Contributed by
Ronald King
[email protected]

The Carthage Republican
Carthage, Illinois
Wednesday
April 28, 1920
Page 1
Column 2
DEATH OF A. J. REED
Well Known Citizen of Middle
Creek Dies of Pneumonia.
A Good Citizen.
Andrew Jackson, son of Wm. Harvey and Fanny Burgess Reed, was born in Floyd Co., Virginia, Sept. 12, 1857.  He departed this life April 14, 1920, after a brief illness of pneumonia.
At an early age, he with his parents, moved to Montgomery Co., Va., where he lived until ambition for prosperity urged him westward.  In 1882 he came to Ohio; the following year he came to Illinois, and remained there until March 16, 1886, when he was united in marriage to Clara J. Cravens at her father's home.
Desiring to go farther west, the following day after the marriage he left, settling in Lane Co., Kansas.  There he took up a government claim and after preparing the home, his bride joined him.  Here were spent three years of hardship and pleasure, typical of pioneer life.  Their life was one of the humblest; their home was the old-fashioned, one-room Kansas sod shanty.  During these years of hardship the Christian faith, which Mr. Reed had acquired during a series of evangelistic meetings conducted at Elm Tree M. E. Church, under the powerful influence of "Uncle Dick" Haney, in 1885, was exemplified.
The Sunday school and church services were conducted at a large two-room private home, to which Mr. Reed conveyed his family three and a half miles with an ox team and wagon.
Not all of this was displeasure, for during this time two little ones brought sunshine and pleasure to their home.
Mr. Reed's health failing, they returned to Illinois in the spring of 1889.  After a few years of unsettled life, he bought the Cravens homestead, where he resided with his family until he passed to the Great Beyond.
His home was known to all as one of open hospitality and the cry of the needy was never unheeded.  Mr. Reed was a man to whom home meant all, always planning for their comfort and pleasure, until the last.  He had been greatly cheered in the last four years by the visits at intervals of his three beloved grandchildren.
Those who preceded him in death were his father, mother, three sisters and two brothers.
To mourn their loss are left the faithful wife, Mrs. Clara J. Reed; one son, J. Clyde Reed, of Muskoda, Minn.; Mrs. Minnie G. Boyd, of Little Rock, Ark.; Mrs. Esther L. Wedding, of Springfield, Ohio; and Clara M., at home; three grandchildren: Harvey Reed and David Shiflet Wedding, and Deloris Clara Belle Reed, all of whom with an aged uncle, Willis Reed, and daughters, Mrs. Lottie Emery, of Stillwell, Ill., were present to comfort him in the last sad hours.
There also left, four brothers, Rolley, Robert, Ira and Henry; two sisters, Mrs. Julia Knode and Mrs. Parthena French, all living in Virginia.
"Little Clara," as she was lovingly called, he especially leaned upon for comfort and help in his declining years.
We do not think of him as gone.  He has merely preceded his loved ones to the heavenly home, which will make their desire for the better life more longed for.
The funeral services were conducted at his own beloved Elm Tree M. E. Church, Sunday, at 11 a. m., by Dr. H. D. Hoover, of Carthage College, who gave a very comforting message to the saddened hearts.  Music was furnished by a ladies' quartette from the college.  He was laid to rest in Moss Ridge Cemetery at Carthage.
Others who attended from a distance were Mrs. Alice Cravens McNall, of Seaton, Ill.; Mrs. Mary Cravens Willits, of Joy, Ill.; Jackson Akers of Macomb.

Card of Thanks
We especially desire to thank relatives, friends and neighbors, who so willingly contributed to our comfort, and lovingly assisted us during the brief illness and death of our husband and father; also for the beautiful floral offerings.
Mrs. Clara J. Reed,
Mr. and Mrs. J. Clyde Reed,
Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Boyd,
Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Wedding,
Clara M. Reed.