Abraham Reese and Mary Godwin

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Husband Abraham Reese ¹

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            AKA: Abram Reese 2
           Born: 1829 - Llanelly, near Abergavenny, south Wales 3
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           Died: Abt 1907
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         Father: William Reese (1787-1892) 4 5
         Mother: Elizabeth Joseph (Abt 1798-1874) 5

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       Marriage: 

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Wife Mary Godwin ^{1 3}

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Children

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1 M Harry W. Reese ³

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2 M Arthur B. Reese ³

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3 M Stanley C. Reese ^{1 3}

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4 M Charles Reese ³

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5 F Cara Reese ¹

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           Died: Bef 1914
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General Notes: Husband - Abraham Reese

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He was the mechanical genius of the family, making miniature models in brass and wood with his own hand of several of his inventions.

was born in Llannelly, Wales, and came to this country with his parents in 1832. He was a child when his father built the first sand-bottom furnace as applied to puddling in the United States, at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, where the first "bloom" was made.
He had the honor of having rolled the first rail west of the Mississippi river in June, 1871. Mr. Reese was then superintendent of the Vulcan Iron Works, located in south St. Louis, Missouri. A piece of the rail is preserved at Jefferson, the state capital. General U. S. Grant, president of the United States, visited the works about this time, and congratulated the owners and superintendent on the achievement. Abram Reese had an enviable record as an inventor. When a young man he invented a bolt machine which shaped head and spike in one operation. This machine was operated for years in the Lewis, Oliver Phillips mill in Pittsburgh. He was the inventor a machine which rolled shaped metal with one roll: that is, a horseshoe complete in one operation, or an ax with a hole in it, and the like. The machine was operated in the Reese and Graff mills in Pittsburgh. He was the inventor of the Universal Mill, and the inventor of the gas conduit in general use. Other of his more notable inventions were: A machine for re-rolling old rails, a safety car stove, live stock feeding apparatus for freight cars, a brake, corrugated sheet iron for roofing, a garden hoe, and supplementary devices in number.
Abram Reese worked in the rolling mills or Pittsburg when a boy. He was the first labor boss at the Cambria Iron Works at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, when this mill was being built and managed by his brother Jacob. Abram Reese puddled the first "heat" in the Cambria Iron Works. Mr. Reese was later manager of the Fort Pitt, or the Reese & Graff mill, as the works was known, in Pittsburgh, of which his brother Jacob was part proprietor, and during the Civil war operated this mill in the interest of the United States government, making iron armor plates. He was later general manager of the Excelsior Iron Works. After this he was superintendent of the Vulcan Iron Works at St. Louis. In later year Mr. Reese equipped and started a mill for the re-rolling of old rails in Louisville, Kentucky. He was engaged in other enterprises and was at one time manager of the Petrolite Oil Refinery of Pittsburgh, and was one of the pioneer oil operators during the early excitement in Oil City. He was interested in coal and mining, and superintended what were the earliest shipments of ore, probably, to Pittsburgh from the lake region.

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General Notes: Wife - Mary Godwin

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of Hiworth, Wiltshire, England

Her brothers were pioneer potters of Ohio and West Virginia.

1 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 481.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. IV (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), Pg 129.

3 John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. IV (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), Pg 137.

4 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 480.

5 John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. IV (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), Pg 128.