Samuel Reber – Colonel, United States Army

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He was a relative (son-in-law) of General Nelson Appleton Miles, athough there is no record of his military service in the records of Arlington National Cemetery, I have located a Major Samuel Reber in other files. This person was affiliated with early Army Aviation and later became a Colonel and Chief of Aviation in 1913.

Samuel married Cecilia Sherman Miles, daughter of General Nelson Appleton Miles and Mary Hoyt Sherman, on January 10 1900 in Washington, D.C.. Cecilia was born on Sep 12 1869 in Cleveland, Ohio. They had the following children: Miles Reber and Samuel Reber III.

Samuel Reber of Missouri. Appointed from Missouri a Cadet, United States Military Academy, 1 July 1882 (17); Second lieutenant, 4the U.S. Cavalry 1 July 1886; First Lieutenant, Signal Corps, 27 January 1894; Major, Assistant Adjutant General Of Volunteers, 12 May 1898; Resigned from volunteer service, 4 June 1898; Major, Signal Office, U.S. Volunteers, 20 May 1898; Lieutenant Colonel, Chief Signal Officer of U.S. Volunteers, 18 July 1898; Captain,  Signal Officer of U.S. Volunteers, 17 April 1899; Captain, Signal Officer, United State Army,  1 July 1900; Lieutenant Colonel, Military Secretary to Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles, 1 June 1901 to 8 August 1903); Major, Signal Corps, 2 March 1903.

In the January 1, 1900 paper, I was intrigued by a lovely wedding announcement of Miss Celia Sherman Miles, daughter of General Nelson A, Miles, to Captain Samuel Reber, son of Judge and Mrs. (nee Sherman) Reber.

Rock Rapids Review
Lyon County, Iowa
February 8, 1900

REBER, SAMUEL – CECILIA SHERMAN MILES
CAPTAIN SAMUEL REBER – A Prominent and Fortunate Army Officer
FIANCÉ OF MISS MILES – Choice of the Daughter of the Commanding General of the Army–A West Point Graduate and an Electrical Expert

The announcement a short time ago of the engagement of the daughter of the Major General Commanding the Army, Miss Cecilia Sherman Miles, to Captain Samuel Reber caused a considerable stir in Army circles, where Miss Miles has long been a leading figure.

The announcement was unexpected, and therefore came in the nature of a surprise, although there was really nothing surprising about it. Captain Reber, whose mother was a Sherman is Miss Mile’s second cousin, and the two have almost grown up together. He is several years her senior, and they have been fast friends, so much that no one thought of them as lovers. More than that, Miss Miles has been such a general favorite that her name has frequently been coupled with those of other Army officers who have paid her marked attention, and her marriage has been professed repeatedly, but until now she has remained fancy free. She is an unusually intelligent bright young woman. As a little girl, and while she was in her teens also, she lived much of the time with her parents at the frontier Army posts, and that experience gave her a breadth of character which is not unusually found among girls of society.

Later on she came East and attended a fashionable boarding school for two or three years, but most of her education was obtained from tutors under her father’s immediate supervision. Only those who have the good fortune to know General Miles intimately are aware of the geniality of his disposition. In his home he is seen at his best; he is the ideal husband and father, and with his wife, daughter and son, a youth of about eighteen, who is now at West Point, is a most delightful companion. He is never too busy to be interested in what interests them, and he always prefers an evening at his own fireside to any other place. Miss Mile’s quick, receptive mind has always been a source of pleasure to him. As a little child he delighted to guide her, reading, and as she grew older she formed the habit of reading to him from the books he enjoyed. In this way she has obtained a wide scope of general information, and has in consequence been of much help to him in his literary work. Captain Reber is one of the most promising and certainly one of the most fortunate of the younger Army officers.

He was born in Missouri thirty-five years ago, and was appointed from that State to West Point. He was graduated with the class of ‘8; and was appointed second lieutenant of the 4th Cavalry in the following July, and in 1892 was made a first Lieutenant of the 9th Cavalry. In January, 1894, he entered the Signal Corps, became chief signal officer of volunteers; in May, 1898, and in July of the same year was appointed Lieutenant Colonel. He remained chief signal officer with the Army Corps and of the Department of Matanzas and Santa Clara, and also acting superintendent of military telegraph lines of the island of Cuba, until January 1899, which he was made chief signal officer of the Department of the East, with headquarters at Governor’s Island, where he is now stationed.

Captain Reber is an electrical expert. He took a special course of instructions at Johns Hopkins in connection with his work on the Intercontinental Railway Commission of 1892, of which he was a member. He was also on duty with the Board of Engineer Officers on the Water Power of the Great Falls from April to July, in 1894, and was one of the Government appointees for examining and reporting upon the electrical exhibits of the Atlanta Exposition. During the Spanish-American war he was on duty with the United States Army in Puerto Rico, and accompanied General Miles in his campaign across the island. Miss Miles has been with her parents on the Pacific Coast. The wedding is to take place in Washington in January.

This relative of Miles’ was buried in the Miles Mausoleum in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery on April 16, 1933.

REBER, SAMUEL
COL USA

  • DATE OF DEATH: 04/16/1933
  • BURIED AT: SECTION SOUTH  SITE 1873
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

REBER, CECILIA MILES W/O SAMUEL

  • DATE OF DEATH: 09/10/1952
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 3  SITE 1873
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
  • WIFE OF SAMUEL REBER, COL USA RET

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