|
Reese, CAPT Kinion Wilkerson (1842-1918)
Reese, Kinion Wilkerson
Life Sketch
1918
Austin County Texas Archives Biographies.....Reese, Kinion Wilkerson January 9 1872 - August 14 1918
************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/txfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deborah Smith cherawgal@netscape.net July 31, 2004, 9:49 am Author: from Rees folder in Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus, Texas (original source appears to be from a book "Texas and Texans, page 1712, published 1916?): 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. Fleming S. Reese, father of him whose name introduces this article, was born in Virginia, in 1812, and was a scion of a family that was founded in the historic Old Dominion in the colonial period of our national history. Such were the exigencies and conditions of time and place that he received in his youth only limited educational advantages, and as a young man he initiated independent operations as a farmer in Alabama, where also was solemnized his marriage to Miss Nancy Whittington, whose father, Burrel Whittington, was a representative of a South Carolina family that early became settled in Alabama and that became actively concerned with agricultural industry in that state, though Burrel Whittington never became a slave holder. In coming with his family to Texas, in 1849, Fleming S. Reese voyaged across the Gulf of Mexico and disembarked in the port of Houston, from which point he transported his family and little stock of household effects, etc., overland to the frontier district of Austin County, where he settled near the line of Washington County, which at that time was still a part of Austin County. He erected his primitive pioneer dwelling on the Stevenson League, where the fine homestead of his son, Kinion W. Reese, is now established. He and his family moved to Colorado County in the fall of 1865, and there they spent the remainder of their lives--earnest, intelligent, industrious and God-fearing folk who lived up to the measure of their opportunities and who merited and received the respect and good will of their fellow men. Fleming S. Reese reclaimed and developed a homestead farm and gained a fair measure of temporal prosperity through his well directed endeavors. His political support was given to the Democratic Party and during the Civil War, for service in which his advanced age rendered him ineligible, he was in full sympathy with the cause of the Confederacy, which he supported by every means in his power, two of his sons having gone forth as loyal soldiers in the Confederate ranks. Both he and his wife were worthy members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the former having passed to eternal rest in 1870 and Mrs. Reese having survived him by many years, as her death occurred in 1898. Of their children, the eldest was John, who became a prosperous agriculturist in Lavaca County where he served in various local offices of public trust and where he continued to reside until his death: he was survived by a number of children, and he was the elder of the two sons who were found as loyal and valiant soldiers of the Confederacy in the war between the states of the North and the South. Sarah, the second of the children who attained to maturity, became the wife of George W. Houchins and was a resident of Lavaca County at the time of her death. Kinion W. of this review, was the next in order of birth. Mary is the wife of Spencer Townsend, of Yoakum, DeWitt County; Nancy is the widow of James Styers and resides in the City of San Antonio; Virginia is the wife of J. Pinkney Williams of Yoakum; Martha Elizabeth became the wife of W. S. Woolsey and resided in the Town of Yoakum at the time of her death, June 3, 1915. Burrel and Samuel lost their lives as a result of the Reese-Townsend feud and were residents of Columbus, Colorado County, at the time of their death; and Walter was a resident of the City of Houston at the time of his death. Fleming S. Reese, Jr. is a resident of Yoakum, Texas. 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 home 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 service 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 Miss Kathyrine Dodd, their children being three in number--Erette, Martha, and Kathyrine. Additional Comments: Kinion is buried in Oak Knoll Cemetery, Bellville, Austin County, Texas. His mother, Nancy Whittington Rees, is buried in the same plot. His father, Fleming Sanders Rees, is buried in the Rees family cemetery in Colorado County, Texas. This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/txfiles/ |
|
Reese
Kinion Wilkerson
64
|