Enos Reed was born on October 15, 1836, in Union County, Ohio, to James Reed and Asenath McWilliams. His father died around 1845, and his mother eventually married Thomas Long. The family moved to Iowa in 1853, and he eventually began working as a teacher. In 1860, he travelled to present-day Colorado in search of gold. As he later noted, however, he returned home several months later “with less of the yellow metal than I took with me.” By 1860, he was working as a farmer in Pleasant, Iowa.
He married Louisa Walker in Lucas County, Iowa, on April 2, 1862, and they had at least seven children: Olive, born around 1863; Alice, born around 1868; Almeda, born around 1870; Scott, born around 1873; Ida, born around 1876; Alma, born around 1880; and David, born around 1884.
He enlisted in the Union army on August 9, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company K of the 34th Iowa Infantry on October 15. He was promoted to corporal on November 10, 1862, then to sergeant on April 10, 1863. He became a commissary sergeant on March 1, 1864. The regiment took part in the siege of Vicksburg and the Battle of Fort Blakeley. He remained devoted to the Union, declaring the war a “gigantic struggle for our national life.” He mustered out on August 15, 1865.
The family moved to Liberty, Kansas, around 1866. He worked as a farmer, and by 1870, he owned $4,000 of real estate and $600 of personal property. He also served as the county’s superintendent of public instruction. They moved to Palmyra, Kansas, in the 1870s. He supported the Republican Party, and he ran (unsuccessful) for a seat in the state legislature in 1892. He applied for a federal pension in February 1894 and eventually secured one.
He served as commander of the State Soldiers’ Home, and one writer described him as a “ministering comrade to veterans of the Union.” In 1908, he switched to the Democratic Party, a decision that reportedly severed “many political ties with former brave and close comrades.” His wife died in 1911, and by 1920, he was living with his son Scott in Blue, Missouri. He died there on February 26, 1925.