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Numismatic graves in Omaha. Byron Reed and J. Hewitt Judd Pictures and a little history
notlogical
Posts: 2,235 ✭
In the October 2006 issue of Numismatist magazine there was an article about finding the graves of famous collectors. Well, my Dad and me decided to try and find the graves of Omaha's famous collectors, Byron Reed and J. Hewitt Judd.
Last Saturday we went out to find their graves. First we went to Prospect Hill Cemetary and found Byron Reed's grave.
It's in a really old part of town and the whole cemetary is really over grown. We had to dig through about a foot of dead grass to find his stone on the ground. That made me feel sad. I've seen his collection a bunch of times and have read about how important he was to Omaha when it was just starting, how rich he was and to see his grave that way was awful. (We noticed that Warren Buffett's dad is buried right across this little road from Byron Reed's grave and it was over grown too. You'd think a billonaire would take care of his Dad's grave. But I guess not.) The grass was so long that my dad kept finding crickets and grasshoppers crawling up his pants legs. You should have seen him jumping around to get them out!
Byron Reed made his money in real estate. As a matter of fact, the "Byron Reed Company" is still doing business in Omaha today!
The October 1996 Spinks auction catalog had a great biography of Byron Reed. One part said, "BYRON REED PASSES AWAY", read the headline of the World-Herald on June 6, 1891, "A PIONEER CITIZEN AND MILLIONAIRE LANDOWNER GATHERED TO HIS FATHERS."
My Dad and I found a CoinWorld article from 07/25/01 that was called "Byron Reed Collection worth $7.9 million" by William T. Gibbs that talked about Byron Reeds collection.
Here's some quotes from that article.
<< <i>"The 333 patterns in the Byron Reed Collection are the brightest stars in the entire collection, carrying a value representing 40.6 percent of the holding's total value, recently assessed at nearly $7.9 million.
Lawrence F. Lee, curator of the Reed collection in Omaha, Neb., said July 19 that the pattern collection was assessed at a value of $3.21 million. The U.S. coin portion of the Reed collection, including the patterns, is valued at $6,447,000, Lee said.
The collection is owned by the city of Omaha and housed at the Durham Western Heritage Museum. The collection of coins, paper money, exonumia, literature and historical documents was willed to the city in 1891 after the death of Byron Reed, whose reputation and standing as a 19th century numismatist has been underestimated, Lee believes." >>
<< <i>"The assessment, which will not become a public document until the Omaha City Council formally accepts it, gives the collection a total value of $7,894,013. Lee categorized the collection into five sub-collections: U.S. coins, 1,163 pieces, valued at $6,447,000; world coins, 693 pieces, $95,000; exonumia (medals and tokens), 1,400 pieces, $322,000; paper money, 673 pieces, $54,000; and books and documents, 2,850 pieces, $975,000.
Lee categorized the U.S. coin collection into five sub-collections. The most valuable section is the pattern collection, totaling 333 pieces. Lee notes that the pattern collection has 13 duplicates, valued at $40,000.
The U.S. coin sub-collection comprising federal coins totals 602 pieces valued at $2,844,000, Lee said. That includes a specimen of the 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar, with a value of about $2 million, the single most valuable object in the collection.
The Colonial coin collection, totaling 139 pieces, is valued at $266,000, Lee said.
The 51 pioneer gold coins in the collection are valued at $116,000, Lee said." >>
<< <i>"Currently, 410 objects from the Reed collection are on display, Lee said, representing 6 percent of the total collection. While 6 percent might seem small to the layman, Lee said that 6 percent is actually a high number by museum standards.
Even though 94 percent of the collection remains unseen, Lee said that visitors to the Durham Western Heritage Museum would see the best material from the collection on display. In some categories, significant portions are on display, including 37 percent of the pioneer gold pieces and 29 percent of the Hard Times tokens. In contrast, just 1 percent of the modern world coin collection is on display.
Just as the late Harry Bass can be considered one of the greatest collectors of the 20th century, Byron Reed was one of the greatest collectors of the 19th century. And, Lee believes, Reed's reputation as a numismatist is largely unrecognized." >>
Here's a link to the article. Article link
The other famous numismatist grave we found in Omaha was J. Hewitt Judd's.
Dr. Judd's grave is at a newer cemetary in Omaha called Forest Lawn
.
