Reese, Edgar Orlando

Edgar Orlando Reese, born in Mossycreek, Tennessee, on April 29, 1865, was a dedicated agriculturist who descended from a distinguished family of legal and medical professionals. He was the eldest of eight children born to George A. Reese, a cattleman and Civil War commissary worker, and Inez M. Caldwell. After being raised and educated in Texas where he learned to ride the range, Edgar moved to Fresno with his family in 1884. He initially assisted on his father ranch in the Fresno Colony and later formed a grain-farming partnership with his brother Arthur. His early career also involved purchasing a farm in Tulare County and eventually shifting his focus to successful cattle and mule raising.

After dissolving his partnership in 1902, Edgar relocated to Dinuba where he began a successful cycle of buying, improving, and selling three different ranches. He later moved to Berkeley for five years to run a concrete and building materials business before permanently settling on his forty-acre ranch on Dakota Avenue in 1911. There, he cultivated a productive vineyard of malaga and muscat grapes, planted peaches, and became a stockholder in both the California Associated Raisin Company and the California Peach Growers, Inc. He married Maggie A. Carr in San Luis Obispo and raised three children named Pearl, Ross, and Merle. Active in his community, he served as a trustee of the Dakota school district and maintained membership in the Woodmen of the World.