William Nelson Reece (1849 - 1925)

Born 6 Oct 1849 in Dallas, Iowa, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 25 Sep 1925 at age 75 in Everest, Brown, Kansas, United States

Biography

W. Nelson Reece was born 6 October 1848, in Iowa. He passed away on 25 September 1925, in Everest, Brown County, Kansas. He was buried in the [Evergreen Cemetery] Effingham Cemetery, Effingham, Atchison County, Kansas. According to Find-a-Grave his parents were Jacob and Elizabeth A. Reece.^[1]

He was Married to Ellen Iles Reece. She was bor 17 Feb 1850, in Campbell County, Kentucky and died 9 December 1909, in Everest, Brown Count, Kansas. She is buried in Effingham, Atchison County, Kansas. ^[2]

Obituary

W. Nelson “Nels” Reece BIRTH 6 Oct 1848 Iowa, USA DEATH 25 Sep 1925 (aged 76), Everest, Brown County, Kansas, USA BURIAL Effingham Cemetery, Effingham, Atchison County, Kansas, USA MEMORIAL ID 141814834

"W. N. Reece, 76, a resident of Atchison and Brown Counties for 72 years, died Saturday at his home in Everest. Mr. Reece was a retired farmer, and most highly respected citizen of northeast Kansas. Mr. Reece was born in Iowa, and came to northeast Kansas with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Reece, when he was four years of age. For many years he lived five and one half miles north of Effingham. He had lived in Everest twelve years when he passed away. Mr. Reece passed over the present town site of Atchison when there was only one building located there. He was a most interesting gentleman, and his stories of the early days of Atchison County were unusually interesting and exact. Surviving Mr. Reece are the widow: two sons, D. D. Reece of Kansas City, and H. T. Reece of Muscotah; sister, Mrs. Charles Smith of Atchison; two brothers, S. M. Reece of Oklahoma, and Wilson Reece of Goff, and six grandchildren and two great grandchildren. The body was brought to Effingham for interment in the Evergreen Cemetery, and the Masons in charge. Mr. Reece was a member of that order in Effingham. Nels Reece often spoke of remembering the Indian wigwams, which were about his father's farm and of seeing buffalo roaming the prairie. He hunted buffalo in western Kansas after he was grown. Not only was he one of the first white inhabitants of this section, but probably one of the longest, if not the longest continuous resident." Effingham New Leaf, October 1925."

His Find A Grave profile shows that he was born in 1848, but the censuses show him to have been born in 1849 or 1850, so it is likely he was actually born in October 1849 like the 1900 census says.

Sources

1. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/141814834/w-nelson-reece: accessed 03 December 2023), memorial page for W. Nelson “Nels” Reece (6 Oct 1848–25 Sep 1925), Find a Grave Memorial ID 141814834, citing Effingham Cemetery, Effingham, Atchison County, Kansas, USA; Maintained by Stephen Nottingham (contributor 47099079).
2. ↑ "The New Leaf," Effingham, Kansas - 10 Dec 1909, Friday, Page 5.

• W. Nelson “Nels” Reece (1848-1925) on Find A Grave: Memorial #141814834 retrieved 21 October 2018

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZ48-7Q5 : 27 February 2020), William N Rees in household of Jacob Rees, Dallas County, Dallas, Iowa, United States; citing family 1036, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCJF-Q8Q : 5 March 2020), Nelson W Reece in entry for Jacob Reece, 1870.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFPJ-2ZT : 12 August 2017), Nelson Reece, Grasshopper, Atchison, Kansas, United States; citing enumeration district ED 7, sheet 434D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,372.

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMTQ-J7Q : accessed 14 March 2020), William N Reese, Washington Township Everest city, Brown, Kansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 36, sheet 10B, family 189, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,472.