got to slave for other people. Love to you all Your Father John Reedy We are both worried about Albert.

Both letters were written shortly before John died of heart disease on 1 September 1933. He is buried in Holy Cross cemetery.

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