| Notes |
- 1880 Census
Household:
Kinion W. REESE Self M Male W 38 AL Farmer TN SC
Martha REESE Wife M Female W 36 IN Keeps House IN IN
Nancy M. REESE Dau S Female W 5 TX AL IN
Kinion W. REESE Son S Male W 2 TX AL IN
Margretta V. REESE Dau S Female W 5M TX AL IN
Ellen CARGERS Other Female B 32 AL Farm Laborer AL AL
Robert CHANDLER Other S Male B 13 TXFarm Laborer AL AL
Source Information:
Census Place Precinct 1, Austin, Texas
Family History Library Film 1255289
NA Film Number T9-1289
Page Number 375B
from Rees folder in Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus, Texas (original source appears to be from a book "Texas and Texans, page 1712, published 1916?):
Kinion W. Reese: More than sixty years ago when Kinion Wilkerson Reese was a boy of about nine years, he accompanied his parents upon their immigration from Pike County, Alabama, to Texas, and the family home was established in Austin County, near the line of Washington County, with which now favored and progressive section of the state the name of Reese has been closely and worthily linked during the long intervening years, its representatives having played a large part in the furtherance of both social and industrial development and advancement. Reared and educated under the conditions and influences of the pioneer era in the history of Texas, Kinion W. Reese was one of the young men who went forth from this state to do valiant service in defense of the cause of the Confederacy in the Civil War, after the close of which he bent his energies earnestly to the winning of the victories which peace ever has in store--victories "no less renowned than war". From small beginnings in connection with agricultural industry, he worked his way forward toward the goal of success, and today he stands as one of the extensive landholders, influential citizens and substantial men of affairs in Austin County, where he commands inviolable place in the confidence and esteem of a community in which virtually his entire life thus far has been spent, his well improved homestead place being situated about six miles from the Village of Chapel Hill, which has long held prestige as one of the important educational centers of this part of the state.
Kinion W. Reese was born in Pike County, Alabama, on the 9th of January, 1842, and thus was nine years old at the time of the family removal to the frontier of Texas, where his youthful fancies and tastes found satisfactory pabulum in the varied experiences of pioneer life, and where he early began to assist materially in the work of the home farm, the while his educational advantages were those afford in the rural schools of the neighborhood. he gained due familiarity with the various details of agricultural and livestock industry and was a sturdy young man of nineteen years when the Civil War was precipitated upon a divided nation. His loyalty to the Southern cause was most insistent and he soon subordinated all other interests to tender his aid in defense of the cause of the Confederacy. In the autumn of 1861 he enlisted as a private in Company D, Twelfth Texas Cavalry, which was commanded by Col. William H. Parsons, with Captain Highsmith at the head of Company D. From Texas this gallant and strapping cavalry regiment was ordered to Little Rock, Arkansas, and with his command Mr. Reese took part in the engagement at Soda Mound, Arkansas, as did he also in every engagement in the Mansfield campaign--from Yellow Bayou to Alexandria. Soon after the close of this spirited campaign he was granted furlough, which he passed at his home, and when he rejoined his regiment it was stationed at Silver Lake, Arkansas. Thereafter he took part in no more engagements with the enemy, and at the time of the close of the war, he was absent from his regiment, as he had been detailed as a witness in a court martial at Hempstead, Texas, and was not able to rejoin his company before its disbandment. He proved himself a faithful soldier and was always ready to respond promptly to any duty assigned to him, whether in battle or in connection with other activities of his command. Like his comrades he endured many hardships while serving as a soldier in the ranks, and he has stated in later years that when he set forth for his hRe Fleming Rees.ems
ome after the close of the war he considered it very fortunate that he had been identified with the cavalry arm of the service, since he was thus able to retain his horse and saddle and to gain by this means transportation to his destination; otherwise he would have had to make the journey on foot and barefooted at that, since his shoes had reached absolute disintegration, besides which his clothing was in tatters.
After the close of the war all industrial and other productive activities in Texas felt the depression that was so general throughout the prostrate South, and under these conditions Mr. Reese, the youthful veteran of the war, employed his energies to the best possible advantage and consulted ways and means for making advancement toward independence. The first year after his return home, he worked land "on shares" for a Methodist clergyman, and his indefatigable industry and well directed endeavors were not denied a due measure of reward, for within a few years he had established himself as one of the progressive and successful agriculturists of Austin County. He has since continued to keep pace with the march of civic and industrial advancement in this section of the state and on the Stevenson League he owns 1,100 acres of well improved land, besides an adjoining tract of 300 acres, in other surveys. He now has about 350 acres under effective cultivation, and he gives his attention also to successful operations in the raising and handling of excellent grades of livestock, so that his fine landed estate may be termed with virtually equal propriety either a farm or a stock ranch. The energy and good judgment of Mr. Reese have been manifest in the specially progressive policies which he has brought to bear in all of his activities, and at times his farm or homestead has been the center of differentiated industrialism, as on the same he has maintained a cotton gin, a general store, a sorghum mill, and a blacksmith shop, besides which the old ante-bellum post office of Sempronius was located on his place until its service was finally discontinued, at the time of the institution in this locality of the rural free delivery service, Mr. Reese thus having had the distinction of being the last to serve as postmaster of Sempronius.
In politics, Mr. Reese is well fortified in his convictions and is aligned as a stalwart support of the principles and policies of the democratic party, in the local affairs of which he has wielded not a little influence in Austin County, where he served for some time as its precinct chairman, besides attending the county conventions with marked regularity in earlier years. He has, however, never sought or become a candidate for elective office of a political nature. He and his family hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church and the only fraternal organization with which he ever became affiliated was the Knights of Honor.
In Austin County, on the 14th of December, 1870, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Reese to Miss Martha Montgomery, who was born in Gibson County, Indiana, on the 28th of October, 1843, and who was thus about ten years of age when, in 1852, her parents removed from the old Hoosier State to Texas, where her parents, McGrady and Minerva (Lucas) Montgomery, established their home on a pioneer farm in Austin County, where they passed the residue of their lives and where Mr. Montgomery achieve definite success and prosperity through his long association with agricultural pursuits, the Montgomery family having been one of prominence and influence in community affairs in this section of the state. Of the children of McGrady and Minerva Montgomery the eldest of those surviving is Miss Margaretta, who maintains her home at Edna, Jackson County; Mrs. Reese was the next in order of birth; Florence is the widow of Nehemiah Cochran and resides at Jacksonville, Texas; Mrs. America Crump resides in Austin County; Carrie became the wife of John Crawford, who is now deceased; and Fielding was a resident of Edna, Jackson County, at the time of his decease.
The supreme loss and bereavement in the life of Mr. Reese was that which came when his cherished and devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest, her death having occurred on the 2nd of March, 1910, and her memory being revered by all who came within the sphere of her immediate influence. Kinion Wilkerson Reese, Jr., the eldest son of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Reese, died in 1900, at the age of twenty-two years. Minerva is the wife of Woodson F. Tottenham, engaged in farming at Chapel Hill and their children are Kinion, Lydia, and Edwin; Margaret is the wife of Rev. Eugene Watson Potter, a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and they reside in the City of Houston, their children being Reese and Eugene; Miss Maude remains with her father at the old homestead, as does also Hoffman, who wedded Mis Kathyrine Dodd, their children being three in number--Erette, Martha, and Kathyrine
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1842 - 1918 (76 years)
