Early Life
Reed was born in County Armagh in Ireland of noble Polish stock. After the death of his father Reed emigrated with his mother to the United States. Once there his mother sent him to live with a family member in Virginia where he worked as a clerk in the family store. In about 1825 Reed moved to Illinois where he took an interest in mining. While living in Illinois Reed ran several businesses and took part in the Black Hawk War of 1832, serving with Abraham Lincoln. He married Margret Keyes Backenstoe, a widow with a baby daughter, in 1835. The couple had four more children in Springfield: Martha Jane (called Patty), James F. Reed, Jr., Thomas Keyes, and Gershom Francis, who died as an infant. Reed never formally adopted Margret Reed's eldest daughter, Virginia Elizabeth Backenstoe, but she went by the name Virginia Reed.
Read more about this topic: James F. Reed
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