SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Samuel Reed, Page 472

SAMUEL REED, who is numbered among the honored pioneers of Sheboygan County, resides on section 3, Lyndon Township.  A native of the old Bay State, he was born in Franklin County, Mass., May 17, 1817, and is the second in a family of three sons and four daughters, who were born unto Hosea and Betsy E. (Whitaker) Reed.  Of the number three are now living:  Susan, wife of R. B. Tousley, a horticulturist of California; Samuel of this sketch; and Chester, a farmer and stock-dealer of Jefferson County, N. Y.  The father was born in Massachusetts, in 1786, and died in 1870, at the ate of eighty-four.  Throughout his life he followed farming.  He removed from Massachusetts to New York and there remained until coming in 1854 to Wisconsin, where he spent his last days.  He was first an old-line Whig, but joined the Republican party on its organization.  His wife was born in Massachusetts, in 1780, and died in September, 1848.

    Samuel Reed spent the first ten years of his life in his native State, and then went with his parents to New York.  At the age of nineteen, with no capital save a pair of willing hands, he started out in life for himself, and whatever success he has achieved is due entirely to his own efforts.  As a companion and helpmate on life's journey, he chose Miss Eliza Cummings, who was born in New York, August 12, 1821.  They were married in January, 1839, and became parents of five sons and two daughters, of whom five are yet living.  Cynthia A. is the wife of P. Batchelder, a farmer of Dunn County, Wis., by whom she has one child.  Samuel A. married Miss Susan Dawley, a native of this county, and they have one son and three daughters.  He follows farming in Plymouth Township, and is a member of the Odd Fellows' society.  Fannie is the wife of Rial Wilson, an agriculturist of Plymouth Township, and they have one son and two daughters.  Charles C., a ranchman of Colorado, married Ella Wheeler, by whom he has two sons.  Henry R., who was born August 17, 1862, aids in the operation of the home farm.  He was married March 22, 1886, to May Belle Wheeler, daughter of Rufus Wheeler, of Lima Township.  She was born February 23, 1868, and they have two children, Lulu May and Robbie H.  Henry Reed cast his first Presidential vote for Benjamin Harrison.  He belongs to Hiawatha Lodge No. 520, R. A., and Town Line Lodge No. 275, I. O. G. T., which has a membership of about ninety.  They have erected their own lodge-hall at a cost of $400.  Henry Reed is a young man of sterling worth and strict integrity, and well deserves mention in this volume.

    In 1846, Samuel Reed, accompanied by his wife and two children, started for the Territory of Wisconsin, and reached Sheboygan County in the 1st of June.  He made a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, but afterwards sold fifty-one acres.  As it was wild land, upon which not a furrow had been turned or an improvement made, he at once began its development, and now has a fine farm, two and a-half miles from Plymouth, which yields to him a golden tribute.  In January, 1884, he was called upon to mourn the loss of his faithful and devoted wife, with whom he had traveled life's journey for forty-five years.

    Mr. Reed has experienced all the trials and privations of pioneer life, since the days when Indians were numbered among his neighbors, and when all kinds of wild game were to be found in abundance.  When he first knew Sheboygan, it contained not more than twenty-five homes.  In this community there were no churches or schools and the work of civilization seemed scarcely begun.  In the progress and upbuilding of the community he has ever borne his part, and the county has ever found in him a faithful and valued citizen.  He belongs to the Congregational Church, with which his wife also held membership.