Susannah Reed (maiden name: West) was born around 1817 in Pennsylvania. Her family eventually moved to Ohio, and she married Quintain Reed there on August 11, 1835. They had at least ten children: John, born around 1836; Maria, born around 1838; Hannah, born around 1840; Frederick, born around 1841; Mary Ann, born around 1843; Jasper, born around 1844; Martha, born around 1846; Cynthia Jane, born around 1850; Sarah, born around 1852; and Elizabeth, born around 1854.
They lived in Patterson, Ohio, and her husband worked as a farmer. By 1850, they owned $300 of real estate. They moved to Crawford, Missouri, in the 1850s, before settling in Jones, Iowa, in the early 1860s. By 1870, they owned $800 of real estate and $600 of personal property. Her husband died on May 8, 1889, and she passed away on December 6, 1893.