Colonist and farmer Jefferson Reed moved to Robertson Colony, Texas, from Mississippi in the early 1830s. The Reed family, including Jefferson’s wife Patsy Reed, Michael Reed, Volney Reed, William Reed, and Lucy Reed, farmed cotton and bred cattle. Due to issues with agricultural cultivation and cotton production, the Reed family engaged in the horse breeding business in the 1870s and 1880s.
Business letters, legal documents, financial papers, and broadsides comprise the Reed (Jefferson) Family Papers, 1830-1901, documenting the personal affairs of the Reed family. Legal documents and financial papers concern Jefferson Reed’s cotton production and livestock breeding, while also including a slave bill of sale, memoranda booklets, receipts, and promissory notes. Letters written by Reed to business partners shed light on the difficulty of agriculture and problems with the land and soil in central east Texas.
This collection is open for research use.
Reed (Jefferson) Family Papers, 1830-1901, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s “History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project,” 2009-2011.