CHARLES H. REED, whose name on occasion is recorded as "Read", was appointed to the Camden Fire Department  in May of 1874 to replace Charles M. Baldwin as an extra man with the Hook & Ladder Company. Shortly thereafter he was reassigned to Engine Company 2, exchanging places with William Read, who had come into the department at the same time. Both men served until April of 1876, when they were not re-appointed. Charles H. Reed was reappointed in April of 1878 and served until March of 1882.

An carpenter by trade, Charles H. Reed was living at 422 Washington Street in South Camden when he was appointed to the Fire Department. By the time he was reappointed in May of 1875, he had moved to 421 Hartman Street, where he lived to at least 1878. When the 1879 City Directory was compiled, Charles Reed had moved to 323 Hamilton Street. Hamilton Street was renamed Berkley Street in 1882. 

Charles H. Reed, was born in New Jersey in in the early 1840s. A sister, Mary V. Reed, was born around 1846. When the Census was taken in 1850, his mother, Rebecca M. Reed, then 27, is living with a blacksmith, Charles Carson, in Amwell, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. By 1860 Charles and Rebecca have married, and two more children have been born, Laura and William. The family was still in Elizabeth at the time of the 1870 census.

As stated above, Charles H. Reed was appointed to the Camden Fire department in May of 1874. He was then living at 422 Washington Street. He had moved to 421 Hartman Street (renamed Clinton Street in 1882- PMC) in South Camden by the spring of 1875. Charles H. Reed married around this time. His wife Adelaide "Addie" Reed bore a son, Redmond, in October of 1874, and another son Charles T. Reed, in July of 1876. The family was still at 421 Hartman Street in the spring of 1878 but within a years time had moved to 323 Hamilton Street, where the resided through the summer of 1880. A daughter, Phoebe Adelaide Reed, was born in November of 1879. When the census was taken in June of that year, Charles H. Reed's mother, Mrs. Rebecca Carson, was living with him and his family.

Charles H. Reed and family had moved to 319 Berkley Street by the time the 1883-1884 Camden City Directory was compiled. He was then working as a carpenter for Joseph Wharton. The Reed family were still at that address a year later. Not long afterwards, the family left Camden and returned to Elizabeth, New Jersey. By 1890, Charles H. Reed had died. Addie Reed was then running a boarding house at 26 West Grand Street in Elizabeth. Her three children and her mother were living with her when the Census was taken.