Florida's 4th territorial First Lady, Matron of Florida's Confederate Hospital. Martha Reid, born in St. Mary's Georgia, and summered at her mother's family home, Sawpit Plantation on the Nassau River in north Florida. She married Robert Raymond Reid in 1837, and became Florida's First Lady after her husband was inaugurated as Florida's fourth territorial governor in 1839. The couple had two sons. Martha returned to private life after her husband and first son's death from Yellow Fever in 1841 and 1842. During the War Between the States she helped procure a building for the Florida Confederate Hospital in Richmond Virginia to nurse wounded Florida soldiers. She was matron of this hospital, overseeing one of the lowest percentages of mortality of any hospital in the area. Dr. T.M. Palmer of Tallahassee was the Head Surgeon of that Florida hospital. She was known by all the soldiers as "Buena Madre". Late in the war, her only surviving son, Jenkes, was brought to her hospital. He was already dead. Raymond Jenkes Reid died in the Battle of the Wilderness. He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. After the war she returned to Fernandina saying her life had gone full circle, ending up again in near the banks of the Nassau River in north Florida.
Florida's 4th territorial First Lady, Matron of Florida's Confederate Hospital. Martha Reid, born in St. Mary's Georgia, and summered at her mother's family home, Sawpit Plantation on the Nassau River in north Florida. She married Robert Raymond Reid in 1837, and became Florida's First Lady after her husband was inaugurated as Florida's fourth territorial governor in 1839. The couple had two sons. Martha returned to private life after her husband and first son's death from Yellow Fever in 1841 and 1842. During the War Between the States she helped procure a building for the Florida Confederate Hospital in Richmond Virginia to nurse wounded Florida soldiers. She was matron of this hospital, overseeing one of the lowest percentages of mortality of any hospital in the area. Dr. T.M. Palmer of Tallahassee was the Head Surgeon of that Florida hospital. She was known by all the soldiers as "Buena Madre". Late in the war, her only surviving son, Jenkes, was brought to her hospital. He was already dead. Raymond Jenkes Reid died in the Battle of the Wilderness. He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. After the war she returned to Fernandina saying her life had gone full circle, ending up again in near the banks of the Nassau River in north Florida.
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