By Deborah Reese
James Reese (1840-1915) Family notes say that Jame was imprisoned in
Elmira, NY as a captive during the Civil War. The Civil War prison camp at
Elmira had the highest death rate of any prison camp in the North: almost
25 percent. Comparatively, the overall death rate of all Northern prison
camps was just over 11 percent; in the South, the death rate was just over
15 percent. Clearly, something went wrong in Elmira. He survived this
imprisonment, and walked all the way home to Fletcher, NC.
His brother Henry was killed during the war in South Carolina; and a third
brother, William, who went to Emory University and became a doctor, “went
out west.” A brother John who had polio and could not serve in the war
went to South Carolina to retrieve his brother Henry’s body, and on the
trip, he died of pneumonia. According to his grand daughter, Martha
Patterson, James understandably remained VERY bitter about the war and
the Yankees for his whole life.
All records claim that James was born in Greenville TN in 1840 when his
father, William, was 33. Since there is no indication in the information
the family has that William, his father, ever lived in Tennessee, it is
difficult to know what the real story i. His supposed grandfather Solomon
definitely lived there, and the census records claim that William was
there in an 1840 census. This does not jibe with what the Henderson County
history book says, but seems to fit in with everything else we know. In any
case, if James was born in Tennessee, he did not stay there long, and was
back in North Carolina as a child.
According to the book chapter, after the war, James ran the Reese Mill
that his father created, and apparently lived for the rest of his life on
the family land in Fletcher. he is buried in Patty’s Chapel in Fletcher
along with so many of his forbears.
James married Martha Jane Cunningham, daughter of Solomon Cunningham. They
had eight children: Samuel Preston Reese Joella Reese, Henry Cunningham
Reese (named for the Uncle who died in the war); Isabelle (Belle) Reese;
Emma Reese; Susan E. Reese; Sarah Amanda (Fidge) Reese; and Myrtle Reese
(Myrt).