Denver, History of Colorado, BIOS: REED, George L. (published 1918)
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"History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. 
Clarke Publishing Co. (1918)  Vol. II


p. 208, 210
photo p. 209



GEORGE L. REED.

	George L. Reed is the president of The Boulder Creamery Company, 
a developing enterprise which has long since taken its place among the 
dividend paying commercial interests of Denver. Its management is based 
upon sound business principles and a spirit of progressiveness and 
initiative marks the conduct of its interests. Mr. Reed established the 
business by taking over an enterprise of the kind that had failed. He 
had had some previous experience along this line and his keen insight 
enabled him to recognize opportunities, while his unfaltering energy 
has enabled him to overcome all difficulties and obstacles in his path 
toward the goal of success.

	Mr. Reed is a native of Cedar county, Iowa. He was born November 
25, 1869, and is the eldest in a family of four sons and five daughters 
whose parents are William S. and Amanda (La Rue) Reed, who are also 
natives of Cedar county, Iowa. The Reed family was established in that 
state in early pioneer times. The ancestral line is traced back to 
England and the family was founded in the new world by Leonard Reed, 
who came to the United States about 1824. He took up his abode in Cedar 
county, Iowa, at an early date and devoted his life to the occupation 
of farming, spending his remaining days in the Hawkeye state where he 
died aged about sixty-two years. William S. Reed was reared and 
educated in Cedar county, Iowa, and there took up the occupation of 
farming. In 1881 he removed to Fillmore county, Nebraska, and in 1907 
he became a resident of Morgan county, Colorado, where he followed 
farming until a few years ago but is now living retired in that county, 
making his home in Wiggins. His wife is a daughter of George La Rue, 
who was a native of France and became the founder of the American 
branch of the family. He, too, cast in his lot with the early settlers 
of Iowa. Mrs. Reed is also living and they are well known people of 
Wiggins.

	George L. Reed pursued his early education in the schools of 
Cedar county, Iowa, and afterward continued his studies in the high 
school in Fairmont, Nebraska. His early life to the age of seventeen 
years was spent upon the home farm and then he started out to provide 
for his own support. He was first employed by the Fairmont Creamery 
Company of Fairmont, Nebraska, his work being to collect cream 
throughout the country, through which he traveled with a wagon. He 
received as remuneration for his own labors and the use of his team a 
dollar and ninety-two cents per day. He was thus employed for three 
years or until he reached the age of twenty. In 1890 he removed to 
Crete, Nebraska, to become superintendent there, representing the 
Fairmont Creamery Company at that place. He occupied the position for 
five years and was then transferred to Fairbury, Nebraska, and became 
general manager for the company at that point. He continued in the 
latter position for six years and was with the Fairmont Company 
altogether for fourteen years. On removing to Boulder, Colorado in 
1901, he became a butter sales agent for the Fairmont Company, Boulder 
being the company's distributing point in this state. He had been in 
Colorado for but a brief period when he learned that the Boulder Dairy 
Supply Company was about to go out of business. In fact it had failed. 
Thereupon Mr. Reed leased the plant and with a cash capital of one 
hundred dollars founded his present business, which has since developed 
and grown until it is the second largest in the state. After conducting 
the business for three months Mr. Reed had made such a success of the 
undertaking that his capital was increased to two thousand dollars and 
in 1911 the business was incorporated with a capital stock of fifty 
thousand dollars. In 1909 the main business was removed to Denver in 
order to secure better shipping' facilities and today the firm employs 
on an average of one hundred people, while the output for 1917 was in 
excess of one million pounds of butter. Something of the growth of the 
business is indicated in the fact that during the first year at Boulder 
the output was thirty-six thousand pounds. Today the trade extends to 
all parts of the country from coast to coast and the products of The 
Boulder Creamery Company are unsurpassed for excellence, while the 
development of the business stands as an indication of the marked 
enterprise, initiative and discernment of George L. Reed. In addition 
to his connection with The Boulder Creamery Company, of which he has 
always been the president, Mr. Reed owns five sections of land and 
farms three sections near Greeley but makes the creamery business his 
chief interest, and at a recent date the capital stock has been 
increased to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It is his plan to 
gradually increase this to a half million or more as needed for the 
development of the business and it is hoped and believed that the 
business will become one of the largest of the character in the west.

	On the 15th of September, 1898, in Fairbury, Nebraska, Mr. Reed 
was married to Miss Genevra M. Curtis, a native of that state and a 
daughter of Sidney and Mary A. (Wiley) Curtis, the former now deceased, 
while the latter makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Reed. To their 
marriage have been born two children: Donald La Rue, who was born in 
Boulder, Colorado, August 27, 1903; and Virginia, born June 28, 1911.

	Politically Mr. Reed is a republican but not an office seeker. He 
recognizes, however, the duties and obligations of citizenship and 
always loyally supports the principles in which he believes. He belongs 
to Elks Lodge. No. 566, of Boulder, has been identified with the Modern 
Woodmen of America since 1892 and belongs to the Fraternal Union and 
the Royal Arcanum. He also has membership in the Denver Civic and 
Commercial Association, the Denver Manufacturers Association and the 
Denver Motor Club and he is interested in all of those things which are 
a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride. His religious faith is 
that of the Methodist church. He is truly a self-made man and as the 
architect of his own fortunes has builded wisely and well. He began 
work on the farm, milking cows, when but ten years of age and from 
early youth has been dependent entirely upon his own resources, so that 
his life record illustrates what can be accomplished through individual 
effort and such a record should serve as an inspiration and 
encouragement to others, for he is today at the head of an extensive 
and growing business and one which is having much to do with advancing 
standards of creamery production in the country.