Robert REED died on the 26th day of Oct. 1876 at his residence in Shoal Creek Township, Cherokee county N.C., after a protracted illness of many months, aged 68 years 3 months and 21 days.  Said deceased was a son of Samuel REED, who was a soldier in the war of the Revolution of 1776.  Born in Burke county, NC,  July 5th 1808.  He had been a consistant Christian for forty years, and was an orderly member of the Methodist Episcopal church at his death.  The corpse was escorted to the family graveyard on the old homestead by the relatives, friends and neighbors of the deceased, where religious services was performed by Rev. A.J. HUNTER, he left a wife five sons and four daughters, and many grandchildren to mourn their loss.

“I looked upon the righteous man
And saw his parting breath,
Without a struggle or a sigh
Serenely yield to death.”

Source: Cherokee Herald, 24 June 1874, page 3.