Jasper N. Reed was born around 1844 in Ohio to Quintain and Susannah Reed. His father was a farmer who owned $300 of real estate in 1850. The family lived in Patterson, Ohio, until the 1850s, when they moved to Crawford, Missouri. He supported the Union during the Civil War, serving as a private in the 2nd Missouri State Militia Cavalry and the 7th Missouri State Militia Cavalry.
Reed settled in Iowa after the war, and he married Christina J. Brown there on November 27, 1867. They had at least five children: Perry, born around 1869; Edwin, born around 1871; Frank, born around 1873; Charles, born around 1877; and George, born around 1879. They lived in Highland, Iowa, and Reed worked as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $230 of personal property. A decade later, they were living in Jones, Iowa. He applied for a federal pension in September 1883 and eventually secured one. He eventually moved to Portland, Oregon. He died of “chronic hypertrophy of [the] spleen” there on March 16, 1897.