Biographical Sketch of

Reese T. Reese

Transcribed by Sandra Boudrou for the Marquette Co WI Pages


Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, 
published 1890 by Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, Pages 715 - 716


Reese T. Reese, a prominent merchant of Berlin, late of the firm of Reese & Whiting general merchants, but who is 
now engaged in the grocery trade, has been in active business in Berlin since the early spring of 1857, and is 
numbered among the prominent citizens of the county.  He is a native of South Wales, where his parents, Thomas and 
Anna (Shelby) Reese, were also born.  The family is noted for longevity, and the paternal grandfather of our subject 
lived to the remarkable age of ninety-nine years.
 
Mr. Reese, whose name heads this sketch, was born on the 22d of November, 1831, and in 1842, when eleven years of 
age, came to America with his parents, the family settling near Toronto, Canada.  In 1847 they removed to Wisconsin, 
and after spending four years on a farm in Waukesha County, went to Waushara County in 1852, locating on a farm in 
the town of Springwater.  Thus, as a farmer lad, our subject was reared to manhood.  He attended the district school, 
and like a dutiful son, assisted his father in the cultivation of the home farm until attaining his majority, when he 
started out in life for himself.  He was first employed in a hotel near Oconomowoc, and also in Milwaukee, until the 
early spring of 1857, when he came to Berlin and formed a partnership with Henry A. Williams, his brother-in-law, in 
the grocery business, buying out the stock of J. D. Husted.  They soon added other lines of goods, converting it into 
a general store, and the firm of Reese & Williams continued business until 1863, when Mr. Williams sold out to E. F. 
Whiting, and the firm of Reese & Whiting was formed.  That company rapidly increased its trade, and in the most prosperous 
years did a business of $125,000. They occupied three large store rooms, besides basements, and continued operations in 
that line until the spring of 1889, when owing to reverses in an outside business which Mr. Reese had largely invested, 
together with other causes, they were forced to make an assignment, settling with their creditors pro rata, according 
to the assets of the business above the liabilities.  Having adjusted their matters, the firm was dissolved in the fall 
of 1889.  Mr. Whiting retired, and Mr. Reese has since continued in the grocery and crockery business at the old stand.
 
In March, 1863, in Berlin, Mr. Reese was united in marriage with Miss Matilda Troxell, a native of Indiana, and a daughter 
of A. Y. and Mary A. Troxell.  They are the parents of one son and five daughters--Ella is now the wife of Henry S. Smith, 
of Menasha, Wis.; Adda is the wife of Edward A. Benson, of Milwaukee; Belle, Ralph, Daisy and Gladys, the younger members 
of the family, are unmarried.
 
In politics Mr. Reese is a Republican, and while not desirous of holding public office, has served four terms as Alderman.  
He is a Royal Arch Mason, belonging to Berlin Lodge No. 38, A. F. & A. M., and to Berlin Chapter, No. 18, R. A. M.  He and 
his family are members of the Episcopal Church.  Mr. Reese is an active, energetic business man, and up to within a short 
time of the recent failure was very successful.  The firm of Reese & Whiting was the leading mercantile house of Berlin, 
and the fair dealing and judicious management of those gentlemen had them an almost unlimited credit and universal confidence 
of all with whom they had business relations.  Mr. Reese starts in anew with the best wishes of many old friends that he may 
soon retrieve his lost ground and again be found in the foremost ranks of the successful merchants of Berlin. 

 





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