Reed, Joseph R. (1835-1925)

REED

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 1/20/2009 at 14:08:15

Joseph Rea Reed
(March 12, 1835 - April 2, 1925)

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.48, Council Bluffs)
Judge Joseph R. Reed, Council Bluffs, is a native of Ashland County, Ohio, born March 12, 1835. His father, William Reed, was a native of Washington County, Penn., a farmer by occupation, adn was of Scotch ancestry. He married Miss Rosanah Lyle, daughter of Robert Lyle, also a farmer of Washington County, Penn., and came West and located in Ohio in 1829. They raised a family of six children, all of whom are still living - James O., a resident planter and railroad contractor of Louisiana since 1864; Sarah J., a maiden still living in Ashland County; Elizabeth, wife of Rev. D. A. Newell, a Presbyterian clergyman of Mercer County, Penn.; William, a merchant of Loudonville, in Ashland County; Rosanah, wife of Jesse Hessen, a lawyer of the same town, and our subject, who is the third of the family. Judge Reed secured his rudimental schooling in the common schools of his native town, and closed his school days in an academy. He left Ohio and came to Iowa in 1857, and first located in the town of Adel, in Dallas County. There he engaged in teaching, devoting a portion of his time to the study of law; was admitted to the bar of the State in March, 1859, and from that time practiced his profession in Dallas County until 1861. At the breaking-out of the rebellion, he entered the army as Lieutenant in the Second Iowa Battery, from Dallas County; he served as Lieutenant about three years, and, in September, 1864, was promoted to the rank of Captain, which commission he held until July, 1865, when he returned home. His battery figured in the entire campaign before Vicksburg, also at the battle of Nashville, later at Mobile, and was in many other minor engagements, the most important of which was the battle of Tupelo, in July, 1864. Judge Reed's personal tastes inclined him to the study of law, which he prosecuted without the aid of a tutor, and entered upon its practice alone. He came to Council Bluffs in 1869. In 1870, he formed a law partnership with B. F. Montgomery, and Judge James, under the firm style of Montgomery, Reed & James. In 1871, Mr. Montgomery retired from the firm, and Messrs. Reed & James continued the business until September, 1872, when Mr. Reed was appointed Judge of the Third Judicial District of Iowa, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the election of Judge McDill to Congress. Judge Reed, after completing the unexpired term, was duly elected to fill the place which he now occupies. When a practitioner, Judge Reed was known as a thorough, industrious and painstaking attorney. He is now known as a prompt and impartial Judge of the law, disposing of his judicial business with dispatch, and to the general satisfaction of the bar. He was married, November 1, 1865, to Miss Jenette E. Densmore, daughter of James E. Densmore, a farmer of Ashland County, Ohio, a native of Pennsylvania. He came to Ohio in 1833. He had three daughters and four sons, Mrs. Reed being the fourth of the family, and was born in York County, Penn., April 20, 1833.

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.609)
HON. JOSEPH R. REED of Council Bluffs is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and a descendant of those hardy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, so prominent in the early history of Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the United States. Joseph Reed, the great-grandfather of our subject, came to Pennsylvania in an early day, settling in Chanceford, York County. He was a man of more than ordinary ability; was a Colonel in the Revolutionary War; a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and introduced measures for the manumission of the slaves in that state, which was adopted about 1793-94. He was a farmer, landowner and miller. His wife was a worthy and resolute woman and during her husband's absence in the army, she ran the mill and ground flour to feed the army. Both he and his wife were Presbyterians, and had a large family, among whom was James REED, the grandfather of our subject. The latter removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in farming. He married Elizabeth REED, a distant relative to her husband, and they had four sons and two daughters.
One son, William REED, the father of our subject, was a farmer by occupation and was married in Washington county, Pennsylvania, to Roseanna LYLE, daughter of Robert LYLE. The latter was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. In 1829 William REED moved to Ohio and settled in what is now Ashland County, near the present village of McKay, where he cleared a farm, and where both he and his wife lived until death. They had three sons and three daughters who grew to maturity, namely: James O., a farmer in his youth and later a teacher, and who died on his farm in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana; Sarah J., who resides with her brother, Judge REED, in Council Bluffs; Hon. James R., our subject; Elizabeth wife of Rev. D.A. NEWELL of Wooster, Ohio; William, a merchant at Loudonville, Ohio; Rosanna, wife of Jesse R. HISSEM, also of Loudonville.
Hon. Joseph R. REED was born on the old homestead in Ashland County, Ohio, March 12, 1835. He was educated in the common schools and at the Vermillion Institute at Hayesville, Ohio. He removed to Iowa in March 1857 settling at Adel, Dallas County, where he taught school and also studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, and immediately began practice at that place, continuing until the outbreak of the late war. He enlisted in July 1861, as First Lieutenant in the 2d Iowa Battery, and served until July 1865; in 1864 he was promoted Captain of the battery.
At the close of the war, Mr. REED returned to Adel, Iowa, where he resumed the practice of law. He was elected a State Senator in 1865, and served in the 11th and 12th General Assemblies and in the summer of 1869 removed to this city where he has since resided. September 1, 1872, he was appointed Judge of the District Court, and served as such until January 1884; from January 1884 to March 1, 1889, he served as Judge of the Supreme Court and in November 1888 was elected a member of the 51st Congress.
Judge REED was united in marriage November 1, 1865, at Ashland, Ohio, to Jenette DINSMORE, a daughter of James A. DINSMORE, of Ashland County. Mrs. REED died in July 1887. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Politically Judge REED has always been a Republican, socially a Mason, and a member of the Excelsior Lodge of Council Bluffs.

