Reed Family History
	     Written by Bernadine (Reed) Guinan (1900-1985)

In 1861, the third Reed family came to Iowa from Ireland.  The English
government had forced them to sell their land and as a result, they
moved to town.  Grandmother Reed decided they would come to America,
so she gathered up the money that was left and they set sail for the
U.S.  Grandfather's name was John and Grandmother's name was Mary.

The trip, on a slow ship, was rugged and they ran low on food so it
had to be rationed.  In New York, Grandfather couldn't find a job so
they went to Boston where Aunt Kate, 15, worked as a maid.  When she
earned enough money to pay their fare to Iowa, they came to join their
other Reed relatives who had preceded them to Clinton County.

The family consisted of Aunt Kate, who later married a Welsh. Tom,
Uncle Bill, Richard, Mary and John (my father) came here. However,
Tom, Richard and Mary died.  Mary was married to John Snyder and they
had no family.  She died rather young at 30.

Uncle Bill and my Dad, John, farmed together for several years.  At
first they lived on the Reed farm which later was farmed by Ed Welsh,
Aunt Kate's oldest son.  Later, they moved to the Reed farm that is
now owned by a relative, Charles Hunter.

When there were 6 children in our family, Uncle Bill married Elizabeth
Mangan and they moved to Lexington, Nebraska.  It was called Plum
Creek at the time. It was very difficult to see him leave as he was so
helpful taking care of our family.

Dad married my mother, Margaret Bulger on June 3, 1879.  So I was
told, there was no courtship.  Dad knew there were many girls in the
Bulger family and went one day to ask for one of them. (Margaret
wanted to become a nun.)  She ran to the back of the house crying as
her Mother told her she had to go with him.  There was no choice and
she went.  I know she had a hard life.  There were no conveniences.
At first, water had to be carried to the house in cans strapped to a
mule from a spring east of the barn. My Mother had five small children
by the time Uncle Bill married. The children were: Willie (William),
Minnie, Lillian, John and Genevieve.  Later the twins, Clara and
Carrie were born.

When the twins were four years old, they contacted scarlet fever and
Carrie died. This was March 25,1892.  There wasn't much doctoring in
those days and Genevieve took something out of the scarlet fever and
on July 2, 1896, she died. The deaths were particularly hard on my
Mother because she loved her children dearly.

The twins were born on February 26, 1888.  Carrie (later Carolyn
Phifer) was born a week after her death on April 1, 1892.  She didn't
take the fever as she was very strong. My parents liked the name
Carrie so much that they name this child Carrie also.