John R. Reed, farmer and ginner,
Randall, Ark. This enterprising and much respected citizen owes his nativity to De Soto
County, Miss., where his birth occurred, in 1840, and is the son of Arthur G. Reed, and
the grandson of James Reed, who was probably born in North Carolina, and who came to
Arkansas about 1848. The latter was a soldier in the Florida War, and held the rank of
lieutenant. He died in Lonoke County, Ark., where his wife also received her final
summons. He was of Irish descent, and was a member of the A. F. & A. M. Arthur G. Reed
was born in North Carolina, in 1804, and was married in Mississippi, in, 183, to Miss
Elizabeth Robinson, a native of Alabama. They moved to Arkansas in 1846, and in 1847 to
Prairie County, now Lonoke County, where they resided until 1856. They then moved to
Cleveland County, where the father carried on faring. He assisted in removing the Indiana
from Mississippi to Indian Territory. Mrs. Reed died in 1858 and he in 1861. John
Robinson, the maternal grandfather, was probably born in North Carolina, and moved from
there to Alabama, Mississippi and in 1846 to Arkansas. He and wife died in Lonoke County,
and all four grandparents lie buried in the same cemetery. Of the eleven children born to
his parents, John R. Reed is fourth m order of birth. From the age of five years he was
reared in the wilds of Arkansas, with very little schooling, and was married when nearly
twenty years of age, in what is now Cleveland County, to Miss Amanda Favor, a native of
Alabama, and the daughter of Joel and Elizabeth Favor, formerly of Alabama, but early
settlers of Arkansas. Mr. Favor died in Cleveland County, in 1870, but Mrs. Favor is still
living. Mrs. Reed died in 18 (0, leaving two daughters, and in 1874 Mr. Reed took for his
second wife Mrs. Emily (Whitehead) Adams, a native of Mississippi, and 'the daughter of
Charley and Melinda Whitehead, originally from North Carolina and Tennessee,
respectively. Mr. Whitehead died in Mississippi, and his wife in Arkansas. Mrs. Reed's
death occurred in May, 1889. She was the mother of five children, one son and three
daughters now living. In August, 1889, Mr. Reed married Mrs. Martha A. (Oaks) Gage, a
native of Mississippi, and the daughter of Fletcher Oaks. Mr. Reed has lived on his
present farm for five years, and has 320 acres in two tracts, 100 acres under cultivation.
o is one of the prominent farmers of the county, and is also the owner of a gin, which he
has operated for about ten years. He was about three years in the Confederate army,
Company E, Twenty-sixth Arkansas Infantry, and operated in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas,
as teamster. He was home on a furlough at the time of the surrender. He is a Democrat in
politics, and cast his first presidential vote for Horatio Seymour, in 1808. He is a
member of the Agricultural Wheel, and in his religious belief has been a Missionary
Baptist for eighteen or twenty years. |