Alvin did not go to Pennsylvania with his father's family, he stayed in New Jersey in his grandparent's home. His grandfather Samuel Read died in July 1869. In his will, Samuel left Alvin (named as Richard Alvin) $1,000. According to the terms of the will Alvin was to receive the money when he turned 21 (in 1885). The interest accuring on the money was to be used to buy Alvin school clothes etc. as long as he lived with his grandmother or his aunts. If he left them, the interest was to be held for him until he turned 21 (Warren County Surrogate Court Records, hereinafter WCSC, Wills Book 4, page 327). As Samuel had provided for Alvin's maintenance, Jonah may have decided to let his son stay with his grandmother. In 1870, Alvin lived with his grandmother and Aunt Ruth. His Aunt Mary Catherine had married Edward Brinkruff in 1867 (1870 United States Federal Census, Blairstown Township, Warren County, New Jersey, page 15).

In July 1873, Ruth Read married Nicholas Wildrick and left the house. A little over a year later, in October 1874, Mary Ann Wolverton Read died. Alvin was 10 years old. His Aunt Mary Catherine Brinkruff had two chldren of her own (Albert and Jennie) and his Aunt Ruth Wildrick had just had her first child in April (Lillian). His aunts decided to send Alvin to live with his father (Kern 1938). By 1874, Jonah and Christeana Read were living in Jackson Township, Vinton County, Ohio. They had just had a new baby, a son named Arthur, who was born in 1873 in Pennsylvania. It is probable that their daughter Elizabeth had died in Pennsylvania. At the age of 10, Alvin went to live with a father whom he had seen little to nothing of since he was 5 years old and new half-brother whom he had never met.

Because the family lived in Ohio, Jonah decided he needed a guardian to look out for Alvin's share of his grandfather Samuel C. Read's estate. Jonah wrote to his brother Samuel H. Read, who still lived in Warren County. He asked Samuel to appear before the Orphans Court of the county and petition the court to act as Alvin's guardian. Samuel agreed and on 30 January 1875 he petitioned the court. The petition states that Alvin was the son of the late Eliza M. Read and that she had not named a guardian for her son at the time of her death. Further, the boy's father (Jonah H. Read) had requested that Samuel petition the court to act as Alvin's guardian until Alvin turned 14 (in 1878). The guardianship was in regards to property that Samuel believed was worth $3,500. Samuel agreed to post a bond as the child's guardian and named his brother-in-law William C. Hibler as his security. Hibler was married to Samuel and Jonah's sister, Lavina Jane Read and was one of Alvin's paternal uncles (WCSCR Petitions Book 1, page 134). The personal property (in the form of notes, bonds and interest) that Alvin inherited from his grandfather in 1869 had increased in value. As Jonah was not in Warren County to personally oversee Alvin's inheritance he asked his older brother to watch over it. The inheritance left to Alvin was now in the hands of Alvin's aunts and their husbands, that is Mary Catherine and Edward Brinkruff and Ruth and Nicholas Wildrick. Because Alvin was now living with his father and step-mother he no longer received interest from the property. The interest and the principal would not come into his hands until 1885, ten years in the future. By appointing Samuel as Alvin's guardian, Jonah made sure that his son's inheritance was protected. Samuel was the guardian of Alvin's property, not of his person. Jonah had sole control over the physical form of his son.

The 1880 census describes Alvin's new family. It consisted of his father Jonah, his stepmother Christeana, 16 year old Alvin, and his 7 year old half-brother, Arthur. The family lived in Jackson Township, Vinton County, Ohio near the town of Ural, Ohio (1880 United States Federal Census, Jackson Township, Vinton County, Ohio, page 82B). Alvin and his father worked their farm together. Whether the reunion with his father was smooth and uneventful is unknown. However, when Alvin married in 1889, he and his wife settled in a house next to his father's house. Alvin and Jonah continued to farm together. Had the relationship with his father been extremely strained Alvin could have opted to homestead farther to the west, instead he stayed. This suggests that he and Jonah maintained a fairly good relationship with one another. By the time Alvin married, he had two living half-siblings, Arthur and Grace (who was born in Ohio in November 1883).

