Austin County Texas Archives Biographies.....Reese, Kinion Wilkerson January 9 1872 - August 14 1918
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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.

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