Heber Curtis Reed

Heber Curtis Reed

was born on September 7, 1847, in Keg Creek Township, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, during a period of intense migration. His parents, Calvin Reed and Mary Curtis, were among the Latter-day Saints who had fled Illinois after the expulsion from Nauvoo, preparing for the trek across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains.

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Heber crossed the plains as a child, growing up in the early settlements of Utah where he learned farming and resourcefulness. He married Louisa Eliza Sheen, and together they raised a family in the Utah territory before answering the call to colonize the remote valleys of southern Arizona.

Settling the San Pedro Valley

In the early 1880s, the Reed family relocated to the San Pedro River Valley in Cochise County, Arizona Territory. They were among the early families who established the settlement of St. David. The valley was an isolated outpost, far from major commercial centers, where water was the deciding factor in survival.

^{[GED]GED — Genealogy DatabaseGEDCOM Master File: William Erastus Platt}

Heber farmed the arid valley land, clearing the native mesquite and constructing ditches to direct water from the San Pedro River onto alfalfa and grain fields. In addition to farming, he served in local civic and ward roles, contributing to the establishment of schools, roads, and irrigation networks. His daughter, Roxanna Othelia Reed, married George Edward Goodman in 1893, uniting the Reed family with the Goodman lineage.

A Frontier Legacy

Life in southern Arizona at the end of the nineteenth century was demanding. In addition to the physical labor of farming, families faced extreme summer heat, drought, and the instability of the local river, which could wash out dams during summer monsoon storms. Heber's voter registration and census records show he traveled across the territory for work, residing in the San Simon and Grant County, New Mexico areas at various points as he sought economic stability.

Heber died in St. David on October 9, 1902, at the age of fifty-five. He was buried in the Saint David Cemetery. His work in establishing the canals and civic structures of the San Pedro Valley laid the foundation for the community that supported successive generations of the Goodman family.