San Diego County Biographies
 
OSCAR M. REECE

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


a merchant of Oceanside, was born in Dubuque, Iowa, September 7, 1842; his 
father, James W. Reece, was a native of Philadelphia, and died February 11, 
1863, at the age of forty-eight years. He was of German descent; his mother, 
Nancy (Madden) Reece, was born in Ohio in 1823; she was a daughter of Mr. Peter 
Madden, a native of Scotland, and was married to Mr. Reece in Dubuque, Iowa, in 
1841. They had three children, two boys and a girl ; the subject of this sketch 
was the oldest; he received his education in the public schools and graduated 
from the High School in 1859. He then engaged in railroading, which business he 
followed until August 11,1861, when he enlisted in Company E, Fifth Iowa 
Cavalry, under Major Carl Schaffer von Bernstein's command. He participated in a 
number of engagements, among which were Donelson, Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, 
Guies Gap, Pleasant Hill, Dutch River, Franklin, Rousseau's and McCook's raids, 
Nashville, etc., and chased General Hood and his army back to the Tennessee 
river, which pursuit was a continued fight for eighteen days. They were in the
last battle of the war, at Columbus, Georgia, April 18, 1865, nine days after 
the surrender of General Lee, and were advancing on the rebel forces under 
General Howell Cobb, at Macon, Georgia, April 21, when General Cobb sent a flag 
of truce that General Lee had surrendered several days before (this was the 
first
they had heard of the surrender). The rebel army under Cobb laid down their arms 
and surrendered 7,000 prisoners, and the Union soldiers were filled with joy, 
but the news of President Lincoln's assassination, which came to them at the 
same time, terribly overshadowed their joy. During the last two years of Mr. 
Reece's service in the army he held the position of Regimental Brigade and 
Division Postmaster; he was mustered out September 12, 1865, and soon after was 
appointed by President Andrew Johnson, Deputy Surveyor of Customs at Dubuque, in 
which capacity he acted one year, when he engaged with the Illinois Central 
Railroad as locomotive engineer, and continued in the business until the fall of 
1874, when he came to Visalia, California. Here he engaged in the auction and 
commission business. In 1875 he went to Santa Barbara, where he continued the 
business until 1878, when he removed to Los Angeles, but in 1879 he went back to 
Santa Barbara and become local editor of the Santa Barbara Press. Colonel Otis 
was its chief editor. In the fall of 1879 he went back East, and engaged with 
the Union Pacific as division foreman on the Utah & Northern & Oregon Short Line 
division. He was stationed at Battle Creek two years and two years at Shoshone. 
In February, 1885, he came to Oceanside and engaged in the general merchandise 
business with his brother, under the firm name of Reece Brothers. He has been 
elected Justice of the Peace in Oceanside three years in succession. He is now 
Notary Public and is carrying on his real-estate and auction business. When he 
first came to Oceanside, in 1865, it had only three houses. He was married 
November 4, 1869, to Miss Hatty M. Tower, who was born May 29, 1846, at Osin, 
New York. She was the daughter of a Methodist minister, and a second cousin of 
Henry Ward Beecher. Their union has been blessed with four children, two of whom 
are living: Hatty M. Reece, born in Dubuque, Iowa, April 28, 1873, residing with 
her father at Oceanside, and Joseph B. Reece, who was born at Santa Barbara, 
November 4, 1875, and is now attending school in Oceanside. Mrs. Reece died in 
Los Angeles, January 14, 1878. Mr. Reece is a member of the G. A. R., 
Heintzelman Post, No. 33, San Diego, and belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and 
is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  260-261