890
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
JOHN REISING, merchant and manufacturer, Aurora, Ill., born In Germany, Nov. 13, 1831; came to America in 1848, locating in Chicago the following year, where he worked as a carpenter and builder; crossed the plains to California in 1850, and worked in the placer mines until 1854, when he returned to Aurora, Ill., and engaged in carpenter work for one year, and in 1856 established himself in the grocery business, which he conducted until 1862, changing to the hardware trade in the latter year and continuing in that capacity until 1882. Since the latter date he has conducted a crockery store. He is a Director of. the Aurora Silver Plate Company; is interested in the Aurora Cotton Mills, and is a Director of the First National Bank; was married in 1854 to Miss Susan Leis, of Aurora.
JOSEPH REISING (deceased), merchant, Aurora, was born in Watenheim, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, Sept. 28, 1829, where he was educated in the local schools. In 1845 he came to the United States when only sixteen years of age, and apprenticed himself to a boot and shoemaker in Cleveland, Ohio, where he spent five years in learning the trade. In 1850 he located in Aurora, but the following year he joined a party of gold-hunters, and made the overland trip to Portland, Oregon, where for four years he was engaged in mining. In 1855, he returned to Aurora with capital enough to embark in the boot and shoe trade, and until his death, in 1893, he was one of the leading merchants of the city in that line. A man of enterprise and public spirit, he took part in many important industrial enterprises of the city, being largely interested in the Aurora cotton mills, of which he was a Director and stockholder. For several years he served on the Kane County Board of Supervisors, and helped give the county its splendid system of public highways. In 1855 he married Miss Maria M. Schmidt, who was born in Alsace, Germany. Their only living child is Mrs. Anna R. Hartz, of Aurora. Another daughter, Mrs. Jacob Eye, of Aurora, died in 1902.
ANTHONY RESER, farmer, Dundee, Ill., born in Pennsylvania, April 7, 1816, son of John and Margaret (Ennis) Reser, was reared in his native State and educated in her public schools. In his early manhood he was employed on the Erie Canal, and in 1843 removed to Illinois, settling on a farm in Plato Township, Kane County. For eighteen years he made his home on this farm, and then removed to Dundee, where (1903) he is now living at the age of eighty-seven years. For many years he was a member of the Methodist church, but is now connected with the Congregational church. He was married in 1837 to Miss Phylecta Soule, of a noted New England ancestry, and of their nine children, all but one were living in 1903.
EBENEZER RETAN, Elgin, Ill.; born in New Jersey, in 1825; reared in New York State and came to Illinois in 1857, locating in Elgin, where he engaged in the business of loaning money, which he has continued up to the present time. He married, in 1854, Miss Phoebe Miller, of New York State.
SILAS REYNOLDS (deceased), pioneer, Sugar Grove, Kane County, Ill., was born in Sullivan County, N. Y., in 1810, and brought up in his native State, where he was trained to agricultural pursuits; came west in the spring of 1836, establishing his home in Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, his family being among the first to locate in that community, Mr. Reynolds purchased his first land from the Government, and subsequently added to his original tract until he became one of the most ex-
