Both in the old world and in the new the name of Reed occupies a conspicuous place in the annals of the centuries. The name is one of the oldest in the nomenclature of man, and in every generation various members of the family have distinguished themselves in the different walks of life.
Rev. Julius A. Reed numbers among his ancestors some of the most distinguished of the Puritan fathers. A reference to the very complete and exhaustive genealogy of the family, which may be found in most of the libraries of our land, will show this. Among his maternal ancestors were many noted physicians and surgeons, some of them being professors in the University of Edinboro, Scotland. In the paternal line he was descended from Governor William Bradford of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and is also directly descended from the Loomis and Fitch families so prominent in early colonial history.
He was born January 16, 1809, in East Windsor, Connecticut; was the youngest son of Dr. Elijah Fitch Reed, a noted physician in Connecticut, who practiced his profession after he had attained his eightieth year. His mother, Hannah MacLean, was the granddaughter of Allan MacLean of the Isle of Coll, Scotland. It was the hope of his father for a time that he would choose the profession of medicine, as had his elder brother, Dr. Maro MacLean, who practiced medicine at Jacksonville, Illinois, forty-seven years.
He early manifested, however, a preference for the sacred calling of the ministry. After two years spent in Trinity College, Hartford, he entered Yale College, and graduated from that institution in the class of 1829, at the age of twenty.
The following year he spent as private tutor in the family of Hon. William Jay of Bedford, New York. This was a family of exalted social position, and of highest character, and the pure Christian spirit that pervaded the household was always referred to in after years by Dr. Reed with the tenderest recollection. The year of 1830-31 was spent as teacher in the Ellington High School, a school for boys, of which his brother-in-law, Hon. John Hall, was principal founder. The two years immediately following were spent as private tutor at Natchez, Mississippi, in the family of Judge Perkins.
In 1832 he returned north, visiting on the way his brother the doctor at Jacksonville, Illinois. Owing to the prevalence of cholera at the time, he made the journey back to Connecticut on horseback. He left Jacksonville on the twenty-ninth day of October, 1833, and arrived at his father's home in East Windsor the eighteenth day of December, being just fifty days on the road. An account book still in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Smith, shows an itemized account of the expenses of the trip, amounting in the aggregate to forty-five dollars and ninety-four cents for a distance of one thousand and seventy-nine miles traversed. This is mentioned as illustrative of the methodical nature of the man. He was systematic in everything he did or under took.
Upon arriving home he entered the theological department of Yale to fit himself for the calling he had chosen. He took a two years' course and was licensed to preach by the New Haven West Association in August, 1835, and commissioned at New York to go to the West.
Joining the Illinois band from Yale, which had preceded him, he was ordained at Quincy, Illinois, in April, 1836, having his first parish composed of the towns of Warsaw, Montebello and Nauvoo. On the fourth of December, 1835, in Jacksonville, Illinois, he married Miss Caroline Blood of Concord, Massachusetts, a lineal descendant of Rev. Samuel Whiting, first pastor at Lynn, Massachusetts Miss Blood was a successful teacher and an enthusiastic organizer of infant schools; she had organized and had under her charge for several years the first infant school in Boston, then located on Bedford Street.
Her ancestors for several generations had been noted for their piety and religious zeal. Her great-great-grandfather was for twenty-six years pastor of the church in Concord, Massachusetts; two of her brothers became clergymen, one in Illinois, Rev. Charles Emerson Blood; the other, Rev. Lorenzo W. Blood, was a prominent Methodist divine. Mrs. Reed's father died when she was very young. She was the eldest of six children and early manifested great strength of character and an ambition to secure an education. She completed a course of study at Ipswich Seminary, and as before stated, became a successful teacher. Imbibing the western enthusiasm of her friend, Rev. Edward Beecher, then living in Boston, she joined her brother Charles in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1832, where she continued her occupation as a teacher until the time of her marriage. She was a woman of marked refinement and exalted character, remarkably well fitted for the life work which fell to her lot. So long as strength permitted she was active in church and society and was especially helpful to young women seeking to obtain an education. She was one of the first members of the Educational Aid Society in Illinois, and was the first promoter and one of the organizers of the Educational Aid Society of Iowa.
