One of the well known farmers of Sacramento county is David
Reese, who was born in Llsaint, Carmarthenshire, Wales, August 7, 1849, his
parents being John and Elizabeth (Anthony) Reese, who were natives of that place. The father was born in 1819 and followed
shoemaking until thirty-five years of age, when he came to the United States,
crossing the Atlantic from Liverpool to New Orleans, where he arrived after a
voyage of eight weeks. He was accompanied by his wife and three children, and
they proceeded by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to Kansas City, where
they made preparations to continue their journey across the plains to Salt Lake
City. Oxen hauled their goods across the
long stretches of dry plain between Missouri and Utah, but at length they
reached the latter place and the father made a settlement in that state. There
he carried on stock-raising for six years, after which he sold out and in 1860
started for California. He spent two
months of that year on the Sierra Nevada mountains and in October arrived in
the city of Sacramento. Purchasing land
in the San Joaquin township, he made his home there until his death, which
occurred on the 11th of September, 1869, his wife passing away on the 6th of
February, 1889.
In their family were five children: Catherine, the wife of John B. Brown, a resident of Sacramento
county; David; John; Elizabeth the wife of W. W. Kilgore, a resident of Colusa
county; and Thomas who died while crossing the plains to Utah. The father was a
Republican in his political affiliations, casting his first presidential vote
in America for Abraham Lincoln, in 1860.
He was a staunch advocate of the principles of the party, but never
sought office. The paternal
grandparents of our subject, Thomas and Mary Reese, spent their entire lives in
Wales, where the former followed the occupation of shoemaking. The maternal grandparents were William and
Elizabeth Anthony, also natives of Wales, and the grandfather was a farmer by
occupation.
David Reese spent the first four years of his life in his native
village and then accompanied his parents on their emigration to the new world.
He obtained his education in this country, and during his youth aided in the
development and cultivation of the home farm.
He was twenty years of age at the time of his father's death, and upon
him devolved the care and management of the homestead. He superintended that property until his
marriage, which occurred October 1879, when Miss Myra Kilgore became his wife. Their union has been blessed with seven
children, and the family circle yet remains unbroken by the hand of death. In order of birth the children are as
follows: Edward E., born August 2,
1880; Ethel E., born September 1, 1882; Percy D., born May 31, 1884; John K.,
born December 30,1886; Frank L., born July 14, 1889; and Nellie completes the
family. The eldest son is now a student
in the law office of Johnson & Shields, and has studied law in Hastings Law
College, but the others of the family are at home.
After his marriage Mr. Reese purchased a farm, upon which he now
resides. It was then a tract of three
hundred and ten acres and no improvements had been made upon it save of a
primitive character. He also has two hundred and fifty acres in Colusa county,
and his landed possessions altogether aggregate six hundred and forty
acres. His home farm is under a very
high state of cultivation, the fields being well tilled and all the accessories
and conveniences of a country home of the nineteenth century are found
there. Mr. Reese is continually making
additional improvements, and his labors have resulted in making the Reese
property one of the most valuable and attractive in this section of Sacramento
county.
Mr. Reese gives his political support to the Republican party,
and his first presidential vote was cast for General Grant in 1868. He has never sought office and is in no
sense a professional politician, but at the present time he is capably serving
in the position of under sheriff. He is
a charter member of the Odd Fellows Society of Florin and of the Florin Grange,
in which he has filled all the offices.
He and his family attend the Methodist and Baptist churches. His life has been in a way uneventful, yet
has been characterized by the strict fidelity to duty at home, in business and
in public office. He has witnessed the
greater part of the wonderful growth
which has transformed California from an uninhabited region to one of
the leading commonwealths of the Union, and among the pioneers he well deserves
mention.
Source: “A Volume Of Memoirs
And Genealogy of Representative Citizens Of Northern California” Standard
Genealogical Publishing Co. Chicago. 1901. Pages 187-189.
Submitted by: Betty Tartas.
© 2002 Betty Tartas.