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Biography For the family of Joseph Barney Reed and Mary Ann Pickett
Joseph Barney Reed was born on 25 July 1807 in Cheshire County, Massachusetts. He received his education in the common district school and lived there until he was 19 years old. Because in 1826 he and his parents and siblings moved to Livingston County, New York, about 4 miles of East Nunda.
Mary Ann Pickett was born on 21 August 1814 in Bradport, Vermont. Her mother died when Mary was 6 years old. (Apparently her father had already died). So Mary was sent to live with a merchant by the last name of Clark in Dansville, New York.
Somehow Joseph and Mary met. East Nunda is about 14 miles from Dansville. Perhaps Joseph had a job or land in Dansville. Or perhaps since Mary was living with a merchant, maybe they had business in Dansville (the larger community). They married on 24 December 1832 in Union Corners, Livingston County, New York. Mary was 18 and Joseph was 25. Sometime between 1832 and 1840, they had settled in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. This was about 20 miles or so from Union Corners, where they were married.
The family came to Michigan for the first time in 1836. What follows is an except of a story by their son William A Reed who recounts what he knows of his parents journeys and their life: (maroon denotes William's words).
The state of Michigan reduced the price of land in Michigan so that a man could purchase 80 acres of land for $100, or $1.25 per acre. The price was reduced in order to encourage immigration. My father purchased 80 acres of land in the northwest part of Jackson County, Michigan. They moved to Jackson County in 1836. When the wagon was loaded to start for Michigan, Father built a box on the back of the wagon to carry goods in.
One of the neighbors, having an ox team he wished brought through to Michigan, offered him the use of the team if he would drive them through. But Father declined thinking that he only wanted one team on the road. He soon learned he had too much of a load for one pair of cattle. They journeyed as far as Cleveland, and there he shipped the box of goods to Detroit.
They were 24 days in making the journey. My Mother rode all the way on a chest in the wagon and the children walked along besides the teams most of the way. At nights, they stopped at inns along the way. They did their own cooking and furnished their own beds. In the morning they would pack up their goods and start on their way. They journeyed on in the company of others when they got on the road until they reached Adrian Michigan, where they left the rest of the company who were going to Jonesville.
Father came through and visited a family of people whom he knew in the state of New York by the name of Van Hess. While visiting there, he called on a neighbor who lived in a double log house, no chinking between the logs. Young squaws standing in one part looked at them continuously. He said they were not at all embarrassed, but never took their eyes off of them, but kept peeking at them through the cracks between the logs. After they had been there awhile he went to Detroit after the box of goods. This trip had to be made 3 times as the box had not arrived. When he reached Detroit the third time he found that the box had only reached Detroit that day.
The country being new there was a great deal of sickness, which made Mother discouraged. She wanted to return to New York, which she did. About that time, Calvin Reed, Father's younger brother, who was living on the homestead in the state of New York, got married and went to Wisconsin to live. Grandfather Reed wrote my father to come back to the state of New York and work the farm which he did. [Note: on the 1840 census, they were listed as living in Sparta, Livingston County New York].
Soon after, however, Calvin Reed returned from Wisconsin to their home in New York and Father then worked at chopping wood. He cut wood by the cord during the winters. I have heard him tell of his doing his chores before daylight in the morning, walking 2 miles to his work and averaging 2 cords of wood per day of four foot wood. Many and many a day he ate his dinner from his pocket without stopping work, his lunch nearly always being frozen. Much of the land east and around Union Corners was cleared by him. They moved from place to place until the year of 1850. During this time, he had made several trips to Michigan to look after the land and pay his taxes, coming on foot from Detroit and return.
[On the 1850 census, they are listed as living in West Sparta, Livingston County, New York]. But some time after the census was taken,] he decided to come to Michigan to live. They drove a horse team and wagon to Buffalo, 80 miles, and took the boat from there to Detroit. On the journey across the lake that night they met with a very severe storm. The boat ran between an island and the Canadian shore and it was perfectly calm there. During the storm Father said the high wind splashed the water on the horses and they had to stand boards up behind them to protect them. They arrived safely in Detroit and then drove through to the northeast part of Jackson County Michigan.
Rufus Palmer wanted Father and Mother to stay with them that winter, as they wished to visit their relatives, so they stayed there all winter. The house was all furnished. Mr. Palmer said a man over south by the name of Babcock, had potatoes to dig on shares, another had corn to husk. Father got a job grubbing out small oak trees and in the winter made barrel staves. He drove them to Jackson and exchanged them for flour.
In the fall of 1858, he moved to Jackson City working on a farm owned by Mr. S.G. Knapp, adjoining the city at that time; now a part of it is inside the prison wall. Father was night watchman inside the shops in the prison for $400 dollars a year, making the rounds of all the shops looking after the fire. A part of the same school building where I went to school east of the Catholic church remains there now. After 18 months he returned to his farm in Hanover township.
[On the 1860 census, the family is listed as living in 2 different places on the census. One in Blackman Township in Jackson County and the other in Hanover, Jackson County, Michigan. The Blackman Township address must have been where he was staying while he was working at the prison. And the Hanover address must have been where the family was living.] On March 2, 1861, my mother died. We lived there until March 1864 when we moved to the present home in the same township. Father married that spring Mrs. Charity Crego, a very kind Christian woman whom the children all loved. No family of children ever thought more of their step-mother than we. She died August 17, 1869. After her death, father and my sister Carrie and I lived together and carried on the farm work until 1875 when I was married.
May 24, 1875, my sister Carrie was married to Ira B Weeks of Hanover township and left us to make a home for themselves. [On the 1880 census, William, his wife and daughter and Joseph are living together in Hanover.] Father lived with us until his death on November 21, 1895 [at age 86]. While in the most of his life he lived face to face with poverty, the latter part of his life he had plenty of this world's goods, and enjoyed the fruits of his labor. The last 18 years of his life he lived with my wife and myself without ever having any harsh words or trouble of any kind. One of the pleasant remembrances I now have is to think of the care we gave him in his declining years. I then think of what Christ said, "Honor thy Father and thy Mother that their days may be long in the land God giveth thee."
Joseph and wife Mary and his second wife Charity and some of his children and their families are buried in the Horton Cemetery in Hanover, Jackson County, Michigan.
Joseph and Mary had ten known children, six girls and four boys, all born in West Sparta, Livingston County, New York. All children surnamed REED:
Copyright 2009
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