When Orson Olen Reed was born on 21 August 1892, in Tyler, West Virginia, United States, his father, William Alonzo Reed, was 34 and his mother, Nancy Ellen Snyder, was 32. He married Della Maud Pratt on 11 March 1916, in Harrison, West Virginia, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 2 daughters. He lived in Grant District, Harrison, West Virginia, United States for about 10 years and Lost Creek, Harrison, West Virginia, United States in 1950. He died on 20 October 1963, in Clarksburg, Harrison, West Virginia, United States, at the age of 71, and was buried in Seventh Day Baptist Church Cemetery, Lost Creek, Harrison, Virginia, United States.
English and Scottish: nickname from Middle English and Older Scots red(e) ‘red’, no doubt denoting someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion.
English: from Middle English ride, rede, rude (Old English rīed, rēod, rȳd) ‘clearing’. The surname may be topographic for someone who lived in or near a clearing, or habitational, for someone who lived at one of a number of places so named, including Rede Court in Strood (Kent), Rides in Eastchurch (Kent), Ride Way in Ewhurst (Surrey), and Reed Farm in Wadhurst (Sussex). The word is particularly common in the southeastern counties of England, from Kent to the Isle of Wight. See also Rider and Reader .
English: habitational name from Read (Lancashire), Reed (Hertfordshire), or Rede (Suffolk). The Lancashire placename derives from Old English rǣge ‘roe, female roe deer’ + hēafod ‘head’. The Hertfordshire placename derives from Old English rȳhth ‘rough piece of ground’. The etymology of the Suffolk placename is uncertain.
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