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South Carolina Senator Glenn Reese can confidently trace his Reese family roots all the way back to the Revolutionary War. His ancestor Travis Rees, born about 1740, was a Patriot Continental Line Soldier and received a voucher for land as payment for his services in the Revolutionary War.
He used his voucher to purchase 250 acres in Wilkes County, NC. But he removed to the Spartanburg/Greenville area where he died in December, 1817 probably on Peters Creek, a tributary of the Enoree River. Upon his death, he owned 248 acres. A Bill of Sale of his estate on January 19, 1818 showed his estate sold for just over $4,000. Travis had married a lady named Ann and they had 6 known children. Their son, Thomas Rees, is Glenn’s ancestor.
Thomas Rees owned several tracts of land in what is now present day Spartanburg, SC. He married Mary Polly Smith. After Thomas’ death, Mary Polly Smith applied for a widow’s pension based on Thomas’ service as a Patriot during the Revolutionary War.
Thomas and Mary went to church services in the Spartanburg area, but they needed a closer place to worship. So Thomas and 20 other members drawn from 3 different churches (Bethlehem, Cedar Springs, and Union) organized a new church called the Philadelphia Baptist Church in 1803. The church was located 8 miles southeast of Spartanburg in Pauline, SC. It seems then that a Baptist missionary, Rev. Perminter Morgan, carried the gospel over the mountains and established the first Baptist church, Bethel, in Western NC on the French Broad in Buncombe County.
In 1805 Thomas Rees attended the Broad River Baptist Association Conference as a delegate from the new Philadelphia Church. This trip evidently stayed on his mind, and in 1809 he moved his family from Spartanburg County, SC to Buncombe County, NC. They went by wagon across the mountains. Some evidence indicates that they traveled with his brother, John, and brother-in-law, Ephraim Elder, and maybe others, to the lands that had recently been negotiated from the Cherokee Indians. He selected to build his first Buncombe County home on unoccupied land vacated by the Cherokee Indians less than 20 years before in the area that is now Madison County.
By occupation, Thomas was a farmer. He and his family went to Bull Creek Baptist Church. He died in 1836 in Buncombe County, NC. Thomas and Mary had 4 known sons and maybe 4 unknown daughters. Their son William Rees is Glenn’s next ancestor.
William Rees was born in 1800 in Spartanburg County, SC on the farm. He attended Philadelphia Baptist Church in what is now Pauline, SC when he was a boy. His father had helped to organized this new church. William must have been profoundly impressed during his time at the new church. He learned a lot of scripture then. William was 9 years old when he moved with his family from Spartanburg County, SC to Buncombe County, NC (in what is now the Madison County area).
William became a charter member of Bull Creek Baptist Church at 18 years old. The congregation would meet for the morning worship service. After a lunch hour, they would spend the afternoon singing hymns in a song service because they didn’t have evening services. William made the most of these services by courting the pastor’s daughter. The Pastor was Rev. Moses Freeman (who was married to Elizabeth Ball) and William married his daughter, Mary Jane Freeman in 1823. Moses and his new son-in-law, William, were evidently became close friends.
William was ordained to the ministry of the gospel on June 13, 1829 (He was 29 years old) by his father-in-law, Rev. Moses Freeman. He was called “Preacher Billy.” In 1830, William was part of a group who petitioned to leave the Bull Creek Church to form a new church. Rev. William Rees first preached at Bone Camp, near the present site of the old Bull Creek Church. He next served at Sugar Creek Branch Church then became the pastor of Bull Creek Baptist Church from 1841-1845 and later from 1850-1862.
William Rees applied for a land grant of 150 acres for $15. This property adjoined the property of his father-in-law, Rev Moses Freeman. William was not a slave owner and had developed strong convictions against owning slaves and had even refused the gift of a slave upon the event of their wedding. He and Mary had 13 children of which 9 were boys. One of those boys was Green Hill Reese, Glenn’s next ancestor.
The whole family was severely affected by the War of Northern Aggression. The Western NC mountains were very polarized either for or against secession. With their strong anti-slavery convictions the Rees family would have been on the Union side, but most of the boys served some time in the Confederate ranks, probably forced to enlist. They deserted at the time of their father’s death in 1863 and came home.
As a family, and maybe with some of their neighbors, they met at their church one evening to discuss what to do next. While meeting, some bushwhackers came riding up and began firing on the group. Their objective was to kidnap the men to sell to the Union or Confederate side as soldiers. Escaping through windows, the men tried to make their way to safety. One of the Rees brothers, Levi, was taken prisoner, but he refused to fight for either side. So the bushwhackers kept him prisoner throughout the rest of the War. He suffered greatly at their hands but did survive.
Two of the brothers disappeared and were never heard from by the family again. All of the other boys escaped and met and went over the mountains to Greeneville, TN to meet up with the Union Army where they served for the rest of the Civil War.
William Rees died on 5/29/1863 in Madison County, NC. Mary Jane Freeman Rees died around 1882. They are buried in unmarked graves at Bull Creek Baptist Church in Madison County, NC. Of their 13 children, 2 boys became preachers and 1 became a doctor.
