Ogden and Jean Reid

Ogden Mills Reid, Founding Families (published July 2012)

Born on May 16, 1882, Ogden attended the Browning school in New York City before moving to Paris with his parents (1889-1892), where details on his education are unknown. From 1899 to 1900, he attended the University of Bonn, Germany. He then earned a B.A. from Yale University in 1904 and an LL.B in 1907. Ogden succeeded his father in the newspaper business, beginning as a reporter in 1908, and then serving as assistant to the city editor. On March 14, 1911, he married Barnard alumna Helen Miles Rogers (class of 1903), his mother's former social secretary. They had met at his parents’ home in London, where Ogden was assisting his father during Whitelaw's ambassadorship to the Court of St. James. Helen joined Ogden at the Tribune and made significant contributions to the paper's development and survival. She would eventually succeed Ogden in managing the paper.

When Whitelaw Reid died in 1912, Ogden was named managing editor of the Tribune, then became editor in 1913. In 1923, the Tribune moved its offices uptown to 40th and 41st Streets. In 1924, with his mother's assistance, he purchased the New York Herald and its Paris edition for the sum of $5,000,000, merging it with the Tribune to create the New York Herald Tribune. It appears that Elisabeth was instrumental in this merger: “Tribune men give her full credit for the acquisition of James Gordon Bennett's and Frank Munsey's Herald. She refinanced the unprofitable Paris Herald, made it pay” (Time 14).

Ogden died in New York on January 3, 1947 at the age of 64. He had earned many honors over the course of his life, including Officer of France's Legion of Honor and Commander of Belgium's Order of Leopold II. More than 1,500 people attended his funeral at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York City. He left his family's fortune, including the newspaper, to his wife and two sons. He also created the Reid Foundation, which funded three scholarships of $5,000 for budding journalists to study overseas. He had also continued contributing to the Tribune Fresh Air Fund, created by his father in 1876 to subsidize summer vacations for underprivileged children.

Photogravure by Alexander Bassano of Lady Templeton Ward (Jean Reid), 1909. Royal Collection Trust.

Jean Templeton Reid was born in 1884. She was an accomplished horsewoman, skillful in outdoor sports, an excellent musician, and fluent in German, Italian, French, and English, Jean spent the majority of her youth at Ophir Farm. She lived in relative seclusion until her coming out ceremony on February 6, 1903. The New York Times, which reported on the event, described it as a notable ball preceded and followed by a seated supper in the fifty-foot-long dining room of her parent’s home in New York City (February 7, 1903, 9).

In England, whenever her mother was away, Jean often substituted for her as the hostess of official ambassadorial functions. On June 23, 1908, she married the son of the Earl of Dudley, the Honorable John Hubert Ward. The marriage took place at the royal chapel of St. James Palace. King Edward and Queen Alexandra were among the 1,000 guests at the wedding's lavish festivities at the Reids’ London home, Dorchester House. According to the New York Times “[...] it was attended by more members of the royalty than ever were seen in a marriage in London that did not unite a royal couple” (December 3, 1938, 19).

Jean Reid, The Evening World, June 23, 1908, p.3

The Wards frequently visited their magnificent country estate, Chilton, Hungerford, Berkshire – a sportsman’s paradise 25 miles from London, with model cottages for workmen and their families. Michael John Dixon, grandson of John William Dixon, the butler at Chilton Lodge from 1910 to 1932, described Jean Templeton Ward as the most beautiful woman he had ever seen:

A product of her inherited wealth and privileged society absolutely but I will not condemn her for that. Her role seems to have been to organise the family and in particular Sir John. Given the four houses and regular movements between them, this was clearly a full time job. She is the target of many charity requests which are always agreed to and is often involved in helping estate staff and local residents who are effected by problems. A mark of the respect she was held in, is shown by the invitation by Mrs Churchill to join the Royal Order of St. John of Jerusalem, founders and operators of St. John’s Ambulances. Her personal interests seem to increasingly centre on her horses and dogs which she breeds and enters into Crufts. Her letters are friendly, kindly, relaxed, littered with humour and totally without arrogance. You can see why Sir John fell in love and was entranced. Her American attitudes perhaps a breath of fresh air compared with those of the English upper classes at that time? English aristocracy meets US money certainly but a fair swop never-the-less. Both parties appear to have got a great deal. (Chilton Lodge- Hungerford Virtual Museum)

Jean was close to her mother and grandfather, Darius O. Mills, in whose philanthropic footsteps she followed, participating in many of her mother’s charitable engagements and assisting with war relief work during WWII, just as Elisabeth had done in the previous World War. Jean was honored as the Dame of Grace, Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. In 1918, she was appointed Commander in the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.).

Jean outlived her husband by 24 years (he died in 1938) and spent most of those later years in the south of France, at Villa Rosemary in Cap Ferrat. Her mother had come to visit her there in 1931, when she died unexpectedly of pneumonia.

Lady Jean Ward died in 1962 at the age of 78 in New York City.

Jean Reid?, undated, oil on canvas. Columbia Art Properties, Reid Hall.
Philip Alexius de László, Lady Ward, 1922, oil on Canvas. The de László Archive Trust.

Sources for Ogden

  • “1,500 at Funeral of Ogden M. Red (sic).” The New York Times, January 8, 1947, p. 23.
  • “Death of a Great Lady.” Time, vol. 17, number 19, May 11, 1931, p. 14.
  • “Foundation to Aid Studies Overseas.” The New York Times, March 1, 1948, p. 20.
  • “O. M. Reid’s Bachelor Dinner.” The New York Times, March 4, 1911, p. 11.
  • “Ogden Mills Reid.”
  • “Ogden Mills Reid of Tribune Dies of Pneumonia.” The New York Times, January 4, 1947, p. 1.
  • “Ogden Mills Reid Weds.” The New York Times, March 15, 1911, p. 13.
  • “Ogden Reid Estate Put at $9,478,112.” The New York Times, July 15, 1949, p. 24.
  • “Ogden Reid to Wed Helen Miles Rogers.” The New York Times, February 14, 1911, p. 1.
  • “Whitelaw Reid's Son Married to Racine Girl.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 15, 1911, p. 8. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
  • Zinsser, William, “The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune by Richard Kluger (Book Review).” Columbia Journalism Review, Nov 1, 1986, vol. 25, no.4, p. 73. ProQuest.

Sources for Jean

  • “Ambassador Reid’s Daughter Engaged.” The New York Times, April 30, 1908, p. 4.
  • Del Rosso, Laurent. “Maison dite Villa Rosemary, puis Villa La Palladienne.” Inventaire général, Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, 2000.  IA06000954 Patrimoine architectural (Mérimée).
  • Dixon, Michael John, "In search of a Man." Hungerford Virtual Museum.
  • “First Clipper Here Since German War.” The New York Times, December 16, 1941, p. 20.
  •  “John Ward, 68, Dead in London.” The New York Times, December 3, 1938, p. 19.
  • "King's Bridal Gift to Miss Jean Reid." The New York Times, June 1, 1908, pp. 17, 18.
  • “Lady Ward Dead; Aided Charities.” The New York Times, May 3, 1962, p. 33.
  • “Personal and Otherwise.” The New York Times, May 10, 1908, p. 52.
  • “What is doing in Society.” The New York Times, February 7, 1903, p. 9.