John Reed
John Reed was born on April 24, 1836, in Harrison County, 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. By 1860, Reed was working as a farmhand there. The family probably moved to Jones, Iowa, in the early 1860s.
Reed enlisted in the Union army on July 28, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company B of the 18th Iowa Infantry on August 5. The regiment was stationed in Missouri until September 1863, then in Arkansas until July 1865. His parents were Democrats who opposed emancipation. They apparently believed that Republicans wanted to make African Americans “better than white man.” Reed, however, voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. He declared slavery an “accursed institution that has brought disgrace upon our once happy land.” Reed also insisted that African Americans were “better than a great many white men for they are loyal to the United States.” He mustered out in Little Rock, Arkansas, on July 20, 1865.
He returned to Jones after the war, and he married Mary S. Allison there on December 9, 1866. They had at least eight children: Viola, born around 1868; Chester, born around 1870; Etta, born around 1873; Sarah, born around 1876; John, born around 1877; Fannie, born around 1880; Marion, born around 1887; and Benjamin, born around 1889.
They lived in Jones, and Reed worked as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $1,075 of real estate and $570 of personal property. The family moved to Monroe, Iowa, in the late 1800s. He applied for a federal pension in July 1890 and eventually secured one. He died in Lorimor, Iowa, on February 15, 1917.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (2130) | Reed, John | 1836-04-24 | 1917-02-15 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Private
- Rank highest: Private
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 11
- (3492) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 25 August 1862
- (3523) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 20 May 1863
- (3524) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 13 September 1862
- (3525) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 8 March 1865
- (3526) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 30 December 1864
- (3527) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 29 January 1864
- (3528) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 20 December 1864
- (3529) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 5 July 1863
- (3530) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 31 March 1865
- (3531) [recipient] ~ Frederick Reed to John Reed and Jasper N. Reed, 20 April 1862
- (6620) [writer] ~ John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 12 May 1865
People - Records: 5
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 1
- (647) [enlisted] [B] ~ 18th Iowa Infantry
Groups - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; Iowa Select Marriages Index, 1758-1996, available from Ancestry.com; General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, available from Ancestry.com; Grand Army of the Republic Membership Records, ca. 1866 – ca. 1950, available from Ancestry.com; John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 30 December 1864, Nau Collection; John Reed to Quintain Reed et al., 8 March 1865, Nau Collection.
