Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-03-13
Charles Reed

1t is with feelings of more than ordl-
nary pain and regret that we announce
the death of Hon. Charles Reed, which
occurred at his residence in Montpelier,
Friday morning, March 9TH, 1878, of
congestion of the lungs, at the age of
fifty. eight years. His father, Hon.
Joseph Reed, was, for many years,
leading citizen of eastern Vermont, hav-
ing been a representative in the General
Assembly, Judge of the Orange County
Court, Judge of Probate for the district
of Washington, and for thirty years
treasurer of that county, member of the
Council of Censors, and a presidential
elector in 1910. He married, for his
second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev.
Jacob Burnap, D. D., of Merrimac, New
Hampshire, by whom he had two sons,
Charles and George W. Charles Reed
was born at Thetford, Vermont, Novem-
Der Gath, 1914, and removed to Mont
pelier, with his father, in 1897, where
he continued to reside until his death.
After pursuing the usual preparatory
studies, he entered Dartmouth College,
where he graduated in 1885, having
among his classmates Amos Tuck and
Henry Hubbard, of New Hampshire,
and the late Governor Peter I. Wash
burn Of this State. From here, he en-
tered the law school connected with
Harvard College, graduating with the
i 6 IJoobnIpv. IF 7 in 1920 EIa
soon after commenced the practice of
law in Montpelier, and won for himself
the reputation of an able lawyer and
sound counsellor, and was, for num-
Der of years prior to his death, men,
Der of the widely known firm of Heaton
& Reed, and was, in 1S41 and 1S48,
States Attorney of Washington county.
He represented Montpelier in the Gen
eral Assembly of Vermont in 1862 and
1863. and Washington county in the
State Senate for the three succeeding
wears. He had also been one of the
selectmen of Montpelier for five years,
a commissioner of Green Mountain
Cemetery at its organization, and was
also Justice of the peace for number
of years. In October, 1859, he was cleo
ted State Librarian, and the next year
librarian and curator of the cabinet of
the Vermont State Historical Society.
In connection with these last named
offices, he has rendered invaluable SER
vices to the State, proved himself an in
defatigable investigator and organizer
and linked his name imperishably with
our State history. We need not say
how. in the State Library, he brought
order out of chaos and from mass of
material, useless because unclassified,
unarranged and incomplete, he has laid
the foundation, broad and deep, for a
library of practical use and reference
to the legislator, lawyer, jurist and his
torical student for every one who has
had occasion, during recent years, to
visit or consult the library, knows how
well this invaluable labor has been per-
formed. We have, at various times,
had occasion to inspect and consult sew
cral of the larger libraries in the coun-
try, and we do not hesitate to say that
for the time it has been established and
for the amount of its annual appropri-
ations. the Vermont State Library shows
a more rapid advance both in the num-
Der, value and adaptability of the books
than any other similar institution i'll the
country. AS member of the publish
ing committee of the Vermont Histori-
cal Society, he has aided in the publ
cation Of two volumes of the collections.
Both volumes show his care and taste,
and the documents in relation to the
part taken by Vermont i'll resisting the
invasion of Burgoyne in 1777, in the
first volume, were mainly collected and
arranged, and the notes prepared by
him. Other papers, which he has con-
tributed to the archives of the Society,
have evidenced him to be painstaking,
thorough investigator, and a conscientious
historical student. He was always a
warm friend of the Vermont Reform
School and had been, for many years,
one of its trustees. Of his work in this
field, his private, domestic and profess
sional life, we leave others to speak.
We have performed our task in giving
this running resume of his busy and USE
full but unostentatious life. His wife was
a daughter of the Hon. Daniel Baldwin,
of Montpelier, and to her, in the hour
of her terrible bereavement we tender
the assurances of our most sincere and
heartfelt sympathy and coincidence.
Chicago wives claim and exercise the
! privilege of opening their husbands let.