Harrison M. Reed

Harrison Reed
9th Governor of Florida
In office July 4, 1868 – January 7, 1873
Lieutenant	William Henry Gleason Edmund C. Weeks Samuel T. Day
Preceded by	David S. Walker
Succeeded by	Ossian B. Hart
Personal details
Born	August 26, 1813 Littleton, Massachusetts
Died	May 25, 1899 (aged 85) Jacksonville, Florida
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Amanda Anna Louisa Turner Chloe Merrick Reed

Harrison Reed (August 26, 1813 – May 25, 1899) was an American editor and politician who had most of his political career in Florida. He was elected in 1868 as the ninth Governor of Florida, serving until 1873 during the Reconstruction era. Born in Littleton, Massachusetts, he moved as a youth with his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he had a grocery store and started farming. He also owned and edited the Milwaukee Sentinel for several years.

Reed became active in the Republican Party and in 1861 he began his political career, moving to Washington, DC for a patronage job in the Treasury Department. In 1863 he was appointed as the Tax Commissioner of Florida, to oversee confiscation and sales of Confederate properties in Union-occupied areas. In 1865 he was appointed as Postal Agent for the state. In 1868 he was elected as Governor under the new constitution, which enfranchised freedmen. He served one term, with challenges by factions of the Republican Party resulting in two attempts in the state senate at impeachment. He strongly supported public education, where the growth in new schools served one-quarter of the children by 1872. After the war Reed settled on a farm near Jacksonville, later serving as a state representative.

Harrison was one of eight Reed children, born on August 26, 1813, to parents Seth Reed (1781-1848) and Rhoda (Finney Reed) (1781-1874). The Reed family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1836, where his siblings contributed to the newly developing areas and two brothers became politicians. His brothers were Herbert Reed, who became a grocer in Milwaukee and married Phebe Adeline Brisbane; Orson Reed of Summit, Wisconsin, who married Agnes Fairservice; Curtis Reed, who served as a state legislator; and George Reed, who became a judge and politician in Wisconsin. His sisters married substantial men: Mary Augusta Reed (1811-1866) married Judge Abram Daniel Smith (1811-1865); Martha (1817-1902) married Alexander Mitchell (1817-1887),, who became a banker and railroad tycoon; and Julia Ann married Dr. Thomas J. Noyes, who became the first president of the Milwaukee Academy of Medicine.

...
Wikipedia