Hon. Joseph R. Reed, of Council Bluffs, is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and a descendant of those hardy Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, so prominent in the early history of Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the United States. Joseph Reed, the great-grandfather of our subject, came to Pennsylvania in an early day, settling in Chanceford, York County. He was a man of more than ordinary ability; was a Colonel in the Revolutionary War; a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and introduced measures for the manumission of the slaves in that State, which was adopted about 1793-94. He was a farmer, land-owner and miller. His wife was a worthy and resolute woman, and during her husband's absence in the army she ran the mill and ground flour to feed the army. Both he and his wife were Presbyterians, and had a large family, among whom was James Reed, the grandfather of our subject. The latter removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in farming. He married Elizabeth Reed, a distant relative of her husband, and they had four sons and two daughters.

One son, William Reed, the father of our subject, was a farmer by occupation, and was married in Washington County, Pennsylvania, to Miss Roseanna Lyle, the daughter of Robert Lyle. The latter was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. In 1829 William Reed moved to Ohio, and settled in what is now Ashland County, near the present village of McKay, where he cleared a farm, and where both he and his wife lived until death. They had three sons and three daughters who grew to maturity, namely: James O., a farmer in his youth, and later a teacher, and died on his farm in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana; Sarah J., who resides with her brother, Judge Reed, in Council Bluffs; Hon. James R., our subject; Elizabeth, wife of Rev. D. A. Newell, of Wooster, Ohio; William, a merchant at Loudonville, Ohio; Rosanna, wife of Jesse R. Hissem, also of Loudonville.

Hon. Joseph R. Reed was born on the old homestead in Ashland County, Ohio, March 12, 1835. He was educated in the common schools, and at the Vermillion Institute at Hayesville, Ohio. He removed to Iowa in March, 1857, settling at Adel, Dallas County, where he taught school, and also studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, and immediately began practice at that place, continuing until the outbreak of the late war. He enlisted in July, 1861, as First Lieutenant in the Second Iowa Battery, and served until July, 1865; in 1864 he was promoted Captain of the battery.

At the close of the war Mr. Reed returned to Adel, Iowa, where he resumed the practice of law. He was elected a State Senator in 1865, and served in the Eleventh and Twelfth General Assemblies, and in the summer of 1869 removed to this city, where he has since resided. September 1, 1872, he was appointed Judge of the District Court, and served as such until January, 1884; from January, 1884, to March 1, 1889, he served as Judge of the Supreme Court, and in November, 1888, was elected a member of the Fifty-first Congress.

Judge Reed was united in marriage, November 1, 1865, at Ashland, Ohio, to Jenette Dinsmore, a daughter of James A. Dinsmore, of Ashland County. Mrs. Reed died in July, 1887; she was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Politically Judge Reed has always been a Republican; socially a Mason, and a member of Excelsior Lodge of Council Bluffs.