William Jeff Reed

Ada, the county seat, was established in 1893 by William Jeff REED, a Texas cowboy who named the town after his daughter.
William Jeff Reed was born February 15, 1861 and died May 1, 1930, his wife Joannah K. was born January 3, 1867 and died January 16, 1945. Both are buried at Rosedale Cemetery in Ada, Pontotoc Co. Oklahoma.
His children were Ada, Earnest, Annie, Elbert, Richard, Earl, Edgar, Oct. 7, 1900-Jan.13,1967, and Magdaline.
He had a general merchandise store and was the postmaster in Ada.

When Ada started to build, Andrew J. SHIRLEY helped build the first building.

New Ada was started in the middle of a large  cotton field in 1900.There was a gin there and the man who had bought this gin had failed to pay for it,   and the company that owned it had it closed dodwn. That left the farmers in a bad condition with plenty   of cotton to be ginned and the gin closed down. Jeff Reed came to Andrew J. Shirley and wanted him to buy the gin,  because the farmers owed him for groceries and he could not get his money until their cotton was ginned. Andrew  told him he did not have enough money to buy a horse, let alone a gin. He said he did not need any money.   He went on his note and Andrew started in the gin business with about fifty dollars in money, but at the end of   that fall, after the cotton was all ginned, Andrew had paid for the gin and also bough a saw mill and sawed all the  heavy timber that was used in building New Ada.