B. R. Reed

B. R. REED has been one of the influential men of Sheridan County for a number of years. After he retired from the office of county treasurer he entered the Hoxie State Bank, of which he is the present cashier.

The Hoxie State Bank was organized under a state charter June 17, 1909. Besides Mr. Reed the officers are S. Larrick, of Lenora, Kansas, president, and F. M. Burr, vice president. It is a strong and well managed institution, capitalized at $50,000, with surplus and profits of $20,000.

B. R. Reed has lived in Sheridan County since boyhood. He was born at Denver, Colorado, December 5, 1873. His branch of the Reed family came from England about the time of the Mayflower Pilgrims. His grandfather, Roland Reed, was born in Chenango County, New York, in 1819, spent his early life in his native state and later became a pioneer farmer in Nebraska. He died at Beaver Crossing, Seward County, Nebraska, February 8, 1884. His wife, Jane Weatherbe, born in 1820 in Pennsylvania, died at Beaver Crossing, October 1, 1888.

Charles F. Reed, father of the Hoxie banker, was born at Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, November 11, 1845. In 1863, when eighteen years of age, he ran away from home and enlisted in the Union army, in the Forty-fifth Pennsylvania Infantry. He was with that regiment until severely wounded in the battle of the Wilderness. When the war was over he went west to Colorado, and in the early days was a freighter between Eastern Nebraska and Denver. Later he conducted a lumber yard for Halleck Brothers in Denver, and in 1874 moved to a farm in Seward County, Nebraska.

Charles F. Reed homesteaded a 160-acre claim in the northwest part of Sheridan County, Kansas, in 1886. He lived on that claim and developed it as a fine farm until 1915, having in the meantime increased it to 320 acres. He then sold it and retired and resides at Rexford, Kansas. He is a republican, is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married Melissa Cox, whose birth occurred September 17, 1854. Their children are: Lettie, who lives at Hutchison, Kansas, widow of Isaac Zeigler, who was a cement contractor in Hutchison; B. R. Reed is second in age; Carl H., a real estate broker at Selden, Kansas; Ira W., a farmer at Selden; Maude, wife of Willis Teeters, a farmer at Fairfield, Nebraska; Floyd, a farmer at Rexford, Kansas; Clay, assistant cashier in the Hoxie State Bank; and Ruby, at home with her parents.

B. R. Reed was thirteen years old when his father homesteaded in Sheridan County. He attended school in Nebraska and completed his education in Sheridan County. He reached his majority on his father's farm, and for two years taught country school in Sheridan County and continued in the same occupation for one year longer. For three years he farmed on his own account, and in 1899 was elected county clerk of Sheridan County. He was re-elected in 1902, and filled that office in a most capable manner for five years. In 1905 he entered the real estate business at Selden in partnership with his brother Carl H. They were associated until 1809,[sic] when B. R. Reed moved to Hoxie to enter upon his duties as county treasurer. He was reelected in 1910 and was in the office four years. On retiring he became bookkeeper in the Hoxie State Bank and six months later was made assistant cashier, and since 1916 has been cashier.

Mr. Reed is a member of the Kansas Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association. He is a man of considerable property, having two sections of the good wheat lands of Sheridan County. He also owns a modern home and other real estate in Hoxie. He is a republican, is a member and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is past noble grand of Hoxie Lodge of Odd Fellows and a member of Hoxie Camp, Modern Woodmen of America.

September 6, 1900, at Belknap, Iowa, Mr. Reed married Miss Anna E. McCarty, daughter of Howard and Mary (Wilson) McCarty, the latter still living at Norton, Kansas. Her father was a farmer near Belknap, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Reed have four children: Howard C., born October 1, 1902, Wilburma Lois, born March 18, 1905; Bernice Eleanor, born November 23, 1906; and Anna Mary, born January 13, 1915.