The Biblical Recorder - 8/12/1863
“Died, on the 29th of May, Elder William Rees.
On the 13th of June 1829 he was ordained to the work of the gospel ministry by Elders Stephen Morgan, Moses Freeman, and Isaac Miles, in behalf of the church at Bull Creek Madison County NC. Most of the time subsequent to his ordination he served this church as pastor. He generally served 3 other churches also, at the same time. In discipline he was mild but firm, and though emphatically a doctrinal preacher, he was greatly admired by all who knew him. He showed no disposition to accumulate wealth, but left an example which in this respect is worthy of imitation. We feel that our loss is great but it is his gain; and God is fully able to bless and comfort his family, and the flock so lately under his care. In Him is our trust.”
French Broad Baptist Association Minutes - 1887
“Elder William Reese was one of the ablest men in the Scriptures that the writer ever knew. Modest to a fault, he was strong only in his unblemished life and when in the pulpit. His sermons were made up of Bible quotations; these he piled one upon another till it seemed strange one had not seen it before. He passed to his rest mourned by all who knew him. He had lived poor, and dying left only his spotless life and example of self-sacrifice as a legacy to his children.”
The History of French Broad Association - by John Ammons, page 43
“William Reese was ordained by Bull Creek Church and was soon called to be its pastor, which position he held to the end of life. Reese was of humble, but of respectful origin, being the son of a poor farmer.
He embraced religion when a young man, joined the church, and very soon began to preach. He had but little education, but he was a man of fine common sense; He loved God and humanity, and devoted his life, with all that it meant, to preaching to lost men the gospel of salvation from sin. He was a man of one book - the Bible. God’s word was the armory whence he drew his weapons, and his sermons were made up of scripture quotations so nicely dove-tailed together that to the listener he seemed a very evangel delivering a message from the spirit world. The writer heard him when a small boy, and to his latest acquaintance with him his words made his heart to burn. All who knew him loved him, and yet he lived and died in poverty, his only reward being the consciousness of having done his duty. He died about 1863, and sleeps in an unmarked grave.”
Green Hill Reese was born about 1825. He married Tabitha Freeman and they had 9 known children. We know very little about Green Hill and Tabitha Reese except that they lived in Madison County, NC, and they are buried in unmarked graves at Meadow Fork Baptist Church in Joe, NC. One of their sons was William Haynes Reese. He is Glenn’s next ancestor.
William Haynes Reese was born about 1847 in Madison County, NC. He married Nancy Rebecca “Becky” Lunsford on June 23, 1872. They lived on the Meadow Fork Creek in Joe, NC and attended Meadow Fork Baptist Church where they were very active. They had 4 children that we know of and one of their sons was Bailey Bright Reese. Bailey Bright Reese is Glenn’s grandfather. Becky was known to be very spunky and that she “had grit.” She died and in 1908, William Haynes Reese married a younger widow named Cynthia Plemmons Price who had 4 children.
Bailey Bright Reese was born on 1/26/1878. He was named after Adam Bright, a preacher and neighbor. He married Lillian Vianna Conner on 12/9/1905 in Madison County, NC. Bailey was an ordained minister of the Baptist faith although he did not pastor any of his own churches. Bailey Bright was ordained 8/26/1917 at Zion Baptist Church in Rosman, NC. He was also a Justice of the Peace.
The B.B. Reese family moved to Spartanburg, SC with their oldest child, Estie. Bailey was working at Beaumont Mill, and they lived in the Beaumont Mill Village when Estie unexpected died. In their grief, they moved back to the mountains.
The Bailey Bright family then settled in Rosman, NC where B.B. was a Lumber Inspector in the lumber yard by the river. After awhile, they moved to Andrews, NC. And, later, when times became rough and the lumber business became weak they left the mountains once again to move to Marion, in McDowell County, NC, to work at the Clinchfield Mill. They lived close by the mill, in the mill village, when Bailey Bright was hired as a night watchman. They became members of Clinchfield Baptist Church.
Grandmother Reese, after Grandpa died, told all of their grandchildren how she remembered Grandpa sitting in his rocking chair every night, reading his Bible or his Biblical Recorder. She remembered how he would fall asleep until the Bible fell from his hands and woke him up. Then, she said, he would pick the Bible back up and begin to read some more.
B. B. died on 12/10/1950. According to one of his granddaughters, one morning he was drinking a cup of coffee and said, “I’ve trusted God all my life and am perfectly willing to trust Him from now on.” Then he said, "If we gonna go, let's go." While his oatmeal was waiting, he suddenly had a stroke and died soon after. Lillian lived to an old age and died in 1984 in Marion, NC. They are both buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Marion, NC. Bailey and Lillian had 9 children. One son, William Wilford Reese is Glenn’s father.
Wilford William Reese was born on 5/1/1911. When the Reese family lived in Rosman, NC they lived near a medical doctor, Dr. English, whose wife had died. Wilford looked after him and helped Dr. English by doing chores. He would take meals to him that Lillian Reese had made for the doctor and he would also play hymns for him on his piano.
