When I was a teenager, I loved history. I still love history. I read books. I listen to books. I write books. All about history. Today, I wanted to share a story about another teenager.
Richard Joshua Reynolds was sixteen years old in the spring of 1865. Born on July 20, 1850, R. J. Reynolds lived in Patrick County, where I grew up, which is about an hour north of us in Virginia.
In April 1865, as the American Civil War was ending, United States Major General George Stoneman rode into Patrick County with nearly 4,000 cavalrymen. R. J.’s father sent him up on No Business Mountain, you have no business going up there, with the family’s livestock to keep the Yankees from getting them.
One thing R. J. Reynold’s father, Hardin Reynolds did not consider was what would happen to the many African-Americans he held in bondage on his Rock Spring Plantation, which is preserved as an historic landmark and operated by my alma mater, Virginia Tech. Many of the slaves followed George Stoneman’s United States cavalry Hardin Reynolds told his other son, Abram, “My son the Yankees have been here and torn up everything and my Negro men have all gone with them.”
Upon arriving in Danbury, North Carolina, Stoneman felt the number of former slaves following the raid endangered the future safety of all involved. Stoneman sent “several hundred” under guard to East Tennessee, where many of the men enlisted in the 119th United States Colored Troops. The regiment organized at Camp Nelson near Nicholasville, Kentucky from January 18 until May 16, 1865. George Gray, Peter Gray, Edmond Hylton, Jacob Reynolds, Miles Reynolds, and Samuel Tatum of Patrick County served under Colonel Charles G. Bartlett and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas R. Weaver. The regiment mustered out of the service of the United States on April 27, 1866. They all received pensions from the United States government for their service in the Civil War. These men had the courage to change their world.
Stoneman’s raid continued down into Piedmont North Carolina going through Germanton and Bethania on the way to Salisbury. On April 10, the mayors of Winston and Salem came out to surrender their towns. The Moravians and Quakers of Piedmont North Carolina, who favored peace and the Union, were happy to see them. These pacifists had the courage to change the world. A soldier wrote, “Here we met with a most cordial reception, very different from the usual greetings we receive. The ladies cheered us, and brought out bread, pies, and cakes…The people showed much enthusiasm at the sight of the flag we carried, and many were the touching remarks made about it.” Not everyone was happy to see the Yankee cavalry here. One Confederate bragged to the blue horsemen that they would never find their livestock because he was hiding them in the basement of his house.
Ten years after R. J. Reynolds hid the livestock, he made an important decision in his life. He sold his share of his father’s lucrative tobacco business and went out on his own. He thought he could make it as an entrepreneur, but what he needed was a railroad for transporting his product, which in 1875 was chewing tobacco. There was no railroad in Patrick County, Virginia, and would not be for more than a decade. He looked at a map and saw his two choices were Danville, Virginia, and Winston, North Carolina. Since the latter was closer, R. J. Reynolds came south through Stokes County, where his mother was from, and rode into Winston, reportedly reading a New York Times newspaper somewhere between 5 and 10 thousand dollars in his pocket, which would be over 200K in 2018.
R. J. Reynolds had attended Emory and Henry College, like Patrick County’s other famous personage Civil War General JEB Stuart in 1870. He had Dyslexia and stammered, but he had large appetites for work. He was not alone in the tobacco business in Winston, North Carolina. I believe there were eighteen other factories operating, but R. J. Reynolds changed the world. He spent $388 for a 100-foot lot near the railroad. He sweetened his chewing tobacco to make it more appealing, and he refined the process to make cigarettes in 1913. He made pre-rolled cigarettes, whereas before people rolled their own cigarettes. He named one of his cigarette brands, Camel, because it used Turkish paper and in one year, he manufactured $425 million cigarettes.
He saved money by living in his tobacco factory until he married Katherine Smith of Mount Airy, North Carolina in 1905. He built her a house where the Forsyth County Library sits on Fifth Street today. They had four children: R. J. Reynolds, Jr., Mary, Nancy, and Zachary Smith Reynolds.
Before R. J. Reynolds came here, Winston and Salem were two separate towns. There was no dash and no Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Reynolds supported using property tax to pay for public schools. The Reynolds Family is responsible for making this city what it is today. Without them, there would be no Wake Forest University, Guilford College, or Winston-Salem State University here or in their present state. There are Smith Reynolds Airport and Reynolds Coliseum at North Carolina State University. There are Reynolda and Tanglewood here just to name a few along with the Down Town School.
All of this because R. J. Reynolds left Patrick County to find a railroad. He died on July 29, 1918, of cancer. It is not my place to judge him or his company for what tobacco has done to the health of many who used its products. I am here to report on his history without the emotion that clouds history today. His family continues to contribute to the vitality of this community.
I worked thirty years in computers as my vocation, but from a young age I loved history, and it was my avocation. In the last ten years, I started my own book business to publish my books and my friend’s books. I hope you find a vocation that you enjoy and make a successful life from and I hope you find an avocation that you love. Maybe you will get lucky like I have and turn your vocation and your avocation into the same thing and be happy.
A few blocks away from us here today in front of the giant Wells-Fargo, used to be Wachovia building, where I did contract work several decades ago is a statue. At lunch, I would go out and look at the statue of young R. J. Reynolds riding into Winston on a horse. The base says the following. “Richard Joshua Reynolds 1850-1918. In 1875, this young Virginian, aged 24, rode into Winston in search of a town in which to build his first tobacco factory. Through the generosity of the citizens of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, this memorial has been erected to honor a successful businessman and public benefactor.” I encourage you to go have a look at the statue and when you do, let me leave you today with an idea. Like Richard Joshua “RJ” Reynolds and the others I mentioned in this talk, you too can change the world.
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