Program

NYS Historic

Subject

House, People

Location

808 NY-203, Chatham, NY 12037, USA

Lat/Long

42.322776, -73.545159

Grant Recipient

Austerlitz Historial Society

Ebenezer Reed (1795-1872) was a nearly lifelong resident of Spencertown in Columbia County, New York. A prominent member of the community, he served as a town supervisor several times, worked as a doctor and storekeeper, and acted as a mortgage lender to many in the community. Mr. Reed also served as the president of Spencertown Academy from 1863 to 1870.

Mr. Reed resided in Spencertown until 1871, presumably when his health began to fail. For the last year of his life, he relocated to New York City. He died June 14, 1872 at his residence in New York City, and was buried in the Spencertown Cemetery. Upon Mr. Reed’s death, the June 15, 1872 edition of the Hudson Evening Register published a notice that read in part:

He continued the practice of medicine in early life, but from his natural taste for mercantile pursuits, he allowed his practice to decline, and but for the tenacity with which many of his old friends held on to him, availing themselves to the last of his uncommon good, sense and judgement, he would have given it up altogether. Upright, clearheaded and sagacious, he was the sage, counsellor, and lawyer, in all that section of the County in which he lived. Was a will to be made, a purchase, a sale, or in fact a negotiation of any kind involving the transfer of property, Doctor Reed’s store, in that quiet village of Spencertown, was the certain point at which, for miles around, people were wont to resort to avail themselves of his advice. … his loss to that portion of the county where he so long resided, makes many a sad heart, and leaves a wide vacuum.