I talked to a couple of the really old members of the Omaha Coin
Club that knew him, but no one was able to give me much information about Dr. Judd. They knew the Omaha Coin Club used to meet at his house once. He had a big vault in his house and that e was robbed once. They didn't know or remember if he was ever President of the Club but they knew he was president of the ANA for 2 years from 1953 to 1955. He had Alzheimer's disease when he died and was living in a nursing home. That was kind of sad to learn too.
I also wrote to Saul Teichman.
Saul wrote back and said:
<< <i>"With regard to the Judd book itself, I believe Dr.
Judd was more involved in the financing of the book, not its
content. I believe the actual content/writing for the first edition
was done by Walter Breen and William Guild, a pattern collector whose
name has been mostly forgotten today but he was a contemporary of
Judd and Lohr collecting patterns in the 1940-50s.
As for Dr. Judd himself, believe it or not, I know very little.
His U.S. collection was offered by Abe Kosoff in the early 1960s as
the "Illustrated History of U.S. Coins". He collected first year of
type as well as patterns. I believe he was also a past president
of the ANA." >>
[
I was really suprised to read that! I always thought Dr. Judd wrote that book. I also found a biography, an obituary and a picture of Dr. Judd. I'll just copy and post the biography and obituary instead of trying to type it all out.
As far as Dr. Judd's collection, I didn't find out much about that. But that will be my next project.
Thanks to my Dad, boiler78, Saul Teichman, Wayne Homren and Amber at the ANA library and a bunch of other people for their help.
I hope you enjoyed what I found out. I know I learned a lot.
edit to add
Here's some thing else that I thought was interesting about Byron Reed.
In 1917, Mrs. Reed rented the house she and Byron built and she had lived in since 1875 to a young priest, Father Flanagan, who used the house to start a home for boy's later known as.....
.......Boys Town.
And now you know the rest of the story.
----------------------------
Judd biography from
American Numismatic Biographies
Pete Smith copyright 1992
Judd Obituary
ANA Numismatist
February 1987/Volume 100, Number 2
page 384
Judd picture
ANA Numismatist
December 1955 / Volume 68, Number 12
page 1314
Last Saturday we went out to find their graves. First we went to Prospect Hill Cemetary and found Byron Reed's grave.
It's in a really old part of town and the whole cemetary is really over grown. We had to dig through about a foot of dead grass to find his stone on the ground. That made me feel sad. I've seen his collection a bunch of times and have read about how important he was to Omaha when it was just starting, how rich he was and to see his grave that way was awful. (We noticed that Warren Buffett's dad is buried right across this little road from Byron Reed's grave and it was over grown too. You'd think a billonaire would take care of his Dad's grave. But I guess not.) The grass was so long that my dad kept finding crickets and grasshoppers crawling up his pants legs. You should have seen him jumping around to get them out!
Byron Reed made his money in real estate. As a matter of fact, the "Byron Reed Company" is still doing business in Omaha today!
The October 1996 Spinks auction catalog had a great biography of Byron Reed. One part said, "BYRON REED PASSES AWAY", read the headline of the World-Herald on June 6, 1891, "A PIONEER CITIZEN AND MILLIONAIRE LANDOWNER GATHERED TO HIS FATHERS."
My Dad and I found a CoinWorld article from 07/25/01 that was called "Byron Reed Collection worth $7.9 million" by William T. Gibbs that talked about Byron Reeds collection.
Here's some quotes from that article.
<< <i>"The 333 patterns in the Byron Reed Collection are the brightest stars in the entire collection, carrying a value representing 40.6 percent of the holding's total value, recently assessed at nearly $7.9 million.
Lawrence F. Lee, curator of the Reed collection in Omaha, Neb., said July 19 that the pattern collection was assessed at a value of $3.21 million. The U.S. coin portion of the Reed collection, including the patterns, is valued at $6,447,000, Lee said.
The collection is owned by the city of Omaha and housed at the Durham Western Heritage Museum. The collection of coins, paper money, exonumia, literature and historical documents was willed to the city in 1891 after the death of Byron Reed, whose reputation and standing as a 19th century numismatist has been underestimated, Lee believes." >>
<< <i>"The assessment, which will not become a public document until the Omaha City Council formally accepts it, gives the collection a total value of $7,894,013. Lee categorized the collection into five sub-collections: U.S. coins, 1,163 pieces, valued at $6,447,000; world coins, 693 pieces, $95,000; exonumia (medals and tokens), 1,400 pieces, $322,000; paper money, 673 pieces, $54,000; and books and documents, 2,850 pieces, $975,000.
