REED, PATRICK, a retired farmer residing at No. 1954 East Capitol Avenue, Springfield, Ill., has been a resident of Sangamon County, for fifty-four years. He was born in County Mayo, Ireland, March 17, 1821, a son of Dominick and Mary (Hopkins) Reed. Dominick Reed was also a native of County Mayo, Ireland, and there spent his entire life engaged in farming. His wife, who was a daughter of Thomas Hopkins, also spent her life there and, of their ten children, Patrick was the only one to come to the United States.

Patrick Reed received but a limited education in his native country, going to work at an early age on his father's farm. On February 3, 1854, he was married to Bridget Cassedy, daughter of John and Catherine Cassedy and two years later they came to new York from Liverpool on a sailing vessel, the Ibert Gallatus, which took seven weeks to make the voyage. After his arrival he located for a time near Camden, N.J., where he worked on a farm, his wife doing housework. For thirteen years Mr. Reed worked with the construction gang of the Chicago & Alton R.R., receiving ninety cents a day and having to wait two years before he was paid. He then moved to Chatham, Ill., where he rented a farm for several years, but by this time his children were old enough to help him, and he subsequently purchased a farm of 240 acres in what is now New Berlin Township, paying down $1,000 and going in debt for $11,000, which he paid in seven years, although his contract allowed him ten years to complete the payment. To accomplish this required close economy, and the raising of large crops, and his success in this line is shown by the fact that, in one year, he sold 10,000 bushels of corn at sixty-eight cents per bushel. In their early days after coming to Springfield, in order to aid her husband, Mrs. Reed took in washing, during a part of this time working for Mrs. Lincoln at $1.25 per day. About 1896 Mr. Reed turned the management of his farm over to his son and moved to his present home in Springfield. He has erected several houses there, in addition to the one he now occupies. He is a stanch Democrat in politics, and he and Mrs. Reed are members of the Roman Catholic Church.

The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Reed: Thomas, who married Kate Hefferton; Mary, twin sister of Thomas, married Thomas Solon; Kate, at home; John, married Eliza Scanlan and died in 1904; William, married and lives on the home farm; Dominick, married Ann Carrigan, also resides on the home farm; Frank, married Hannah Carrigan, and resides in Springfield; Annie, married Frank Flesch a contractor of Springfield; Joseph is single; Maggie, is Mrs. Patrick Carrigan of Springfield; and three died in infancy.