Reid, William Shields

Reid, William Shields D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born in West Nottingham, Chester Co., Pa., April 21, 1778, and graduated with honor at Princeton College in 1802. He was then for about two years assistant teacher in an academy in Georgetown, D. C., afterwards in Shepherdstown,Va.; then, about 1804, he became professor in Hampden Sidney College, and finally president of that college some two years later. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Winchester in the spring of 1806, and dissolved his connection with the college about eighteen months afterwards. In 1808 he settled at Lynchburg, Campbell Co., Va., where he opened a school for males as a means of support, and at the same time labored to build up a Presbyterian Church in the village. In this he succeeded, and was installed as pastor in 1822. Still, his principal field of labor was his school, which after a while became a boarding-school for young ladies, and stood first among similar institutions in Virginia. Here his labors for the good of his charge were crowned with distinguished success. Having become incapacitated for public labor, he resigned his charge in 1848, and lived in retirement till his death, June 23, 1853. — Sprague, Annals of the Amen. Pulpit, 4:388.