Lee categorized the U.S. coin collection into five sub-collections. The most valuable section is the pattern collection, totaling 333 pieces. Lee notes that the pattern collection has 13 duplicates, valued at $40,000.
The U.S. coin sub-collection comprising federal coins totals 602 pieces valued at $2,844,000, Lee said. That includes a specimen of the 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar, with a value of about $2 million, the single most valuable object in the collection.
The Colonial coin collection, totaling 139 pieces, is valued at $266,000, Lee said.
The 51 pioneer gold coins in the collection are valued at $116,000, Lee said." >>
<< <i>"Currently, 410 objects from the Reed collection are on display, Lee said, representing 6 percent of the total collection. While 6 percent might seem small to the layman, Lee said that 6 percent is actually a high number by museum standards.
Even though 94 percent of the collection remains unseen, Lee said that visitors to the Durham Western Heritage Museum would see the best material from the collection on display. In some categories, significant portions are on display, including 37 percent of the pioneer gold pieces and 29 percent of the Hard Times tokens. In contrast, just 1 percent of the modern world coin collection is on display.
Just as the late Harry Bass can be considered one of the greatest collectors of the 20th century, Byron Reed was one of the greatest collectors of the 19th century. And, Lee believes, Reed's reputation as a numismatist is largely unrecognized." >>
Here's a link to the article. Article link
The other famous numismatist grave we found in Omaha was J. Hewitt Judd's.
Dr. Judd's grave is at a newer cemetary in Omaha called Forest Lawn
.
I talked to a couple of the really old members of the Omaha Coin
Club that knew him, but no one was able to give me much information about Dr. Judd. They knew the Omaha Coin Club used to meet at his house once. He had a big vault in his house and that e was robbed once. They didn't know or remember if he was ever President of the Club but they knew he was president of the ANA for 2 years from 1953 to 1955. He had Alzheimer's disease when he died and was living in a nursing home. That was kind of sad to learn too.
I also wrote to Saul Teichman.
Saul wrote back and said:
<< <i>"With regard to the Judd book itself, I believe Dr.
Judd was more involved in the financing of the book, not its
content. I believe the actual content/writing for the first edition
was done by Walter Breen and William Guild, a pattern collector whose
name has been mostly forgotten today but he was a contemporary of
Judd and Lohr collecting patterns in the 1940-50s.
As for Dr. Judd himself, believe it or not, I know very little.
His U.S. collection was offered by Abe Kosoff in the early 1960s as
the "Illustrated History of U.S. Coins". He collected first year of
type as well as patterns. I believe he was also a past president
of the ANA." >>
[
I was really suprised to read that! I always thought Dr. Judd wrote that book. I also found a biography, an obituary and a picture of Dr. Judd. I'll just copy and post the biography and obituary instead of trying to type it all out.
As far as Dr. Judd's collection, I didn't find out much about that. But that will be my next project.
Thanks to my Dad, boiler78, Saul Teichman, Wayne Homren and Amber at the ANA library and a bunch of other people for their help.
I hope you enjoyed what I found out. I know I learned a lot.
edit to add
Here's some thing else that I thought was interesting about Byron Reed.
In 1917, Mrs. Reed rented the house she and Byron built and she had lived in since 1875 to a young priest, Father Flanagan, who used the house to start a home for boy's later known as.....
.......Boys Town.
And now you know the rest of the story.
----------------------------
Judd biography from
American Numismatic Biographies
Pete Smith copyright 1992
Judd Obituary
ANA Numismatist
February 1987/Volume 100, Number 2
page 384
Judd picture
ANA Numismatist
December 1955 / Volume 68, Number 12
page 1314
What Mr. Spock would say about numismatics...
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
0
Comments
Thank you for sharing what you learned!
I thought Dr. Judd had written the pattern book, too.
It's too bad Mr. Reed's grave was overgrown. It sounds like he was a very prominant citizen.
Great post.
-Amanda
I'm a YN working on a type set!
My Buffalo Nickel Website Home of the Quirky Buffaloes Collection!
