R. J. Reynolds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2007) |
Richard Joshua "R.J." Reynolds (1850-1918) was an American businessman and founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
Reynolds was born in 1850 in Patrick County, Virginia. The son of a tobacco farmer, he sold his share of the family business in 1874 and moved south to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to start his own tobacco company. Reynolds was a savvy business man and a hard worker, and he quickly became one of the wealthiest citizens of Winston-Salem. He died in 1918 of pancreatic cancer.
[edit] Reynolds
Richard (R.J.) Joshua Reynolds was born on July 20, 1850, at Rock Spring Plantation in Critz, Patrick County, Virginia, to Hardin William and Nancy Jane Cox Reynolds. Hardin Reynolds was a successful farmer, merchant, banker, and tobacco manufacturer. R.J. worked for his father as a traveling tobacco salesman. "I was trained early in the value of work by my father...all the talent or ability a man could possess was worthless unless it was backed up by work." In 1874 R.J. sold his interest in the family tobacco business to his father and left Patrick County to start his own tobacco company. He needed a railroad hub for his business, and since there wasn't one in Patrick County, he went to the nearest one, Winston, NC. (Winston and Salem were separate towns at that time) By 1875 R.J. had established his tobacco manufacturing operation. His younger brother, William Neal, was attending Trinity College (now Duke University) and worked part time for him. Mr. Will, as he was known, began as a leaf-hanger and quickly mastered all facets of the operation. After leaving Trinity College, he managed tobacco purchasing. In 1888 R.J. formed a formal partnership with Mr. Will and company bookkeeper, Henry Roan. R.J. served as President with 75 percent ownership and Mr. Will and Henry Roan divided the remainder. The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was chartered as a corporation by the State of North Carolina on February 11, 1890.
In 1905 R.J. married Mary Katharine Smith of Mt. Airy, NC. She had worked for him as his secretary. She was thirty years younger and his first cousin once removed. R.J and Katharine had four children: Richard Joshua Reynolds, Jr. (1906-1964); Mary Katharine Reynolds Babcock (1908-1953); Nancy Susan Reynolds Bagley Verney (1910-1985); and Zachary Smith Reynolds (1911-1932). Reynolds and Katharine began planning the construction of a country home near Winston-Salem. As Reynolds was heavily involved in business, Mrs. Reynolds was left in charge of the project. Most of the land was bought in her name, and the estate was named Reynolda after her, using the feminine form of Reynolds. The original estate was over 1,000 acres (4 km²). Besides the main house there was also the nearby village where many of the workers lived. Reynolda was completed in 1917, but R.J. did not live to enjoy it. On July 29, 1918, 7 months after the family moved into Reynolda, he died of pancreatic cancer. R.J. was dyslexic and had a stammer, but was astute in business matters. When he died his company had 121 buildings, ten thousand workers, made ten million dollar annual profit, and he left a hundred million dollar estate, including Reynolda. The estate continued as a family home for another forty years, until most of the property was given to Wake Forest University in 1951 and Reynolda House became a museum. The house and gardens and nearby village is now open to the public.
Almost a century after her father founded the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Nancy Susan Reynolds Bagley Verney, his youngest daughter and last surviving child, decided to give back to the region. In 1969 she deeded Virginia Tech 710 acres of Rock Spring Plantation. In 1980 she deeded them another 7 acres where the family home and continuing education center stand. She created an endowment of $1.7 million to provide cultural programming to the surrounding community, to run a forestry research center on the site, and to fund a scholarship program for Patrick County high school students. She financed this in part by selling Quarry Farm, her Greenwich, CT, to Diana Ross of the former Surpremes. Now called The Reynolds Homestead, it is a State and National Historic Landmark listed in the National Registry of American Homes. As a Continuing Education Center of Virginia Tech it offers a variety of programs and classes for all ages, all open to the public and many are free. It is open for tours, April through October, Monday through Saturday.
The house was restored in 1970. Descendents of Hardin and Nancy Reynolds brought together many original heirlooms, including the bed their 16 children were born in. Only 8 of their children lived to adulthood. The Homestead includes the historic house, grounds, two cemeteries, and as was the custom of that time a separate 3-story brick kitchen, a brick milk house, a spring house, and a log granary.
[edit] Lasting Influence
R. J. Reynolds and his family played a large part in the public life and history of the City of Winston-Salem. In 1884 he served as a city commissioner. Reynolds was politically progressive for his era. He established progressive working conditions in his factory, with shorter hours and higher pay. He also signed a petition for a property tax to pay for public schools, and voted to approve an income tax. After his death, Katharine Reynolds continued his philanthropic activities. She contributed funds to establish The Richard J. Reynolds High School and the R. J. Reynolds Memorial Auditorium (both listed in the National Register of Historic Places). Construction of the school and auditorium was begun in 1919 under the direction of architect Charles Barton Keen, and finished in 1924. Another memorial to Reynolds, an equine statue, sits on Winston-Salem City Hall Grounds in downtown Winston-Salem. A memorial to Mrs. Reynolds a twenty-some foot tall obelisk, sits on the grounds of the Richard J. Reynolds High School and R. J. Reynolds Memorial Auditorium.
In 1919, his nephew, Richard S. Reynolds, Sr., founded the U.S. Foil Company in Louisville, Kentucky, supplying tin-lead wrappers to cigarette and candy companies. In 1924 he bought the maker of Eskimo Pies, which were wrapped in foil, and four years later he purchased Robertshaw Thermostat, Fulton Sylphon, and part of Beechnut Foil, adding the companies to U.S. Foil to form Reynolds Metals. After realizing the limitations of the tin and lead used in his company's products, in 1926 he added aluminum to the line. Although the company began using aluminum foil as a packaging material for the first time in 1926, in 1947 they introduced Reynolds Wrap. Sold worldwide, it transformed food storage. Reynolds Metals was the second largest aluminum company in the United States and the third largest in the world. The Richmond, Virginia-based company was acquired by ALCOA in 2000.
Descendents of Hardin William Reynolds have influenced the economic and cultural growth of the U.S., particularly in the South, through their business successes and philanthropy.
[edit] Sources
Mayer, Barbara. Reynolda: A History of an American Country House 1997. Reynolda Museum of American Art. U.S.A Reynolds, Patrick. The Guilded Leaf: Triumph, Tragedy, and Tobacco, 1989: Little, Brown and Co. Boston.de:R.J. Reynolds
