BIO: Frank B. REED, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 402 - 404.
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  FRANK B. REED, sole owner and proprietor of the Clearfield Machine Shops and 
Foundry, is at the head of a large enterprise and is numbered with the 
representative business men of Clearfield, Pa.  He was born in this city, April 
26, 1853, and is a son of George Lattimer and Sarah (Weaver) Reed.
  George Lattimer Reed was born in Clearfield county, Pa., in 1823, and died 
December 23, 1905.  He was a son of Alexander Bowman Reed, who came to 
Clearfield county as a pioneer and became interested in large tracts of timber 
land and spent the remainder of his life in this county.  He had the following 
children:  Maria, who became the wife of Gov. William Bigler, once chief 
executive of Pennsylvania; Rebecca, who became the wife of John F. Weaver; and 
George Lattimer.  George L. Reed was interested with his father in lumbering 
and together they owned vast tracts of valuable timber, and later engaged in 
brick manufacturing; he was also one of the founders and owners of the 
Clearfield Machine Shops.  He was a man of fine business capacity and was well 
known all over this section.  He married Sarah Weaver, who survived him, her 
death occurring in 1908.  She belonged to a prominent old family of Center 
county.  Six children were born to them, as follows:  Frank B.; Alfred B.; 
Elizabeth R., who died in 1910; Virginia, who is the wife of J. W. Chambers, of 
Williamsport, Pa.; Edward B. and George B.
  Frank B. Reed enjoyed excellent school advantages, from the public schools of 
Clearfield entering a preparatory school at Lawrenceville, N. J., and going 
from there to Lafayette College, at Easton, Pa.  He then entered the machine 
shops in which his father had an interest, desiring to gain a practical 
knowledge of the business and continued until he secured the same, the works 
then being operated by the firm of Bigler, Young & Reed.  In 1880, Frank B. 
Reed became manager of the plant and through his technical knowledge and energy 
has done much to place this among the leading industrial plants of the city.
  A history of the development of this business is interesting.  The Clearfield 
Machine Shops were established in 1867, by Ai [sic] F. Boynton and George S. 
Young, on the present site, with accommodations sufficient for the carrying on 
of a small amount of manufacturing, the product then being machinery for saw 
mills.  It was not until the brick industry became of greater importance than 
the lumber business in this part of Pennsylvania, that the company started 
their present line of production-machinery for the manufacture of fire brick.  
In the meanwhile ownership of the works changed, Mr. Boynton selling his 
interest to Hon. William Bigler and George L. Reed, and in 1880, Mr. Young sold 
his interest to W. H. Mulhollon and at the same time a part of the George L. 
Reed interest was assigned to Frank B. Reed, the firm style then becoming 
Bigler, Reed & Co.  In 1901 Frank B. Reed bought the entire interests of the 
other members of the firm, retaining the services of Mr. W. H. Mulhollon as 
superintendent.  The Clearfield Machine Shops and Foundry are located on the 
corner of Fourth and Pine streets, Clearfield, with business office on Fourth 
street north of Pine.  From the first the business has had steady growth, its 
present equipments being perfect of their kind and the railroad facilities 
being such as to enable rapid shipment in any direction.  Employment is given 
to sixty skilled mechanics and other laborers.
  On October 26, 1876, Mr. Reed was married to Miss Rebecca W. Shaw, a daughter 
of Archibald Shaw, and they have had five children, namely:  Scott B., who died 
when aged twenty-two years; Alfred B., who was married in 1909, to Miss Edith 
Dill, and they have one son, Fred Bowman; Robert B., who is a member of the 
faculty of the Syrian Protestant College, at Beirut, Syria, being professor of 
Economics, and is a graduate of Princeton College, Harvard College and the 
Auburn Theological Seminary; Philip, who is a member of the class of 1910, at 
Princeton College; and one who died young.  Mr. Reed and family are members of 
the Presbyterian church.  In his views on public questions he is a Democrat, 
but has never entered into politics to any great extent.  The family residence 
is situated at No. 724 S. Second street, Clearfield, Pa.  It is a hospitable 
home and many pleasant social functions take place there.