Paul Booker Reed was Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 from 1885 to 1887. His father, William Decatur Reed was a lawyer and Kentucky Secretary of State under Governor William Owsley

William Owsley

William Owsley was an associate justice on the Kentucky Court of Appeals and the 16th Governor of Kentucky. He also served in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly and was Kentucky Secretary of State under Governor James Turner Morehead.Owsley studied law under John Boyle...

. P. Booker Reed studies at Centre College

Centre College

Centre College is a private liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky, USA, a community of approximately 16,000 in Boyle County south of Lexington, KY. Centre is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution. Centre was founded by Presbyterian leaders, with whom it maintains a loose...

 were interrupted by the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, during which he served the Confederate Army for four years as a private in the Orphan Brigade

Orphan Brigade

The Orphan Brigade was the nickname of the First Kentucky Brigade, a group of military units recruited from the Commonwealth of Kentucky to fight for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. The brigade was the largest Confederate unit to be recruited from Kentucky during...

 and the Kentucky Ninth Infantry

9th Kentucky Infantry

The 9th Kentucky Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. It was part of the First Kentucky Brigade.-Service:...

. After the war he attended medical school

Medical school

A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...

 in Europe. He started a successful manufacturing business in Louisville in the 1870s.

In 1880 he was appointed to Louisville's Chancery Court

Chancery Court

The Chancery Court of York is an ecclesiastical court for the Province of York of the Church of England.The presiding officer, the Official Principal and Auditor, has been the same person as the Dean of the Arches since the nineteenth century . The Court comprises the Auditor, two clergy and two...

, and in 1884, with the support of emerging political boss John Whallen, he was elected mayor over John W. McGee. During his three year term he balanced the city's budget, cutting unnecessary city positions and lowering salaries, including his own.

After his term of mayor he served as president of the Board of Aldermen as a Republican from 1899 to 1900. He dropped out of the 1901 race for mayor.

He then moved west to Seattle then to Canada. He was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.