(from Biographies and Portraits of Progressive Men of Iowa…, by Gue & Shambaugh, 1899, vol.2, p.382)
Judge Joseph Rea Reed, of Council Bluffs, was born in Ashland County, Ohio March 12, 1835. The only educational advantages he enjoyed were those afforded by the common schools and an academy known as Vermillion Institute situated at Hayesville. In 1857, at the age of twenty-two years, he came to Iowa, and settled at Adel, where he studied law in the office of William H. Dodge, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. While preparing himself for the law he taught school and in that way earned money for his support. He entered upon practice in Adel in 1859, and that place continued to be his home for ten years, when he removed to Council Bluffs, where he has since resided. The most important cases perhaps committed to his professional charge were those growing out of sales of land by the county treasurer for delinquent taxes. McCrary vs. Sexton and Harper vs. Sexton were carried to the supreme court of the state, and in determining them the court had occasion to pass on questions as to constitutionality of certain provisions of the revenue law of 1860. The cases are reported in the Twenty-ninth Iowa from 356 to 429. IN 1870-71-72 he was local attorney for the B. & M. Railroad in Council Bluffs, and in 1871-72 was city solicitor of that city. In 1865 he was elected state senator from the district composed of the counties of Madison, Adair, Guthrie and Dallas. September 1, 1872, he was appointed by Governor Carpenter judge of the district court in the then Third Judicial district, and at the general election of that year was re-elected to the same office in the Thirteenth district, which had been created by the General Assembly. He was re-elected in 1876 and again in 1880. In 1883 he was elected a member of the supreme bench of the state, in which capacity he served until February 1, 1889, his judicial service covering a period of sixteen years and six months.
But his public labors were not to cease with the laying off of the judicial robes. He was elected to represent the Ninth district in Congress in 1888, and in 1891 was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Private Land Claims by President Harrison, which position he still fills. This court has jurisdiction of claims for lands under grants from Spain and Mexico in the territory acquired by the United States from Mexico under the Guadaloupe Hidalgo treaty of 1848 and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. He enlisted in the Second Battery, Iowa Volunteers, in July 1861, and was commissioned First Lieutenant. He commanded the battery in all its engagements after December 1, 1862, but was not mustered as captain until October 1, 1864. The battery was engaged against New Madrid, Island No. 10, Halleck’s advance on Corinth, in which were fought the two battles of Farmington, Iuka, Corinth, Jackson, the siege of Vicksburg, where its flag was for many days the colors nearest to the Confederate works; Tupelo, Hurrican Creek, Abbeyville, Nashville and the siege and capture of Mobile. He was mustered out of the service in June 1865, when he returned to Iowa, and on the first of November of that year was married to Jeannette E. Dinsmore, of Ashland County, Ohio. She died July 27, 1887, and on February 8, 1893, he was again married to Edith M. Evans, of Malvern, Iowa. The judge is a member of the Presbyterian Church, of the Masonic and G. A. R. orders and of the Union Veteran and Loyal Legion societies; also of the Republican Party. He is a lineal descendant of Joseph Reed, who was a member of the convention of the Colony of Pennsylvania at its session in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia, at the time the convention which formulated the Declaration of Independence was in session in Independence Hall. He was subsequently a colonel in the Revolutionary War and was still later a member of the legislative assembly, where he introduced and had passed the bill for the manumission of the slaves in Pennsylvania. He descends on his mother’s side from Robert Lyle, also a soldier in the war for independence. These ancestors, the Lyles, were interested in what was known as the Whisky Insurrection, Aaron Lyle, a grand uncle of the subject of this sketch, being especially active. It is said he was arrested and imprisoned for the part taken by him in the movement. He afterwards became prominent and was a member of Congress for eight years during Madison’s administration.