One time, when all the children in the family had the measles, Doctor English came by the house everyday to care for them. During that time, Doctor English became so fond of Wilford that when the Reese family decided to move to Andrews, NC he visited Lillian and asked if he could adopt him. He promised her he would send him to school and college, and provide him formal study in music and many other things, but Wilford wouldn't agree. He determined he would attend college but he would work and pay for it himself, which he ;ater did! He also continued to play the piano and was in a quartet with his brother, Paul Reese.
Wilford and Paul were close. Eventually, both brothers became Baptist ministers. Wilford attended Mars Hill College in Madison County, NC. But with the Great Depression, he also had to make some money. He went to work at the Clinchfield Mill when he came home from college. He attended the Clinchfield Baptist Church where he met Geneva “Gennie” Margaret Lamb, who also worked at the mill. They soon fell in love and married on 12/30/1933. W.W. was ordained by his church, Clinchfield Baptist Church, on 9/16/1934.
Wilford tried to continue his college education several times but something always prevented him from graduating: the Great Depression and financial demands, births of children and financial needs, etc. The couple decided to move to Greenville, SC where he could work at Mills Mill in downtown Greenville and also attend Furman University. Their first daughter, Eleanor Reese Huneycutt, Glenn’s oldest sister was born in Greenville in 1938.
Wilford received his first church pastorate, Locust Hill Baptist Church, in early 1941, and Glenn G. Reese was born in January of 1942, just after Pearl Harbor began World War II. The family then moved to Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina when Rev. Reese accepted the call to pastor the Traveler’s Rest Baptist Church.
When the opportunity to study at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary opened up, Wilford moved his little family to Louisville, KY in 1943. He pastored the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Shepherdsville, KY while he attended the Seminary. It was here that their second daughter, Judith Reese Bradley, was born in 1943 in the Louisville Jewish Hospital.
On Nov. 25, 1945 Pastor Reese preached his final sermon at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. He had accepted the call to Mount Lebanon Baptist Church outside of Greer, SC in. It was here that their youngest son, James Wilford Reese, was born in 1946 at the Greenville Hospital.
In 1948 he accepted the position of Associational Missionary for Sandy Mush Baptist Association in Forest City, NC.
In 1949, Wilford heeded the call to pastor the Green Creek Baptist Church in Green Creek, NC. From 1949 -1954, he helped the congregation build the new church building which stands today.
His next pastorate was the East Twenty Fifth Street Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC. This was the only time he lived close to his brother, Paul, who also pastored a church in Winston-Salem. The W.W. Reese family was there from 1954-1957. In 1956, daughter Eleanor and W. Avery Huneycutt were married by W.W. and they moved to Raleigh, NC where they attended N.C. State University.
Wilford Reese later accepted the pastorate of New Prospect Baptist Church in New Prospect, SC. He served the congregation from 1957-1963. In 1963, he began to lose his voice and the doctors told him he needed to give up preaching or he would lose his voice altogether (this was before microphones and sound systems). So reluctantly, Wilford left the ministry. This was a very stressful time for him and the family as he had no idea what he could do to earn a living.
Glenn, James and Judy had been working summer jobs at Rainbow Lake, a public swimming lake in Boiling Springs, SC not far from New Prospect. Ben Zimmerman operated the concessions contract for the lake, as well as owning Zimmerman’s Donut Diner on Dunbar Street in downtown Spartanburg, SC. One day Judy came home and told her father that Mr. Zimmerman needed an operator for his downtown donut diner. When Mr. Zimmerman spoke with W.W about taking the job, after being a minister, Wilford said, “I’m not too proud to do any honest work.” So in September of 1963, W.W. and Geneva went to work at Zimmerman’s Donut Diner and bought a small house on Poplar Street in Converse Heights in Spartanburg, SC.
In 1966 the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Company approached W.W. Reese about accepting the Spartanburg Krispy Kreme franchise. The original Krispy Kreme Doughnut Shop was located at 793 N Church St in a small block building across from Coggins Flower Shop near the Spartanburg General Hospital, now known as the Spartanburg Regional Medical Center. Amazingly, after God had provided the smaller donut business for him to gain the needed business experience, Wilford humbly and thankfully accepted the Krispy Kreme offer.
The doughnut business did so well that W.W. built a new store in 1969 at 751 N Church St beside the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium. The small original first store at 793 N Church St is no longer in existence.
W.W. passed away from complications from chemotherapy treatments for cancer and died of a stroke on 5/25/1979. His beloved wife, “Gennie” Reese, passed away in July of 1984 from complications of Alzhiemer’s Disease.
The unexpected death of his father forced Glenn to take over his father’s business, Spartanburg’s Krispy Kreme, shortly after. The smaller store, beside the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium (built in 1969), is still there although not in constant use. Glenn now owns Krispy Kreme and recently built a new and much larger facility across the street from the second store. He has the complete support of his wife and family which allows him to serve as a dedicated South Carolina State Senator.
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