Among the children of Benjamin Reed and Huldah Pratt were three whose lives were brief enough that they left almost nothing behind. They did not marry, buy land, appear in many records, or leave descendants to remember them. Their names survive because a copy of the family Bible record was preserved in the family and later used, at least in part, by John Ludovicus Reed in The Reed Genealogy: Descendants of William Reade of Weymouth, Massachusetts, from 1635–1902, hereafter The Reed Genealogy.
Huldah, Cyrus, and Betsey were unknown to me until I found The Reed Genealogy. The strongest clue to Reed’s source appears in the entry for Mary E. Reed Roane, daughter of Luther and Jerusha Wilson Reed and granddaughter of Benjamin and Huldah. Reed wrote that Mrs. Roane had “a copy of the family Bible of Benjamin and Huldah (Pratt) Reed, with a list of their children.” That does not prove that the printed list was copied directly from that Bible copy, but it makes Mrs. Roane’s record the clearest known source behind the names of Benjamin and Huldah’s children.
The printed list also has the feel of information copied from an older family source. Several dates are uncertain or given as alternatives: Benjamin was born “Aug. 4, or 17”; John was born “July 20, or 21”; Huldah died “Dec. 13, 1813, or 1818”; Cyrus died “Oct. 14, or 19”; and Almira was born “Sept. 9, or 18.” Those uncertain readings suggest a difficult-to-read, possibly handwritten, record.
Huldah Reed
Huldah Reed, daughter of Benjamin Reed and Huldah Pratt, was said to have been born on 21 August 1783. She was the third child and first daughter. At that time, Benjamin and Huldah were living in Massachusetts, probably in Hampshire County. By the age of five, Huldah was living with her family in the rugged mountains of Bennington County, Vermont, in the sparsely populated town of Woodford.
The Reed family remained in Woodford until sometime between 1801 and 1807, when they moved to Wardsboro. By 1812, they were in Putney, where Benjamin and Huldah remained until their deaths. The Reed Genealogy gives the younger Huldah’s death as 13 December, either in 1813 or 1818. If she remained with her family, Putney is the most likely place of death, though I have not found a record that proves it. She would have been either thirty or thirty-five years old.
Cyrus Reed
Cyrus Reed was born on 24 October 1786, according to The Reed Genealogy. Based on the records I have found for Benjamin Reed, the family lived in Massachusetts until about 1788, placing Cyrus’s birth in Massachusetts.
Cyrus was seventeen years old when he died on either 14 or 19 October 1804. It is difficult to determine where his death may have occurred. Even if he was still with his family, they were moving from Woodford to nearby Wardsboro around that time, and I have not been able to pinpoint the exact date or even the year of the move.
Cyrus was probably still with his family in 1800. When I reconstructed Benjamin Reed’s household from the 1800 U.S. census, there was room for a son of Cyrus’s age.
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In the 1800 U.S. Census, Benjamin Reed’s household in Woodford included nine people. When I compared those age categories with the children listed in the Reed genealogy, the younger children lined up very neatly along with Benjamin and Huldah. The two oldest sons, Benjamin Jr. (age 20) and John (age 19) did not appear to be living with the family. |
Betsey Reed
Betsey Reed was born on 22 August 1791 and died on 9 March 1801. She was nine years old. If she remained with her family during those years, she was probably born in Woodford and died there before the family moved to Wardsboro.
For Huldah, Cyrus, and Betsey, this one published list is the only place I have found them named. They do not appear later as married adults, landowners, parents, or heads of households. Their lives have to be followed indirectly, through the movements of Benjamin and Huldah and through the few dates preserved beside their names.
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Bennington County, Vermont, land records, 192, Benjamin Reed to James Greenslet, deed, 5 November 1806; “Bennington, Bennington, Vermont, United States records,” digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLR-N9XB-9 : accessed 26 February 2025), image 403 of 803. Shows residency in Wardsboro.
John Ludovicus Reed, The Reed Genealogy: Descendants of William Reade of Weymouth, Massachusetts, from 1635–1902, vol. 1 (1901); digital image, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/reedgenealogydes01reed/page/n11/mode/2up : accessed 18 April 2026).
Putney, Windham County, Vermont, town records, p. 579, Benjamin Reed to James Clay, deed, 23 April 1811, acknowledged and recorded 2 March 1812; “Putney, Windham, Vermont, United States records,” digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSCM-6SS2-H : accessed 22 February 2025), image 309 of 719.
“U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900,” database and images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/49769:1995 : accessed 25 June 2022), for Benjamin Reed, images 266 to 320; citing "Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files" (NARA microfilm publication M804, 2,670 rolls). Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
“United States, Census, 1800,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHRQ-6XP : accessed 25 May 2026), entry for Benjamin Reed, 1800.
