A Blount County man living near Reid’s Gap, and one of two real candidates for who the place was actually named for. In mid-July 1878, a stranger calling himself Sherwood approached him with a plan to wreck and rob the monthly payroll train of the Louisville & Great Southern and South & North Alabama Railroad. On the advice of his neighbors, Reid strung Sherwood along, pretending to join the scheme while reporting back what he learned, then swore an affidavit before Judge Moore in Blountsville. Sherwood was arrested before finishing recruiting his gang. The Montgomery Advertiser’s account of it, published August 3, 1878, stands as the earliest documented mention of Reid’s Gap by name in the historical record.
Appears in: The Conspiracy to Rob the Train and Reid’s Gap.