He was the son of Jacob Reed and Sarah Ellen Dugan. He was born in 1842, not 1843 as engraved on his marker. The exact date of his birth, 15 December 1842, was recorded on his civil war pension papers and his death certificate.
He was born to parents with German roots in that area of rural Pennsylvania that is Lycoming County. Samuel's Civil War record describes him as 5' 9" with brown eyes and dark hair. He attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, but never received a degree due to the eruption of the Civil War. He enlisted in 1863 as a Private in Company I of the 143rd Regiment from Pennsylvania. He was wounded in the left leg below the knee at the Battle of Laurel Ridge in 1864. His pension papers state he was lame and was helped to the field hospital and from there conveyed to White House Landing, where he was put on a steamboat and taken to Washington D.C. to the now famous Emory Hospital. About 4 weeks later he was well enough to return to the front, but the head doctor sent him back to the ward to act as a hospital nurse for 2 months. Then he went to the front and joined his company until he was discharged at Harts Island, New York in June 1865. He took up farming as listed on the 1870 and 1880 census and was living in Franklin, Lycoming County. He married twice and had 17 children total. His first wife was Almira/Elvira Susan Houseknecht; she was born in 1849 and they married around 1868. She was the mother of Samuel's first 5 children. All 5 of Almira's children lived to adult hood, but Almira died in 1881 at age 32 of pneumonia caused by tuberculosis. She is buried in a small cemetery next to the Old Germany Lutheran Church in rural Lycoming County. Samuel married 10 months later in 1882 to Emma Matilda Kreppenecht, who was just 16. They added 12 more children to the family, only one of which died young at age 4. In 1895, he and Emma moved their family to Beaver Lake, Pennsylvania, still in Lycoming County. But they only stayed a couple of years, as they are listed on the 1900 census back in Lairdsville, where he operated a general/dry goods store. He is listed as a merchant in both 1910 and 1920 as well. Emma was a seamstress and helper in their store. Samuel died in 1921 of arteriosclerosis and cancer of the bladder at age 78. Emma died in 1933 at age 67 and they are buried together in the Muncy Cemetery.