“For thus the royal mandate ran,
When first the human race began,
The social, friendly, honest man
Where’er he be,
’Tis he fulfills great nature’s plan,
An’ none but he.”
Controversies arising between Amos Kendall, the successor of Barry, and all the old mail contractors, their pay was suspended upon frivolous grounds, compelling them to bring suits, among the most celebrated of which were those of Reeside and Stockton & Stokes. The latter’s case was referred to Virgil Maxy, who found in their favor about $140,000. Mr. Reeside’s claim was tried before Justice Baldwin and a jury in 1841, and resulted in a verdict for plaintiff of $196,496.06, which, after seventeen years, was paid, with interest. As soon as his contracts under Kendall expired he quit the mail service, after putting the Philadelphia and New York mail on the Camden & Amboy railroad during the residue of his contract term.
In 1836 he bought the interest of John W. Weaver between Cumberland and Wheeling, then a tri-weekly line; increased it to a daily, then twice daily, and added another tri-weekly line, and named the lines “Good Intent,” which was the name he had previously given the fast mail line between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. In 1839 he sold his entire interest in the National Road lines, and gave his attention to his suit against the United States. His health being impaired, he spent the winter of 1842 in New Orleans. Returning in the ensuing spring, without benefit to his health, he died in Philadelphia on the 3d of September, 1842.
Mr. Reeside attracted attention by reason of the peculiar garb he appeared in. In the winter season he always wore a long drab overcoat and a fur cap. Once in passing along a street in Philadelphia in company with Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, Vice-President of the United States, some scarlet cloth was observed in a tailor’s window, which prompted Col. Johnson to say: “Reeside, as your coaches are all red, you ought to wear a red vest.” Mr. Reeside replied: “I will get one if you will.” “Agreed,” said Johnson, and straightway both ordered red vests and red neckties, and from that time as long as they lived continued to wear vests and neckties of scarlet colors. James Reeside aided in an early day to develop the mighty resources of our country, with such agencies as were then available, and his name and good work deserve to be perpetuated in history.
Dr. Howard Kennedy, an owner of stock in the National Road Stage Company, and for a brief period a trustee of the road under the provisions of a Pennsylvania law, enacted in 1848, repealed in 1856, was born in Washington county, Maryland, September 15th, 1809. His father was the Hon. Thomas Kennedy, an illustrious citizen, who figured conspicuously in the history of Maryland in the olden time. Dr. Kennedy was a graduate of the Medical University of Baltimore, and a thoroughly educated physician, but the practice of medicine not proving congenial to his tastes, he soon abandoned it and embarked in other pursuits. About the year 1840, or a little before that time, he was appointed a special, confidential agent of the general postoffice department, in which relation he achieved distinction by detecting numerous mail robberies, and bringing the perpetrators before the courts for trial and punishment. It was through the vigilance of Dr. Kennedy that the mail robberies of the Haldeman brothers, Pete and Abe, and Pate Sides, at Negro Mountain, were discovered, and the offenders apprehended and punished.