R. J.

Reynolds

Richard Joshua "R. J." Reynolds (July 20,

1850 – July 29, 1918) was an American
businessman and founder of the R. J.
Reynolds Tobacco Company.
 R. J. Reynolds

R.J. Reynolds, head of Reynolds Tobacco

Company

Born Richard Joshua

Reynolds
July 20, 1850
Patrick County,
Virginia

Died July 29, 1918

 (aged 68)
Alma mater Emory & Henry
College
Bryant & Stratton
College

Occupation Owner of R.J.

Reynolds Tobacco
Company

Spouse(s) Katharine Smith

(m. 1905–1918)

Children 4 including; Dick,

Mary. Zachary

The son of a tobacco farmer, he worked

for his father and attended Emory & Henry
College from 1868 to 1870, eventually
graduating from Bryant & Stratton
Business College in Baltimore.[1][2] He sold
his share of the family business in 1874
and moved south to Winston, (now
Winston-Salem, North Carolina) to start his
own tobacco company. Reynolds was a
savvy businessman and a hard worker, and
he quickly became one of the wealthiest
citizens of Winston-Salem; eventually, he
was the wealthiest person in the state of
North Carolina.[3] He died in 1918 of
pancreatic cancer.

Biography

Early life …
Reynolds was born on July 20, 1850, at
Rock Spring Plantation near Critz, Patrick
County, Virginia. He was the son of Nancy
Jane Cox Reynolds and Hardin Reynolds, a
tobacco farmer and slaveowner. He grew
fond of the tobacco business by helping
his father.[4][5]

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company …

In 1874, Reynolds 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.[3] Winston
and Salem were separate towns at that
time. By 1875, Reynolds had established
his tobacco manufacturing operation, and
in the first year, it produced 150,000
pounds of tobacco.[2] Although Winston-
Salem alone had 15 other tobacco
companies, Reynolds was able to
distinguish himself through his business
acumen and innovative techniques,
including adding saccharin to chewing
tobacco.[6] By the 1890s, production had
increased to millions of pounds annually.[2]

Reynolds' 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,
Reynolds formed a formal partnership with
Mr. Will and the company bookkeeper,
Henry Roan. Reynolds served as President
with 75% 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
1892, Reynolds' net worth had grown to
$200,000.[3]
In 1913, Reynolds developed a great
innovation: the packaged cigarette.[6] Most
tobacco users who smoked cigarettes
preferred to roll their own, and there was
thought to be no national market for pre-
packaged cigarettes.[6] Reynolds worked
to develop a flavor he thought would be
more appealing than past products,
creating the Camel cigarette, so named
because it used Turkish paper.[6] Reynolds
undercut competitors on the cost of the
cigarettes, and within a year, he had sold
425 million packs of Camels.[6]

By the time of his death, Reynolds had

become the wealthiest man in North
Carolina by far; his $66,000 paid annually
in taxes was double the next-highest
taxpayer.[3] R.J. Reynolds had grown to
encompass 121 buildings in Winston-
Salem.[3] After his death in 1918, his
brother assumed control of the company;
board members would wait 41 years
before hanging another portrait beside
Reynolds' in the R.J. Reynolds board
room.[3]

[7]

Family and personal life

R. J. Reynolds, circa 1890

Reynolds was the most eligible bachelor

for many years in Winston-Salem[3] and
married Katharine Smith (November 17,
1880 - May 23, 1923), who was 30 years
his junior, on February 27, 1905 in Mount
Airy, North Carolina. She was the daughter
of Zachary Taylor Smith (February 19,
1847 - June 13, 1938) and Mary Susan
Jackson (January 21, 1855 - April 17,
1926). She was born in Stokes County,
North Carolina and died in New York City.

