Clay County, West Virginia Biography of OLIVER E. REED This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 516-517 Clay OLIVER E. REED is one of the popular young native sons of Clay County, and resides at its judicial center, where he is giving effective service as deputy county clerk. On his father's farm in this county Mr. Reed was born April 2, 1897, a son of Levi J. and Martha E. (Walker) Reed, the former of whom was born in Calhoun County, this state, February 22, 1863, and the latter of whom was born in Clay County, in 1868, her death having here occurred in 1903. The father still resides upon the homestead farm on which he and his wife established themselves within a short time after their marriage, and he is one of the sub- stantial and honored citizens of Clay County. Of their five children three survive the mother, and of the number the subject of this review is the youngest, he having been but six years of age at the time of his mother's death; William C. is a resident of the State of Iowa, where he is telegraph operator and train dispatcher in the service of the Illinois Central Railroad; and Frederick W., who graduated from Marshall College and also from the University of West Vir- ginia, is, in 1922, a student in the Western Reserve Medical College at Cleveland, Ohio. For his second wife the father married Adora Steorts, and the children of this union are four in number: Nina, Luther, Earl and Helen. Reared on the home farm and afforded the advantages of the public schools, including the high school at Clay, Oliver E. Reed thereafter completed a commercial course in the Mountain State Business College at Parkersburg. For two years thereafter he was identified with the general mer- chandise business in the Village of Procious, Clay County, and on the 1st of January, 1921, he assumed his present official position, that of deputy county clerk. He is a re- publican, is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica, he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a stockholder in the Elk Elec- tric Light & Power Company at Clay. In 1917 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Reed and Miss Ella Strickland, and they have three children: Eu- gene, Garnett and Warren E., a merry trio of boys who add vitality and joy to the attractive home circle.