L. N. REED, a prominent manufacturer, was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1834, on a farm, and there remained till 1849, when he went to Euphemia, Preble County, to learn blacksmithing; worked four years there and in salem; then, in 1853, came to Indiana and opened a small shop at Wolf Lake. In 1856, he moved to Wolcottville, where he was seriously injured while shoeing a vicious horse. The winter following, he taught school in Washington Township; visited Illinois and Missouri; returned to Ohio in the fall of 1857, and, on the 12th of December married Miss A. M. Cramer, of Piqua, who bore him one child--Erbie B. He tried farming in Montgomery County, and was drowned out in 1858, lsoing all his summer's work. He settled all his bills, however, and, with only $14 capital, traveled six hundred miles through the West; then reached Rome City; this point he deserted, as he found no credit or security, for Wolcottville, where he met with no better success, and finally located in Kendallville, where he commenced work for Nellis & Hill, blacksmiths. He labored four years as a journeyman, and then started a shop on West Mitchell street for manufacturing lumber wagons. His health failing, in May, 1866, he sold out and went to Elkhart, where he started a hub and spoke factory; lost $1,000; returned to Kendallville, and started the lumber trade in 1868, and January, 1869, bought one-third interest in the planing-mill of Hill, Brace & Wakman, Mr. Brace retiring. In January, 1870 he bought out Mr. Wakman, and the business prospered under the firm name of Reed & Hill until January, 1877 when Mr. Hill withdrew. During this interval (1872) Reed & Hill, in company with A. J. Brace, erected the La grange County Jail. Our subject continued the business, and now owns the most complete establishment of its kind in Northeastern Indiana, and is one of the oldest manufacturers in the town, carries a heavy stock of lumber, as well as builders' supplies, and does a heavy building contract business. Mr. Reed is a Mason, and is in the Knight Templar degree.
Counties of La Grange and Noble, Indiana, Historical and Biographical, Chicago: F. A. Battey & Co., Publishers, © 1882, Part 2, p. 313.
Transcribed by Denise Wells, June 2013.