Career
He was in the publishing business. Read served in the 14th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. In 1867, he moved to Kewaunee, Wisconsin and was the editor of the Kewaunee Enterprise.
Read served in the Wisconsin State Senate in 1874 and 1865 as a Democrat and then in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1881.
He had to resign from the Wisconsin Assembly because of ill health. He died in Louisville, Kentucky while trying to recover his health.