“The History of Jefferson County, Wisconsin”, published: Chicago:  
Western Historical Company.   1879.


W. W. REED,  physician, Jefferson; born Feb. 8, 1825, near Versailles, 
Ohio, of Irish parentage; remained at home on the farm of his nativity 
until 18 years of age; after leaving the parental roof, was employed 
alternately in teaching and attending school for five years, the means 
acquired by the former vocation being his only resource for defraying 
the expenses attending the latter; his academic studies were prosecuted 
in Piqua, and his professional studies in Cincinnati, Ohio; on completing 
his medical course, he removed to his present home in Jefferson, Wis., in 
1849, where he has since resided, engaged, with a few interruptions, in 
the practice of his profession.  Has held various local offices such as 
School Director, Village Treasurer, County Supervisor and President of 
the Board of Trustees of Jefferson Liberal Institute; has been Health 
Officer for the local boards for town, village and city of Jefferson for 
twenty-five years; has had medical charge of Jefferson Co. Poor House, 
with an average of twenty-five insane inmates, for nineteen years.  Was 
appointed and served as Examining Surgeon for the first draft of the 
rebellion; was commissioned by the Governor as Assistant Surgeon of 
Wisconsin volunteers; was appointed by the Commissioner of Pensions 
as Examining Surgeon for Pensions in 1864, and still continues to 
discharge the duties of that office; was appointed by the Governor a 
member of the State Board of Charities and Reform in 1874; re-
appointed in 1876, and again in 1878, and still holds the position; was a 
member of the Committee on Insanity for the Conference of Charities in 
1877, and 1878, and on Public Buildings for the Dependent Classes in 
1879.  Was elected and served as a member of the Wisconsin Legislature 
in the Assembly during the sessions of 1862, 1866 and 1867, and in the 
Senate during the sessions of 1875, 1876, 1877 and 1878, and was a 
member of  the Committee on Charitable and Penal Institutions during 
every session.  His specialty in legislation was to establish the proper 
relations between the State and its criminal and dependent classes; made 
speeches in the Legislature in favor of founding an institution for the 
education of feeble-minded children, for the abolition of time sentences 
to the State Prison, for making incurable insanity a cause for divorce, in 
favor of smaller and cheaper asylums for the insane, in favor of greater 
economy in public expenditures, in opposition to the constant tendency 
in legislation to multiply offices and increase salaries, in favor of every 
proposition to increase the educational facilities of the people.  Was 
originally a Whig in politics; after the Whig party became defunct, 
helped to organize and acted with the Republican party until 1872, when 
as a Liberal Republican, supported Horace Greeley for President, and 
has since acted with the Democratic party.  Was married to Mary 
McCabe in 1853, who died in 1861; was married again in 1863, to Helen 
M. Maryrord, his present wife; has three children by first wife – one son 
and two daughters.


Submitted by:  Linda Pingel  (LPingel@worldnet.att.net)