John Reed

The son named with Elisha in James Reed’s will of 19 July 1836. Coy Robbins’s abstract of the will as recorded (Deed Book J, p. 522) and JoEllen Reed’s handwritten notes call him John; her typed transcription calls him James. This file stands for whichever son the will names.

• If the name is James, he is probably the younger James Reed who married Mellissa Reed in Morgan County on 27 April 1836, three months before the will.
• If it is John, he may be the John Reed, 58, born North Carolina about 1802, with an Elizabeth, 18, in the 1860 census (JoEllen Reed’s family transcription), and probably the free colored John Reed aged 36-55 on the 1840 Morgan County census (image 32). An Elizabeth Reed, wife of a John Reed, died on 14 December 1857 and is buried at Martinsville (Find a Grave index). Whether that John is also the John Reed of Section 17, whom JoEllen Reed makes James’s brother, is open; Abner Reed (b. c. 1821, Indiana) is more likely the Section 17 John’s son than James’s.

Open questions

• John or James? Deed Book J, p. 522, on FamilySearch film 1468446, will settle it.