Proud member of the CUFYNA
Great post by notlogical.
Superb Report!
Loved every last bit of Info!
Mustve have been great having to stand by his grave, one of the greatest collectors in those days!
TKC!
Proud member of the CUFYNA
Need a Banner Made? PM ME!
Thanks Sam.
Reed's overgrown grave and Judd's Alzheimer's Disease is instructive. All glory is fleeting.
As a side note, the city of Omaha in it's infinite wisdom, broke up and sold the Reed collection.
<< <i>That's a great write-up, Samuel.
As a side note, the city of Omaha in it's infinite wisdom, broke up and sold the Reed collection. >>
"The value of the Reed collection would have been even greater had the city not sold portions of it in 1996 to raise funds for various municipal projects (the sale raised about $5.6 million). The decision to sell portions of the collection was a controversial one, pitting city officials who saw the collection as a revenue source against others who wanted to maintain the collection intact."
Well, at least they didn't sell all of it.
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
I really enjoyed your "trip report"/essay.
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
BST successful dealings with:MsMorrisine, goldman86
Keep up the good work
<< <i>Great post Samuel! Unbelievable that the city can sell part of his collection for over 5 mil to fund various civic projects but they don't have the decency to spend a few shekels maintaining his grave site.
Keep up the good work >>
Samuel, superb post.
I hope your dad doesn't have too many nightmares about cricket attacks.....
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
regards,
dealmakr
<< <i>Great post Samuel! Unbelievable that the city can sell part of his collection for over 5 mil to fund various civic projects but they don't have the decency to spend a few shekels maintaining his grave site. >>
My grandma even said "The Byron Reed" company could do something too.
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
In 1917, Mrs. Reed rented the house she and Byron built and she had lived in since 1875 to a young priest, Father Flanagan, who used the house to start a home for boy's later known as.....
.......Boys Town.
And now you know the rest of the story.
eidt to copy and ad to my first post.
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
You're a good asset for us, and if the truth be known, you've contributed more to our collective knowledge here than many of us.
Hope you stick around for a long time. You are what true collecting is all about.
Excellent report Samuel. Thoughtfully written and the addition of the photos brings it "life".
Your grandmother is right, the Byron Reed company should send a caretaker to the grave site to maintain it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coin collecting is not a hobby, it's an obsession !
New Barber Purchases
<< <i>Also, the grass was so long that my dad kept finding crickets and grasshoppers crawling up his pants legs. You should have seen him jumping around to get them out! >>
The worse part of it was the more I jumped the higher they went!
Your next assignment: The Boys Town Coin Collection (just kidding!)
<< <i>Nice report -- excellent and informative!!
Your next assignment: The Boys Town Coin Collection (just kidding!) >>
I'm sure that was said tongue-in-cheek, but don't be surprised if Samuel takes that as a challange. I expect we'll see a report on the Boy's Town Collection before the year is out!
<< <i>
<< <i>Nice report -- excellent and informative!!
Your next assignment: The Boys Town Coin Collection (just kidding!) >>
I'm sure that was said tongue-in-cheek, but don't be surprised if Samuel takes that as a challange. I expect we'll see a report on the Boy's Town Collection before the year is out! >>
I think the Boys Town Collection was the Byron Reed collection. It was just stored and displayed at Boys town for a while but I'll check and make sure.
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
notlogical,
Ever consider submitting your research in the form of an article to CW or NN? It would make for a really good read.
<< <i>notlogical,
Ever consider submitting your research in the form of an article to CW or NN? It would make for a really good read. >>
I thought about Central States but I didn't think of CoinWorld or Numismatic News. thanks for the idea.
I'm happy so many people liked it.
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
Well, that was wierd, server delay I guess
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
A bump for a truly informative thread! Well done, Samuel.
SM1 calls me a troublemaker....
--------------------------------------------
Sunday August 19, 2007 9:17AM
A mentor awarded " YOU SUCK!!"
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
<< <i>I'm glad this was bumped. Fun and fascinating read. Thanks for doing the leg work. >>
Oops! I was trying to copy a picture out of this thread and must have done something.
But I'm glad you liked it!
... "Fascinating, but not logical"
"Live long and prosper"
My "How I Started" columns
That was easily as good as any article I've read in a coin publication and better then most.
The Fireman...