Los Angeles County
Biographies
WILLIAM KIRKE REESE, JR.
REESE, WILLIAM KIRKE, JR.,
Mining Engineer, Los Angeles, California, was born in
Washington, D. C., August 13, 1876, the son of William Kirke Reese and Minnie (Bartley) Reese. He married Miss
Bird Chanslor at Los Angeles,
July 31, 1912.
Mr. Reese is descended of men
who have been prominent in military and civil life, members on both sides of
the family having been nationally famous. On the paternal side he is a nephew
of the late General William Tecumseh Sherman and United States Senator John
Sherman, and a second cousin of General Nelson A. Miles.
His grandfather, Colonel H. B. Reese, was an officer in
the United States Army, and his great grandfather, Major Reese, was a
distinguished soldier of the Civil War. His maternal great grandfather was
Governor of Ohio and the latter’s son, Judge Bartley, served as a Justice of
the Supreme Court of Ohio and also as Governor of the Buckeye State.
Mr. Reese received his preliminary education in private
schools of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was graduated from Golden College in
1897, with the degrees of Mechanical Engineer and Civil Engineer.
Following his graduation, Mr. Reese went West and located
first in Colorado, where he went into the mining business, thereby
supplementing his technical education with practical experience. He worked in
the mines there for nearly three years, leaving in 1900 to go to California. He
became associated with the Expose Treasure Mine at Majoba,
California, and was employed for about two years and a half.
In 1903, Mr. Reese went into Old Mexico to examine mining
property for himself and also as the representative of English capitalists. In
addition, he also carried a commission from the McArthur-Forrest Company, a
Scotch firm which had patented a cyanide process and was desirous of locating
mining property in Mexico.
His work took Mr. Reese to all parts of the Republic to
the South and he was busily engaged in examination and exploration work for
about five years, becoming in that time an expert judge of Mexican ore lands.
He found a number of promising properties, but did not retain any for himself,
returning to the United States to prosecute his work in 1908.
At that time he resigned his commissions from the foreign
syndicates he had represented and went into business on his own account,
purchasing mining interests in California and other parts of the West. He mined
for gold, silver and copper, principally in the States of California and Oregon,
and in four years’ time had amassed a fortune of comfortable proportions.
In January, 1912, he and his associates bought the
Crystal Salt Mine at Saltus, California, a
corporation which had been in business about six years, and he has begun the
actual work of producing and refining salt on a large scale. As Vice President,
Director and General Manager of the Crystal Salt Company, he has entire charge
of the company’s plans, which include the erection of a salt refinery at Los
Angeles, at a cost of $100,000.
His company owns six thousand acres of salt deposits, the
principal mine being located twelve miles from Bagdad, California. The
operations of the company have not only brought a new industry to Los Angeles,
but also form an important part of the development of the resources of
California.
Although he is devoting a large part of his time to his
salt company, Mr. Reese still retains valuable mining properties and is
actively interested in their development.
The principal company in which Mr. Reese is interested is
the Edith Mining Company, of Portland, Oregon, of which he is President and
Director.
Despite the fact that members of his family for
generations have achieved great prominence in public affairs, Mr. Reese is
not actively interested in politics, although he is a supporter of the
principles of the Republican party.
He settled permanently in Los Angeles in 1911 and is now
regarded as one of the most successful men of his profession in that section.
His club is the University, of Denver, Colorado.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
19 August 2011.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 734,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES