railroad promoter, businessman, lawyer, politician, b. Middlesex County, Mass. He was the brother of Curtis Reed (q.v.) and Harrison Reed (q.v.). He attended Middlebury College in Vermont, and studied law in Rutland. In 1834 he moved to Milwaukee, where he was joined in 1835 by his parents and brothers. He soon moved to the town of Summit, Waukesha County, where he farmed for several years. He was a delegate to the first (unsuccessful) state constitutional convention (1846), and represented Waukesha County in the lower house of the territorial legislature (1847-1848). In 1850 he moved to Manitowoc, where he served for several years as county judge. A Democrat, Reed was state senator (1865-1870). After moving to Manitowoc, he spent most of his time promoting numerous embryonic railroads designed to bind that city to the rest of the state; chief among these lines were the Manitowoc and Mississippi, and the Manitowoc and Menasha. Reed was also the chief promoter of the Wisconsin Central R.R. He was killed in the Newhall House fire in Milwaukee. R. L. Martin, Hist. of Wis. Central (Boston, 1941); M. M. Quaife, ed., Convention of 1846 (Madison, 1919); Milwaukee Telegraph, Feb. 25, 1883; WPA MS.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]