The Twins
The family history is that Christian and his wife had twins sons named David and Henry, who later moved to Ohio. They were born around 1802 and left the area in the early 1830s, though David may have left home by 1828, when his last tax records are recorded for Half Moon Township. Henry's taxes were assessed until 1831. A story as told by Theodore Adams, a grandson of Abel and Catherine Reese, was that the twins in later years paid their Pennsylvania relatives a visit. The twins, having settled in Warren County, Ohio, lived just north of Cincinnati. By the mid-1800s, that area had the largest meatpacking industry in the world (pigs were first commercially slaughtered in Cincinnati). So their boast that they threw hogs' heads in the river bigger than their brother Abel's hogs has a definite ring of truth. The twins settled in southwestern Ohio. Pictured below is the house Henry Reese and William Walton built in 1838 at 89 W. Franklin Street in Centerville (at coordinates 39.628438), -84.162023).
Photo credit to the Centerville-Washington Township Historical Society
The house was built with "Dayton Marble," which was really Ordovician limestone from the Montgomery County, Ohio area. The limestone is locally famous for being a great building stone. It is bluish gray but weathers to a white color. The house still stands and is now a museum run by the Centerville-Washington Township Historical Society. It is listed as the Henry Reese-William Walton House at 89 W. Franklin St. in Centerville.
Records show Henry married Susannah Elwell on May 21, 1835 in the Warren County - Springboro area.
Records also show David married Charlotte Hazzard on April 27, 1848 in the same area as Henry. This may have been his second wife. The twins both died in October 1873, twelve days apart, and are buried in the Springboro Cemetery of Clearcreek Township, Warren County, Ohio. Henry's name is listed on the Centerville-Washington History web site: Henry Reese Most of the Census records plus his 1835 marriage record for Henry use the "Reese" spelling.
Return to J. Christian Reese