Reed, Charles F.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Charles F. Reed, manager of the Ball Manufacturing Company's branch house at Independence, is an alert young business man whose proved abilities and varied experience have well qualified him for some of the larger and more important responsibilities of commercial life.

The family of which he is a member originated in Germany and was transplanted to Pennsylvania prior to the Revolutionary war. Mr. Reed himself was born at East Lynne, Cass County, Missouri, April 7, 1892. His father is W. B. Reed, now a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, and a merchant there. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1851 and at the age of seventeen went west of Illinois and engaged in farming near Decatur. From 1880 to 1905 he was in the hardware business at East Lynne, Missouri, and has since lived in Kansas. He farmed at Grainfield from 1905 to 1908, then spent two years as a merchant at Natoma, and has since been in the shoe business at Kansas City, Kansas. He is a democrat, a Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. W. B. Reed married Martha J. Weigle, who was born in Illinois in 1859. J. D. Reed, the first of their children, is a carpenter and builder at Kansas City, Kansas; W. H. Reed is in the real estate and fire insurance business at Kansas City, Kansas; H. J. Reed is general foreman of the store department for the Frisco Railroad, with home and headquarters at Springfield, Missouri.

The youngest of the family, Charles F. Reed, spent his early life at East Lynne, Missouri, and in Kansas, graduated from the grade schools of Natoma and attended high school two years, and in 1910 began teaching. He taught a term at Laton, Kansas, then worked a year in his father's store at Natoma, and from there moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and was employed for two years in the Jones-Post mail order house. Another line of experience came to him as a representative of the Prudential Insurance Company at Kansas City, Kansas. From there, in December, 1915, he came to Independence to act as manager of the Ball Manufacturing Company, whose wholesale and retail general merchandise establishment is located at 200-202 West Main street in Independence.

This is one of the twenty-six branch stores operated by the Ball Manufacturing Company of Kansas City, Missouri. These stores are in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, and it is one of the largest general mercantile houses of the Middle West. The executive officers of the company at Kansas City, Missouri, are: Dr. S. E. Ball, president; E. E. Bessire, H. S. Batchelor, Mr. Crone, T. A. Banker, vice presidents.

Mr. Reed takes an active part in the Independence Commercial Club. He is one of the stockholders in the Ball Manufacturing Company. Politically he is independent, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and belongs to Ben Hur, Lodge No. 322, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Argentine, Kansas. His home is at 505 South Tenth Street in Independence, and he has a wife and two children. In July, 1912, at Kansas City, Kansas, he married Miss Sadie B. Rhode, daughter of Charles and Ella Rhode; who are residents of Kansas City, Kansas. Their two children are: Marie, born May 20, 1913, and Margaret, born May 21, 1915.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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