At the age of seventeen, he entered the Second National Bank as messenger boy, obtained his business training there and gradually won promotion until he was made teller, which position he resigned in 1895.

[4] In 1892, he became interested in The American Tin Plate Company, owners of an extensive plant at Elwood, Indiana.

In 1912, he organized the Tobacco Products Corporation with Henry Clay Frick, John D. Ryan and others.

After the formation of U.S. Steel, he moved to New York City and had a mansion on 5th Avenue complete with three-story stable for his horses.

Private stables were normally two stories tall with the ground floor housing the horses and vehicles while upstairs were rooms for servants.

In 1901, three brownstone residences built just after the Civil War were demolished to make way for Reid's new building.

Sitting imposingly behind an iron fence with heavy masonry posts, it was entered through a grand arched span with sliding oak doors that disappeared into the wall.

Setting the elaborate carriage house even further apart from its more typical neighbors were the bowling alley and billiard room below ground.

In 1900, he married actress Clarisse Agnew, whom The New York Times labeled “a theatrical beauty.”[9] They moved with his daughter into a mansion on Fifth Avenue across from Central Park, where the needs of family were taken care of by 20 live-in servants.

In 1906, he married former actress Margaret M. Carrere (stage name Mabel Carrier), who had appeared in The Chinese Honeymoon, The Runaways and West Point Cadet.

[1][4] His body was brought back to Richmond, Indiana, where he was laid to rest in Earlham Cemetery with his mother, wife, and son.

[17] He purchased 50 acres on the city's north side for $30,000 and donated $100,000 for the building of Reid Hospital in honor of his wife, Ella and their son, Frank.