speculator, politician, "founder of Menasha," b. Westford, Mass. He was the brother of Harrison Reed (q.v.) and George Reed (q.v.). In 1835 he joined his elder brother, George, in Milwaukee, later farmed for a time in Summit, Waukesha County, and in 1846 was a member of the upper house of the territorial legislature. In the 1840's, with his brother, Harrison Reed, and others, he acquired and developed property and utility rights on Doty Island, at the outlet of Lake Winnebago on the lower Fox River (Neenah-Menasha). In 1848 he built a log cabin on the northern side of the island, and in 1849 he and Charles Doty, son of James D. Doty (q.v.), platted and recorded the townsite of Menasha. Reed was a prominent figure in Menasha for the remainder of his life. He was for a number of years active in the complicated manipulations promoting the Fox-Wisconsin improvement project, and was instrumental in having the government canal routed via the north channel of the Fox River. A Democrat, he was state assemblyman (1853, 1861), and held numerous local offices in Menasha, including those of alderman, mayor, and postmaster. Biog. Dint. ... Wis.... (Chicago, 1895); J. Schafer, Winnebago-Horicon Basin (Madison, 1937); Menasha Evening Breeze, Mar. 19, 1895; WPA MS.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]