When William Reid Dry was born on 24 September 1868, in Monroe, Missouri, United States, his father, William B. " Buck" Dry, was 43 and his mother, Martha C. Taggart, was 37. He married Adelia Catherine Rhodes about 1896, in Oklahoma, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 2 daughters. He lived in Meridian, Ada, Idaho, United States in 1910 and Alberta, Canada in 1911. He died in November 1939, in Warspite, Smoky Lake County, Alberta, Canada, at the age of 71, and was buried in Waskatenau, Smoky Lake County, Alberta, Canada.