Alvin married on 22 June 1889, Sarah Ellen Seitz. She was born 22 November 1870, near Allenville, Vinton County, Ohio (Ohio Annual Conference). The 1910 census gives her name as Ella S., her name is Sarah E. in the 1900 and 1920 census. Newberry (c.1934) and Kern (1938) name one wife for Alvin, but do not include her name. Sarah Ella Seitz was the daughter of Jacob and Sarah E. Seitz. Jacob Seitz was born in Maryland and had migrated to Ohio. His wife Sarah was born in Ohio, but her parents were from Vermont (father) and Pennsylvania (mother). The Seitzes had 12 children in 1880: William H. (age 20), Joseph J. (age 19), Samuel F. (age 17), Harvey S. (age 15), Lucilla A. (age 13), Hannah L. (age 12), Albert G. (age 10), Sarah Ella (age 8), John O. (age 6), Christiana (age 6), Robert P. (age 5), and Ida M. (age 1). The Seitz farm was very close to the Read farm. The 1880 census lists four other farm families living between Jacob Seitz and Jonah Read (1880 United States Federal Census, Jackson Township, Vinton County, Ohio, pages 82A, 82B). Alvin Read and Sarah's four oldest brothers were all around the same age. Sarah was close in age to Alvin's brother Arthur. The two families probably knew each other well.

By 1900, Alvin and Sarah were the parents of three living children, one other child had died before the census was taken. Alvin and his father were still working their farms (1900 United States Federal Census, enumeration district 110, Jackson Township, Vinton County, Ohio, sheet 6B). Then Alvin made a major life changing decision. He appears to have left his farm in about 1904 and moved over the county line to the town of Logan in Hocking County. In 1905, he became a minister in the Methodist Protestant Church (M.P.). He served in the Ohio Conference for almost 40 years. In 1907, Alvin became the pastor of a M.P. church in the village of Stockport, Morgan County, Ohio (Ohio Wesleyan University 2003). This was probably the church that is currently known as Stockport United Methodist Church, which is located on Market Street in Stockport. In 1910, the Reads were renting a house in the village of Stockport (1910 United States Federal Census, Stockport, Morgan County, Ohio, enumeration district 52). Alvin was ordained in 1910. He remained in Stockport until 1912. Alvin and Sarah's daughter Mary was born in Stockport in 1909. It is possible that their daughter Ruth was born there also. Her birth occurred circa 1912.

The Reads moved about Ohio for the next 30 years. Alvin served the M.P. Church in Renrock, Noble County, Ohio from 1912 until 1916 (Ohio Wesleyan University 2003). During his tenure in Renrock, the Read's youngest child, Esther, was born (1913). Two of the Read daughters, Edna and Bertha, were married while their family resided there. The 1910 census states that Ella was the mother of four children, all four of whom were living. The census does not mention the child who was born and died between 1889 and 1900. Newberry (c.1934) gives the total number of children in the famiy as six, but does not give their names. These six children as named in the census were Edna, Bertha, Ira, Mary, Ruth and Esther. If the 1900 census data is correct there were actually seven children. The six surviving children followed their father across the state of Ohio as he moved from church to church.

After Alvin left the Renrock church, he served two years on the Coshocton Circuit (1916 to 1918). In 1918, Alvin became pastor of the M.P. church in Pleasantville, Fairfield County, Ohio (Ohio Wesleyan University 2003). The village was called Pleasant Valley Village in the 1920 census. The family lived on Foster Street (1920 United States Federal Census, Pleasant Valley Village, Fairfield County, Ohio, Enumeration District 28, sheet B, 3 January 1920). Foster Street is a block away from the current location of the Pleasantville United Methodist Church, which is at 111 Lincoln Avenue in Pleasantville. While the Reads were in Pleasantville, the First World War began. Alvin and Ella's only son Ira served in the Ohio National Guard. When he returned from the war, he moved back in with his parents in their Pleasantville home and taught school in the area's public schools. Ira may have remained with his parents until his marriage, which occurred between 1920 and 1926.

Alvin and Sarah continued to move from church to church during the 1920s. In 1921, Alvin was the pastor of the M.P. Church in Port William, Clinton County, Ohio. He took the church in Reesville in 1923 (Ohio Wesleyan University 2003). Reesville is about seven and a half miles from Port William. Currently, only Port William has a Methodist church, there is no Methodist Church in Reesville. The Port William Methodist church is currently located at 322 Walnut St. in the village of Port William.

After Ella's death, Alvin continued to serve the M.P. Church. In 1936, he became the pastor of the M.P. Church in Mt. Orab, Brown County, Ohio. He took his last church in 1938 in Martinsville, Clinton County, Ohio. During Alvin's tenure in Martinsville there was a merger between the Methodist Protestant and Methodist Episcopal Churches. In 1940 these two churches became part of the the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Church. Alvin retired from active ministry in 1943. After his retirement he was called back to service for two years. He settled in Reynoldsburg, Franklin County, Ohio after his retirement and belonged to the Methodist Church in Reynoldsburg. Alvin lived for another ten years after his retirement and died on Sunday, 8 February 1953 in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio. Two of his children lived in Columbus, Bertha Read Priest and Ira J. Read. According to his obituary:

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