Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Reed, George W 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com December 3, 2007, 1:17 am

Author: Past & Present, 1907

George W. Reed was born in Parke county, Indiana, March 2, 1824, and in 1827 
accompanied his parents on their removal to Fountain county, that state. It 
was in the spring of 1829 that they came to Will county and settled in what 
was afterward known as Reeds Grove in Jackson township. The father built his 
cabin of logs taken from the grove and there they lived until the spring of 
1832, when the Black Hawk war broke out and they returned to Indiana. The same 
fall, however, they again came to this county, and locating at what is now 
Joliet, the father built a log cabin on the west side of the river, back where 
the National Hotel now stands. That was the first cabin built on the present 
site of the city. Mr. Reed's parents, Charles and Cloah Olive Reed, were of 
Scotch-Irish descent and were early settlers west of the mountains in 
Virginia. They had a family of six children, five sons and one daughter, 
namely: Charles, William, George W., Edward, Elias and Olive. Soon after their 
marriage they removed to Parke county, Indiana, where our subject first saw 
the light of day. At the age of five he came to Will county, Illinois, and 
here grew to manhood, receiving a very limited education in the schools of 
this locality. In 1848 Mr. Reed was united in marriage to Mary Strader, by 
whom he had a son, Frank. Mrs. Reed died in 1852 and he then removed to Stark 
county, Illinois, which has since been his home. In 1855 he married a Miss 
Webster, of that county, who died in 1862, leaving a son George. In the latter 
year he enlisted as a private soldier in the cause of the Union and served 
faithfully for three years, receiving his discharge in June, 1865. Soon after 
his return home from the army he married Mrs. Jane Montieth Hunter, whose 
husband had been killed in the battle of Stone River. To them have been born 
five children, two of whom died in infancy, those still living being Zenobia, 
Edward and William. Mr. Reed had but limited educational advantages in his 
youth as the schools were few in number at that time and the sessions lasted 
only a few months in each year. He was called to fields of labor at an early 
age. The pioneers in those early days made boots and shoes, often tanning the 
leather and making the pegs and lasts. They manufactured their own brooms and 
tools used in farming, including plows and ox yokes. They raised their own 
wool and flax and the women of the household spun and wove them into cloth for 
clothing for the family. Mr. Reed is still healthy and vigorous 
notwithstanding his eighty-three years of active and laborious life. He is now 
a prosperous merchant of Bradford, Illinois, and bids fair to be an active 
business man for many long years to come. 

Additional Comments:
Past and Present of Will County, Illinois, by W. W. Stevens, President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association. Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/reed1874nbs.txt

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