Marshall Reid & His Tobacco Company, Milton

Reid Tobacco Company, 100 Hepburn Street, Milton

The  Reid Tobacco Company, began as a join venture between   Marshall Reid. and his brother in law R.F. Wilson.  The company flourished and expanded, with factories in Milton, Altoona, and eventually, a new company in Buffalo NY.

  After Reid's death in 1903, his heirs fought over the estate for a number of years. In 1976 Reid Tobacco Co. was purchased by DeHarts.

Marshall Reid was born in Huntingdon county in 1853, the son of Rev S.H. Reid.

In 1878 he began working with Weikel and Smith Spice company in Philadelphia, where he proved to be a remarkable business man. In 1879 he came to Milton Pa,  the home of his parents. Along with his brother in law R.F Wilson, he began a career in the wholesale tobacco business, under the name Reid & Wilson. After Mr Wilsons death in 1892, the firm was changed to Reid & Co. By 1902 the company had grown substantially, and was incorporated under the name Reid Tobacco Company. About this time, Reid established another Tobacco Company in Buffalo NY, under the name Reid & Co.

Mr. Reid was also at one time President of the Milton National Bank, Director of the Milton Gas Co. Advising manager of the Wilson Fly Net Factory.  He was also one of the owners of the West Branch Novelty Company, founded in 1893.

Reid Tobacco Co Cigar Cutter

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The West Branch Novelty Company was established in 1893 by Marshall Reid, F. S. Chapin, H. R. Frick and George C. Chapin.  They began by making a line of bamboo furniture, working out of the loft of the West Branch Knitting Company.  Eventually they built a new factory on the north end of Arch street.
By 1910, the WBNC was making cedar chests, and today that is what they are most known for. Th e chests were usually sold through department stores, and West Branch chests could be purchased in all leading department stores of the nation.

 During the First World War,  the plant made boxes for the shrapnel shells and toxic gas shells which were being manufactured  by the American Car and Foundry Company and by the  Milton Manufacturing Company.

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A 20 page account of the Legal Battle of Reid Tobacco Co. can be read here:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Northumberland_Legal_Journal/7EoSAAAAYAAJ

The Northumberland Legal Journal, Vol. 2, 1917, pages 1-20 a very large case.

Reid’s Estate. Decedent’s Estate, Executors, Ancillary Executors, Compensation.

Where executors of an estate, which consists of a large and growing manufacturing business, operated in two different states and in two different cities in the one state, charge a commission of $25,000 for managing the business and settling the estate, which management and settlement cover a period of years, and an auditor, after a review of the testimony taken and in view of all the facts in the case, is of the opinion that the said sum is not excessive compensation for the large and difficult task undertaken by the executors, the court will not say that the executors were entitled to but two and one-half per centum of the aggregate amount of the debit side of their account but will sustain the auditor.

That the executors were allowed $7,282.98 compensation as ancillary executors by the Surrogate Court of anther county and state will not work a reduction in the amount claimed as compensation, where it appears that the said amount is not excessive in view of the services rendered.