Reynolds Family & Reynolda House

R. J. Reynolds

• 1875 – moved to Winston from Va. to begin tobacco trade (chose Winston b/c it had a rail hub)

• 1888 – founded R. J. Reynolds Tobacco

• 1907 – introduced Prince Albert (in a can) smoking tobacco

• 1913 – introduced Camel brand – the first packaged cigarette

• On July 30, 1918, The Winston Salem Journal wrote: “The city’s civic, religious, and social institutions advanced with the growth of the tobacco company. The triumph of Prince Albert and Camel cigarettes caused factories to spring up all over the city, and attracted thousands of new people. By the time of his death in 1918, R.J. Reynolds had brought prosperity to an entire region of North Carolina” (Reynolda House Museum of Art Exhibits).

• 1905 – Katherine Smith married R. J. Reynolds

• 1906 – bought over 1000 acres of “desolate” land to build Reynolda (their summer home)

• 1917 – Reynolda Manor completed

• 1965 – opened to the public

The Manor

• a village where Reynolds workers could live

• a post office, • schools, • a chapel, • a blacksmith shop • 9-hole golf course• a greenhouse

Katherine & the Farm

• Wanted a model farm

• Encouraged people to grow own food

• After a public issue over clean milk, started Reynolda Dairy

•

Katherine & business

• Encouraged RJR to shorten employees work hours and provide a nursery

Lasting Influence of RJR• He also granted endowments to • Guilford College, • the Oxford Orphan Asylum, and • the Baptist Orphanage, in addition to • many other charities and churches in the Winston-Salem

community.• He became the first southern man to establish a hospital serving

African-Americans in the South, the Slater Hospital.[• He started a savings and loan, • served on the town board of Winston-Salem, and • began a YMCA and • an opera house• Reynolds donated money to the establishment of the Slater

Industrial School, which would later become Winston-Salem State University

Lasting Influence of Katherine

• contributed land and funds to establish The Richard J. Reynolds High School and the R. J. Reynolds Memorial Auditorium

The Children• Richard Joshua Reynolds, Jr. (April 4, 1906 - December 14, 1964) who married

– Elizabeth McCaw "Blitz" Dillard (1909 - Dec. 1961), • Richard Joshua "Josh" Reynolds III, • John Dillard Reynolds, • Zachary Taylor Reynolds, and • William Neal Reynolds II.

– Marianne O'Brien (d. 1985), • Michael Randolph Reynolds (July 13, 1947 - November 3, 2004) and • Patrick Reynolds, who publicly took a stand as a tobaccofree advocate (b. December 2, 1948 - ).

– Muriel Maud Marston Laurence Greenough (December 28, 1915 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada - 1980), and

– Annemarie Schmitt (b. 1932 - ) RJ Jr and Blitz had four sons, • two days after RJ Jr died, Irene Sabine Reynolds (b. December 16, 1964 - )

• Mary Katherine Reynolds (August 8, 1908 - July 17, 1953) who married • Charles Henry Babcock (September 22, 1899 - December 13, 1967)

• Nancy Susan Reynolds (February 5, 1910 - January 1985) who married – Henry Walker Bagley (August 6, 1900 in Atlanta, Georgia - April 19, 1983) and

• Jane Bagley Lehman,• Susan Bagley Bloom, and • Anne Bagley Grant, and • one son, Smith Bagley, cell phone business executive and social activist.

– Gilbert Verney. • Zachary Smith Reynolds (November 5, 1911 - July 6, 1932) who married

– Anne Ludlow Cannon (August 31, 1901 - June 21, 1961and – Libby Holman on Sunday November 29, 1931.

Lasting Influence of Children

• Mary Reynolds Babcock – donated Reynolda House to be used as an art

museum– contributed to the William Neal Reynolds Coliseum in

Raleigh, in honor of her uncle – gave $525,000 for a dormitory at Salem College in

Winston-Salem– Created the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to honor

her brother (suspicious death at age 20)– Donated land to start a country club– Donated land to Wake Forest University– With sister Susan, opened Smith Reynolds Airport

• Dick– Donated land for Reynolds Park

• Nancy Susan Reynolds Bagley Verney – deeded Virginia Tech 710 acres of Rock Spring

Plantation. – In 1980, she deeded them another 7 acres where

Reynolds' childhood home and a continuing education center stand

– 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

• RJR’s nephew, Richard S. Reynolds, Sr., – In 1919, 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 foil-

wrapped) 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. The company began using aluminum foil as a packaging material in 1926, and

– 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.

• In addition to the house, 28 of the original thirty buildings remain.

• To the west lie the restored formal gardens, noted for their Japanese cryptomeria and weeping cherry trees.

• The 16-acre lake behind the house ("Lake Katharine") has reverted to wetlands, which provide a home for a variety of wildlife.

• Many of the buildings in the village are now occupied by boutiques, shops, and restaurants.

• Servants button at dinner table, Dumbwaiter

Reynolds Family Tree