William Wallace Reed
WILLIAM WALLACE REED, M. D. A physician and surgeon of very thorough attainments and unusual experience, Doctor Reed has been in successful practice at Blue Rapids in Marshall County since October, 1906. While his practice is a general one, he specializes in surgery and his attainments in that department have brought him membership in the Clinical Congress of Surgeons.
Doctor Reed is of the third generation of his family represented in the medical profession. He bears the same name as his grandfather, who was a pioneer physician in Wisconsin William Wallace Reed, Sr., was born in Virginia, where his people had settled in Colonial times, coming originally from Ireland. William Wallace Reed, Sr., was born in Virginia in 1823, grew up in that state, went from there to Ohio, and as a young man located in Jefferson, Wisconsin, where he was one of the earliest physicians and surgeons to practice. He became a prominent man in Wisconsin, served as representative in the Legislature eleven years, and was a member of the State Board of Charity and Reform for a number of years. He also served as mayor of Jefferson. He filled the post of draft surgeon during the Civil war. His death occurred at Jefferson, Wisconsin, in 1916. He was a democrat, a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was twice married, his children being by his first wife. Those still living are: Flora, wife of Emil Stoppenbach, who is proprietor of the Stoppenbach packing house, meat market and malt house at Jefferson, Wisconsin; and Petula, who lives at 4628 Dover Street in Chicago, widow of J. O. Perkins, who for a number of years had charge of the advertising for the firm of Butler Brothers of Chicago.
Dr Frank A. Reed, father of the Blue Rapids physician, was born at Jefferson, Wisconsin, in 1852. He spent his early life in his native town. He graduated from Rush Medical College of Chicago, and practiced successively in Jefferson, Johnston's Creek and Mosinee, Wisconsin, and in 1883 removed to Kansas City, Missouri, and shortly afterward in the same year to Carbondale, Kansas. He began practice there, but his death occurred in 1885. He died in Kansas City, Missouri. He was a democrat in politics. Dr. Frank A. Reed married Amelia Gaulke, who was born at Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1857, and is now living in Carbondale, Kansas. Her only child is William Wallace Reed.
Dr. W. W. Reed attended public schools in Carbondale, Kansas, and Stoughton, Wisconsin. He was born at Mosinee, Wisconsin, April 1, 1880. He graduated from the Carbondale High School in 1899, and for six years was employed in the hospital department of the Santa Fe Railway. During that experience he attended lectures at the Medical School of Washburn College, now the University of Kansas Medical Department, and was graduated M. D. in 1905. He has since taken post-graduate work in Chicago hospitals for several different years, and prior to taking up active practice was house surgeon of the Santa Fe Hospital at La Junta, Colorado, during 1905-06. Doctor Reed removed to Blue Rapids in Marshall County in October 1906, and has built up a large and creditable practice. His offices are in the Sheldon Building on the public square. He is the present city health officer, and besides his membership in the Clinical Congress of Surgeons he belongs to the County and State Medical societies, the American Medical Association and the Missouri Valley Medical Society.
Doctor Reed is president of the Blue Rapids School Board. He is a democrat in politics, is a member of the Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Blue Rapids Lodge No. 169, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the Concordia Lodge of Elks, having first joined the La Junta Lodge No. 701 and demitting to Concordia Lodge.
Doctor Reed's home is on Fifth Street and East Avenue in Blue Rapids. He married in 1911, at Frankfort, Kansas, Miss Fay Adelaide Brandenburg. Her parents, C. W. and Adelaide Brandenburg, live at Frankfort, where her father is a dentist.
A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, copyright 1918; transcribed 1997.