REED - Name Meaning & Origin  
Definition: A descriptive or nickname signifying a person with a red face or 
red hair. From Old English "read." 
Surname Origin: English, Scottish 
Alternate Surname Spellings: REID, RIED, READ, READE, REEDE 

History of the Reed Family


They came in the first wave of pilgrims from the Old World, England, Wales, 
Scotland and Ireland. These were by and large Quakers and Mennonites, with a 
catholic or Protestant thrown in occasionally for good measure.

Many people from the Old World came to America for religious freedom, but they 
came for other reasons as well. They came as speculators hoping to make money 
from those who wished to settle the land, and as younger sons hoping to gain 
property of their own. Some were sent by the crown to empty crowded prisons. 
Some came as members of commissions to develop the land, and some as indentured 
servants, as they had no money for passage.

Europe was in political upheaval.  King Henry VIII had split from the Pope and 
became the head of the Church of England. Then, in the years following, 
religious differences abounded. Citizens who clung to the old religion were 
prosecuted. Protestants against Protestants, as well as Catholics against 
Catholics. In England, The Society of Friends, later known as the Quakers, 
found that they didn't fit anywhere. Many left England for Ireland, where they 
were safe for a while. Eventually they migrated to America, and settled in 
Pennsylvania and Virginia.

In Europe, the dispute was who would be the Holy Roman Emperor. This resulted 
in the thirty year war, which devastated the Palantinate. The Protestants 
living in these areas first moved to Holland, then to the America, settling in 
New York, New Jersey and the Carolina's. 

After the Revolutionary War many of the soldiers received patents of land in 
the wilderness for their service, thus another reason for continuing the 
westward movement.  Immigrants from Virginia and North Carolina usually 
traveled over the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky.  
Others took the northern route, traveling the Cumberland Road from Maryland 
through Pennsylvania towards Ohio, before turning south to Tennessee and 
Kentucky.

Approximately 1811, The Reed?s immigrated to Missouri to take advantage of the 
land patents there. When the border squabbles over (Free and Slave State) began 
in the late 1850's, the Reeds immigrated to Texas. 

Ridenhour, Hayes, Jennings, and Reed are all names that are found together in 
Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri. They lived by, married, and moved to new 
areas together. Therefore it is not surprising that Miles Reed married Sarah 
Hayes. Her mother was a Jennings, and his father was Edward Reed Jr. who 
married Rebacca Ridenhour. She was the sister, or cousin of John Ridenhour, who 
married Edward's sister Elizabeth Reed.