Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897

ARCHIE REED,

[p. 282] the assistant yardmaster on the Beaver Valley Division of the Pennsylvania R. R. at New Castle, was born in Allegheny Co., Pa., June 21, 1833, Archibald Reed, Sr., Mr. Reed's father, married a Miss Whittaker, but as her death occurred when our subject was only four years old, he remembers very little of her. Archibald Reed, Sr., was probably born in Allegheny Co., Pa., and that remained his home and continued to be the scene of his agricultural labors until about the year 1867, when he moved to Newport, where he lived some sixteen or eighteen years, his death occurring in Mahoningtown, as a result of a railway accident.

Of nine children in the parental family, Archie was third; he remained under the parental roof until he attained his majority, and attended the district schools until he was eighteen in Enon Valley, whither his father had moved when our subject was five years old. When a youth he learned the blacksmith's trade in his brother's shop, and labored one year at the forge; then after eighteen months on the farm he left for the West, working eight months at his trade in Mahaska and Poweshiek Counties, Iowa, then returning at the expiration of that period to Pennsylvania, where he worked for a time at his trade at Wampum Furnace and at Homewood Furnace for three years, and at Homewood Station something over three years. At this stage in his life begins his connection with the railroad service; after braking two years and six months, he became a conductor, and for twenty-five years held that position, and to-day he is probably the oldest railroad man on the rolls. Since 1890, he has not done active service as a conductor, but has served efficiently as the assistant yardmaster on the Beaver Falls Division of the Pennsylvania R. R.

Mr. Reed was married, Nov. 16, 1858, in Mercer County, to Sarilla Swoger, daughter of James and Margaret (Miller) Swoger; Mrs. Reed during her life was a member of the First Presbyterian Church; her death took place at the family residence in New Castle, Aug. 6, 1891. The fruits of our subject's marriage were three children as follows: Ida, who married Oliver Irvin, a passenger conductor on the Pennsylvania Co.'s lines, and has borne him one child, Charles; Adaline, deceased; and Carrie, the wife of Thomas Johns, a heater in the tin mill. Mr. Reed makes his home with his youngest daughter and her husband. He was formerly a member of the Senior Order of American Mechanics during the life of that organization. Politically, he is a stanch and loyal supporter of the silver wing of the Democratic party.


Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897

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