Stephen Reed

For other people named Steve Reed, see Steve Reed (disambiguation).

Stephen Reed (September 26, 1801 – July 12, 1877) was an American physician, newspaper publisher, and geologist.

Reed, younger son of John and Susanna (Beach) Reed, was born in Cornwall, Conn., September 26, 1801. When ten years old, his parents removed to Canaan, Conn., from which place he came to college. He graduated from Yale College in 1824. After two or three years spent in school-teaching and in studying medicine, he established himself as a physician in Goshen, Conn. A year later he removed to Roxbury, Conn., and in 1831 to Richmond, Mass. Finding the exposure to the severity of the weather too much for his rather delicate constitution, he gave up his profession (about 1837), and opened a boarding-school for boys in Richmond, in which he proved highly successful. In 1848 he removed to Pittsfield, Mass., to take charge of an agricultural warehouse and seed store, connected with a printing office from which a weekly agricultural and miscellaneous newspaper, the Berkshire Agriculturist, was published. This paper, which he renamed The Culturist and Gazette, he continued to edit until 1858, when its publication was suspended. (The paper is noted for publishing a satirical piece by Pittsfield resident Herman Melville in 1850.[1]) Dr. Reed afterwards sold out his share in the warehouse, and spent the rest of his life in Pittsfield, at leisure for his favorite study, geology. His name became well known in connection with geological discoveries in Western New England, mainly through his account of a long train of bowlders across part of Central Berkshire. He was also active in all the public interests of the town. He died in Pittsfield, after less than a week's illness, July 12, 1877, aged nearly 76 years.

He was married in 1829 to Emeline Beebe, a student of Sarah Pierce's Litchfield Female Academy,[2] of Canaan, Conn., who died in 1832; and again, May 7, 1833, to Sarah E. Chapin, who survived him. He had no children.

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Yale Obituary Record.

References

  1. ↑ Hershel Parker (1996). Herman Melville: 1819-1851. JHU Press. p. 738. ISBN 978-0-8018-5428-6.
  2. ↑ http://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/ledger/students/3200
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