Jacob Reese and Jessie McElroy

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Husband Jacob Reese ^{1 2}

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           Born: Abt 1825 - Llanelly, near Abergavenny, south Wales
     Christened: 
           Died: 25 Mar 1907 - Philadelphia, PA 1 3
         Buried: 

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         Father: William Reese (1787-1892) 4 5
         Mother: Elizabeth Joseph (Abt 1798-1874) 5

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       Marriage: Autumn, 1901 6

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   Other Spouse: Eliza Matthews (      -      ) 1 3

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• Family History: from Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914).
To read this sketch of the history of the Reese family, click here.

• Biographical Sketch: John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. IV (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908).
To read a brief biographical sketch of his life and career, click here.

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Wife Jessie McElroy ⁶

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Jacob Reese

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He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a member of Franklin Institute, and of the Philadelphia Academy of Philadelphia; a thirty-second-degree Mason and a Master Mason for fifty-two years. He held the office of deacon in the Baptist Church for sixty-one years.

His father constructed the first sand-bottom furnace as applied to puddling in the United States, at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and his son Jacob, a mere lad, assisted in making the first "bloom" under the "boiling" process. Jacob built and was general manager of the first iron works in Sharon, Pennsylvania. He erected and was the first superintendent of the Cambria Iron Works in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He built and operated the Fort Pitt Iron Works in Pittsburgh, of which he was part owner, and during the Civil war made iron armor plate of one inch thickness for the United States government. He brought probably the earliest shipments of ore from the lake regions, which ore was used as a "fix" for the "boiling" furnaces which had superseded the puddling furnace and before there was a blast furnace in Allegheny County. Prior to the erection of the Fort Pitt Iron Works, known familiarly as the Reese & Graff mill, Mr. Reese with the same partner owned and operated the largest oil refinery in the state, the Petrolite Oil Refinery, of Pittsburgh. During his lifetime Jacob Reese took out about one hundred and seventy-five patents in the United States, and had a record of over five hundred inventions and discoveries. He discovered that basic slag from basic Bessemer process, when properly ground, was a good fertilizer, and worked up an industry in this. He was eminent as a metallurgist and scientist. His long legal contest over his patent claims for the open-hearth process of steel-making made his name known the world over among capitalists and men of science. In practical demonstration he was foremost as an engineer and worker. He was a stockholder in many concerns of magnitude. He was a resident of Pittsburgh for over fifty years. He moved to Philadelphia in 1892, where he died on March 25, 1907, from paralysis. At the time of his death he was working on a system of language for deaf mutes. Jacob Reese was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a member of Franklin Institute and the Philadelphia Academy, Philadelphia; he was past master of Franklin Lodge 221, Free and Accepted Masons held at Pittsburgh; he was a thirty-second degree Mason, and a master Mason for fifty-two years; he was a Knight Templar; he had held the office of deacon in the Baptist church for sixty-one years; he was a public advocate of temperance, a platform orator and a parliamentarian. During the whole of his adult life he was identified with all leading philanthropic, civic and industrial movements in Pennsylvania. Jacob Reese for a time was manager of the Clinton Iron Works at Pittsburgh, owned then by English, Bennett & Co., and in this mill he made the first iron rails that were made in Pittsburgh. While in the oil refinery business he had one tank, the largest ever made for oil refining up to that time, with a capacity of one thousand barrels; also the largest still.

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 133.

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.

6 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 134.