Two years after their marriage the ill health of Mrs. Reed necessitated their return east, and 1839 and 1810 Mr. Reed served as chaplain in the insane asylum at Worcester, Massachusetts. During this period occurred the birth and a few months later the death of a daughter, Rosanna White. The pioneer spirit of his Pilgrim ancestors would not allow Dr. Reed to forget the Christian needs of the people of the far West, where he had done his first labor in the ministerial field, and for the third time he turned his face toward the setting sun, Iowa being his objective point. He was one of the first Congregational ministers in the State ; he assisted in organizing the first Congrega tional church, also the first association, and preached the first sermon in Keokuk. His first pastorate in Iowa was Fairfield, where Rev. Asa Turner, Rev. Reuben Gaylord, and later, Mr. Edward Manning, Mr. Seth Richards, the "Iowa Band,” and many others were frequent and welcome guests in their hospitable home, in after years styled "the preachers' home,” from the warm welcome extended to many.
In October, 1845, Dr. Reed with his family removed to Davenport, then a village of seven hundred inhabitants, his appointment by the American Home Missionary Society as its superintendent making a change of residence necessary. This position he held from 1815 to 1869, save an interim of six years, performing most faithful and acceptable labor.
He was one of the first to select a site for Iowa College, being one of the founders and charter trustees, and his official connection with this institution extended over a period of nearly twenty years.
He retired from active missionary service in 1870, and for ten years he resided in Columbus, Nebraska, where he engaged in banking business. He returned to Davenport in 1880 and from that time till his death made his home with his daughter, Mrs. S. F. Smith. Upon his return to Davenport he resumed his connection with the Edwards Congregational Church, and was ever one of its most faithful and devoted members.
His days of travel did not end with his missionary labors. He took a great delight in journeying from place to place, and as he was one of the most observing of men, it was a delight to have him for a companion. In 1881, accompanied by his daughter, Mrs. Henry W. Wilkinson, he made an extended trip through Europe. A few years later he visited the Azores, afterward the South, California, Oregon and Yellowstone Park, making frequent visits to New England.
Dr. Reed possessed in an eminent degree the elements that consti tute the successful missionary. He was devout and earnest in his religious views, he was broad-minded and charitable, he was brave to endure and strong to withstand. He was one of the most prominent of that band of apostles of the faith who, leaving behind them the luxuries and comforts of the East, cast their lot among the western wilds to encounter untold hardships for the Master's sake. He was an untiring worker, and had resolution to persevere until he accomplished what ever he undertook.
Always active in mind he had much literary work under way at the time of his death that no one without his mine of facts and recollections to aid him can ever complete. He gave to the world, however, many valuable contributions from his pen; his last was the preparation of a paper giving the history of Congregationalism in Iowa for the last fifty years. He was known and beloved throughout the State, and when his death came his professional brethren as well as the laity mourned his departure. He was an earnest advocate of the establishment and maintenance of Christian academies; believing that early impressions were likely to be lasting, he deemed it of the highest importance that the principles that were to govern individuals through after years should be taught them in the formative period of their lives, hence he was always liberal in behalf of such institutions both with his means and his labors.
Perhaps the predominant trait in his character was his emphatic earnestness. This quality gave to his acts and words an emphasis and weight that nothing else could. Those who were co-laborers with him in the missionary field, and who had every opportunity to know him in the most intimate and thorough way through a long period of years, were his firmest and best friends and his greatest admirers; no praise could be greater than this.
He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. S. F. Smith, in Davenport, August 27, 1890. Mrs. Reed had been confined to a bed of illness for some months previous and was too ill to know of the sickness and death of her husband. While neither could care for the other during these months of trial, few have been more blessed in receiving the unremitting devotion of loving hands or surrounded with more which could contribute to their comfort. Mrs. Reed died October 1, 1890.
There are two children living, viz: Mrs. Henry W. Wilkinson of Providence, Rhode Island, and Mrs. S. F. Smith of Davenport, Iowa.
BIOGRAPHIES