George William Reed was a circuit court judge for the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit, a prominent attorney and civic-minded citizen of Heber Springs (Cleburne County) during the early twentieth century, and a journalist and editor who owned newspapers in Heber Springs and Kansas.
George William Reed was born in Madison County, New York, on January 28, 1857, to William Truxton Reed and Mary M. Reed. Sources conflict as to the exact town or city of his birth. His obituary states he was born in Cazenovia, New York. D. T. Herndon’s Centennial History of Arkansas and a May 3, 2000, newspaper article in the Heber Springs Sun-Times written by his great-grandson, James Reed Eison, state that he was born in Fenner, Madison County, New York. Census records indicate that his parents and their children lived in Nelson, Madison County, New York, in 1850, 1860, and 1870, which could indicate that George was born in Nelson.
Reed attended public schools in New York and then the University of New York. On December 24, 1877, Reed married Fannie Lavinia Stoker of New York. The couple had seven children.
George Reed worked as a farmer until August 1878, when he lost his left hand in a threshing machine accident. He then studied law in Morrisville, New York, and was admitted to practice in the lower courts on November 19, 1878.
In February 1880, Reed moved to Salem, Jewell County, Kansas, and practiced law. He boarded in White Mound Township in the home of A. H. Gates, who was also a lawyer. It is unclear where Reed’s wife lived at this time. In addition to being a lawyer, Reed was the co-publisher and junior editor of the town’s newspaper, the Salem Chronicle. This job required him to engage in typesetting by picking single letter types from a case and setting them in a stick, which he accomplished even as a one-armed man. A few years later, he owned and published the Salem Chronicle’s successor newspaper, the Salem Argus. While in Jewell County, Reed wore a long-tailed coat and a high silk hat and enjoyed engaging in lively political discussions.
In 1888, Reed moved to Mankato, Kansas, and established another newspaper, the liberal Democratic Jacksonian, and served as its editor. He was also the town’s postmaster.
Reed soon tired of the conservative politics in Mankato. Upon the advice of friends, in 1890 he moved his family, his law practice, and his Jacksonian newspaper to Heber Springs (then known as Sugar Loaf). He shipped the newspaper equipment by rail to Searcy (White County) and hired an ox team to transport it the rest of the way. Reed advertised the first issue printed in Heber Springs, which was published on November 27, 1890. (Fred Allsopp in his book History of the Arkansas Press for a Hundred Years and More incorrectly wrote that Reed began publication of the Jacksonian in Heber Springs in 1888.) Reed later sold the Jacksonian to his son, Howard, so that he could devote more time to his law practice. Sources conflict as to the year of this sale but indicate it was either in 1906 or 1908. The Jacksonian was a predecessor to the Heber Springs Sun Times.
Reed lived the remainder of his life in Heber Springs and supported the town and county in numerous ways. From 1893 to 1897, he served as the town’s postmaster. For nine years, he was a member of the Heber Springs school board. He belonged to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He served as justice of the peace and as the city attorney for Heber Springs, as well as a district judge. He served as the Democratic National Chairman of Cleburne County.
As an attorney in private practice, he represented the Cleburne County Bank. He was one of the incorporators of the Heber Oil and Gas Company and served as a director as well as its attorney.
Reed was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He served as the grand master of the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows and representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge for two years, and he was a trustee of the Odd Fellows Home for four years. He belonged to the camp of the Woodmen of the World at Heber Springs. He was a Mason and belonged to Sugar Loaf Lodge, No. 414, AF&AM, of Heber Springs.
In 1910, Reed was elected as circuit court judge of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit and served one four-year term. In 1913, he presided over the trial of Odus Davidson in Harrison (Boone County). Davidson was convicted of the notorious 1912 murder of Ella Barham.
Reed was elected mayor of Heber Springs in 1917 but resigned in 1918. He was elected mayor again in 1927 and served for two years.
On June 17, 1939, Reed’s wife died of cancer in Heber Springs. Following her death, Reed lived with his son, George Mason Reed, and his family in Heber Springs, and continued to work as an attorney in private practice.
Reed died at his son’s house during the early morning hours of November 21, 1941, of coronary thrombosis due to hypertension. He is buried in the Heber Springs Cemetery.
Reed’s sons went on to play important roles in Arkansas politics. William Howard Reed was an attorney and a Democrat who served as Cleburne County assessor from 1907 to 1910, in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1919 to 1925, as Speaker of the Arkansas House from 1921 to 1925, and as Arkansas state comptroller in 1927. He ran in the Arkansas Democratic gubernatorial primaries in 1932, 1934, and 1936; also in 1936, he was appointed director of Arkansas Historical Records Survey. Lawrence Neill Reed served as deputy prosecuting attorney of the Fourteenth Judicial District, a Heber Springs municipal judge, and the mayor of Blytheville (Mississippi County). Lawrence Reed’s daughter, Ruth Reed Whitaker, served as a Republican in the Arkansas Senate from 2001 to 2012.
For additional information:
Allsopp, Fred W. History of the Arkansas Press for a Hundred Years and More. Little Rock: Parke-Harper Publishing Company, 1922.
Berry, Evalena. Time and the River: A History of Cleburne County. Little Rock: Rose Publishing Co., 1982.
Eison, James, Reed. “A Newspaper Continues from Early Inception, Judge Reed Established the First Area Newspaper.” Heber Springs Sun-Times, May 3, 2000, p. 4.
Garman-Schlaefli, Gloria. “Newspapers Chronicle Early History of County.” Jewell County Record, Threshing Bee Edition of the Superior Express, July 15, 2010, p. 2.
“George W. Reed, 86, Prominent Citizen and Founder of Times Taken by Death.” Cleburne County Times, November 27, 1941, p. 1.
Gould, Nita. Remembering Ella: A 1912 Murder and Mystery in the Arkansas Ozarks. Little Rock: Butler Center Books, 2018.
Herndon, D. T. Centennial History of Arkansas, Vol. 3. Chicago, IL: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1922.
Historical Report of the Secretary of State 2008. Little Rock: Arkansas Secretary of State’s Office, 2008.
Ross, Harry E. What Price White Rock? A Chronicle of Northwestern Jewell County. Burr Oak, KS: Burr Oak Herald, 1937.
“Yes We Are Here.” Jacksonian, November 27, 1890, p. 1.
Nita Gould
Tulsa, Oklahoma
