JAMES S. REIDER,

A FRIEND TO MANY

1875-1936

On Friday, March 13, Mr. James S. Reider passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Sadie R. Honsermyer, in York, Pennsylvania, at the age of 71

Reider came to the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Broad and Pine Streets in November 1875 according to the recollections of William Henry Lipsett, an intimate friend of the deceased. Mr. Reider attended a hearing school prior to his enrollment at the Broad and Pine Streets School, because he could write quite well. He studied lithography under the instruction of Mr. Arms, and through this learning secured a position as a lithographer, the trade he followed until a few years before his death. He was known to be one of the best lithographers in the country.

Reider married a deaf lady, Miss Ida Brooks, several years after graduating from the Broad and Pine Streets School. (Miss Brooks was a native of York, Pa.; she also attended the old Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf)

Reider was actively connected with All Souls' Church for the Deaf, serving as layreader under Reverend Henry W. Syle, Reverend Jacob M. Koehler and Reverend C. Orvis Dantzer, for many years. He also served in the capacity of

Secretary of the Clerc Literary Society for a number of years, and was an active member at the time of his death. A prominent figure throughout the state he served as President of the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf over 15 years. In addition to his many other activities he was also actively connected with the local division of the "Frat."

Following the death of his devoted wife in January 1935, he left Philadelphia to live with his daughter in York, where he resided at the time of his death. Mr. Reider was a most sympathetic man, giving aid to the needy and contributing liberally to the many worthy causes that appealed to him. He always had the interest of the deaf at heart. His religion was simple, yet it was earnest, for he had an abiding faith in it, as evidenced by his many Christian acts. His many friends will miss his influence, help and companionship. Although of a simple nature he loved God and his friends. May we pray that all men be like him; for truly great are those who are loving, kind and willing to serve; for did not the Master in His lowly service to the disciples show us the real meaning of mastery and distinction.

Reider's body was laid in state in All Souls' Church for the Deaf, where impressive funeral services were held on Monday, March 16, 1936. He was buried in Westminster Cemetery. Our most heartfelt sympathy goes to his daughter, Mrs. Sadie R. Honsermyer, his relatives and many close friends.

That which was written by a very dear friend of the family, Mr. William T. Davis, at the time of Mrs. Reider's passing may also be fittingly said at this time concerning Mr. Reider.

"Farewell pure loving heart. Thou now dwellest in the home not built with hands; in the eternal sunshine of unfailing love and in the presence of Him at whose right is fullness of joy and peace for evermore.

Excerpted from the book by Otto B. Berg entitled “A Missionary Chronicle"

If there had been an award for all-time outstanding layman in the Episcopal congregations of the deaf, it is very probable that such an honor would have been bestowed upon Mr. James S. Reider, for many years a layreader at All Souls Church for the Deaf of Philadelphia. He appears in a group picture of the clergy assembled at the consecration of this church, December 8, 1888 about which time he became the Philadelphia correspondent for the Deaf-Mutes Journal in New York. He was also a regular contributor of news to the Silent Worker, published by the New Jersey School for the Deaf at Trenton. In 1933 -the year Editor Edwin A. Hodgson died - he was still sending in news to the paper from

Philadelphia. . Mr. Reider faithfully reported every event of any importance that occurred at All Souls' in his news column in the DEAF-MUTES JOURNAL.

It was the DEAF-MUTES JOURNAL that called attention to Mr. Reider's sterling qualities quite some time before his death on March 13, 1936. at York, Pa. Said Mr. Hodgson in an editorial that appeared in the December 1, 1921, issue of the paper:

Mr. Reider has been a busy man in aiding the uplift of the status of the deaf during all the years he has worked so faithfully and skillfully at his trade. He has sent the news about the deaf of Philadelphia regularly, each week with scarcely a break, to the Deaf-Mutes' Journal for over a quarter of century; he had filled the alumni column of the Mt. Airy World of the Philadelphia Institution for many years; he was for several years performed a like service for the Silent Worker; he has been one of the staunch supporters of the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf for so long that it strains the memory to recall the span of years, and for ten terms or more has been its president, which office he still holds, he had been a very prominent factor in the establishment of the Home for Aged Deaf at Doylestown, Pa.; he has been and is a fair, outspoken, logical defender of right and justice in affairs of the deaf; his life has been clean, capable, helpful, and useful to his fellowmen, and the Philadelphia Institution has not a name on its list of graduates more worthy of praise and pride.

In the same editorial, Mr. Hodgson repeated a tale told by the Rev. Warren M. Smaltz, then a seminarian, Mr. Smaltz told of his encounter with a salesman for a lithographic firm in Philadelphia. This salesman knew Mr. Reider well and had a very high opinion of him indeed, as evidenced by the following recorded conversation;

With visible pride he declared that he knew lithographs from A to Z because he had once worked side-by-side with the great Reider, Did I know my fellow deaf man named Reider? Sure, that was the name all right - James S. Reider, Why, he was the most consummate lithographic engraver in America upon certain kinds of work! Surely, I must have heard of him. Without any pretense, he spoke enthusiastically in this vein for a full half hour. Confidentially he informed me that he had 'such a soft job at present' because he needed only to promise a wavering prospective buyer that Reider would engrave the plates, and, presto! The sale was consummated. He proudly affirmed that even the government knew about Reider and would not consider any other man's work on certain difficult specifications. And when he finally departed, he had exacted from me a promise to pay him an early visit, for the purpose of viewing his cherished collection of Reider-engraved prints!

The funereal for Mr. Reider was conducted from All Souls' Church on Monday, March 16 with the vicar, the Rev. Henry J. Pulver, officiating. Interment was in Westminster Cemetery. A daughter, Mrs. Sadie R. Honsermyer, and other relatives survived him. His wife, Ida Brooks Reider, predeceased him, on January 21, 1935.

From Silent World, April 1936

Contributing: Reginald L. Boyd

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