Reynolds and Katharine's father Zachary

were cousins, and Reynolds had known
Katharine since she was a young girl.[3]
She earned a degree in English literature
and went to work as a Reynolds secretary,
at one point winning $1,000 in a company-
sponsored contest.[3] Reynolds joked that
he married Katharine to get his money
back.[3] Their marriage was very happy,
and Reynolds wrote to Katharine saying he
was very glad he waited so long to
marry.[8] Katharine Reynolds urged her
husband to shorten employees' work
hours and provide a lunchroom, schools
and nursery services for them.[3]

The Reynolds' children were:

Richard Joshua Reynolds, Jr. (April 4,

1906 - December 14, 1964) who married
Elizabeth McCaw "Blitz" Dillard (1909 -
Dec. 1961), Marianne O'Brien (d. 1985),
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, Richard Joshua
"Josh" Reynolds III, John Dillard
Reynolds, Zachary Taylor Reynolds, and
William Neal Reynolds II. RJ Jr. and
Marianne had two sons, 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 - ). RJ Jr and Annemarie had one
daughter two days after RJ Jr died, Irene
Sabine Reynolds (b. December 16, 1964
-)
Mary Katharine 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
Gilbert Verney. Nancy and Henry had
three daughters, Jane Bagley Lehman
(married to Orin Lehman), Susan Bagley
Bloom, and Anne Bagley Grant, and one
son, Smith Bagley, cell phone business
executive and social activist.
Zachary Smith Reynolds (November 5,
1911 - July 6, 1932) who married Anne
Ludlow Cannon (August 31, 1901 - June
21, 1961) in York, South Carolina
November 16, 1929 and Libby Holman in
 Monroe, Michigan on Sunday November
29, 1931.

Reynolds lived above the factory floor for

many years. When he married, he lived
with his family alongside other R.J.
Reynolds executives on Fifth Street in
Winston-Salem until 1917, when they
moved to Reynolda House, a 1,000-acre
(4 km2) estate on the outskirts of town
that also housed a village where Reynolds
workers could live.[3] The grounds featured
a post office, schools, a chapel, a
blacksmith shop and a greenhouse.[3] At
Reynolda House, Katharine brought
farmers together to learn the latest
scientific advances in farming.[3] Katharine
offered evening literacy classes to
workers.[3] She also commissioned
construction of a nine-hole golf course.

Reynolds died in 1918, and his wife,

although 30 years younger, died six years
later. They are buried in the Salem
Cemetery in Winston-Salem. Their children
were then raised by their uncle, Reynolds'
brother William Neal Reynolds, and his
wife Kate Bitting Reynolds.[3] Dick
Reynolds became a Democratic politician,
mayor of Winston-Salem, and treasurer of
the Democratic National Committee.[9]
Reynolds's grandson Patrick Reynolds
became an anti-smoking activist following
several family deaths from smoking and
began the Foundation for a Smoke-Free
America.[10]

Political views
In 1884, Reynolds served as a city
commissioner in Winston-Salem. Reynolds
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.
Lasting influence of Reynolds
and his family
Reynolds was generous with his workers,
building schools and houses for them on
his property. 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.[11] He became the first
Southern man to establish a hospital
serving African Americans in the South,
the Slater Hospital.[11][12] He started a
savings and loan, served on the town
board of Winston-Salem, and began a
YMCA and an opera house.[3]

Reynolds donated money to the

establishment of the Slater Industrial
School, which would later become
Winston-Salem State University.[13]

In 1923, the newly formed Reynolds

Foundation fully financed the construction
of Nancy Reynolds Memorial School built
at the birthplace of his and Will Reynolds'
mother, Nancy Jane Cox Reynolds, in the
Brown Mountain community of Stokes
County. In 1930, the Reynolds Foundation
paid for the construction of two wings
adjoining the original building. During the
Depression, Will Reynolds covered the
costs for an additional month of school in
order for Nancy Reynolds to become
accredited. In the 1950s, the foundation
financed and built the school's
freestanding gymnasium and built and
equipped its large agricultural building. A
memorial gift that still provides for the
school today is a $25,000 endowment set
up after the death of Kate Bitting Reynolds,
Will's wife, with the yearly dividends to be
used solely for the upkeep of grounds,
exterior beautification projects and
playground equipment. The endowment's
total value is now more than three-
quarters of a million dollars and easily
supports its intended use.[14]

When Reynolds died, North Carolina's

governor Thomas Walter Bickett said:
"Therefore, the greatest eulogy that can be
offered would be to refer to his life of
rugged honesty, his wide usefulness and
his kindly dealings with his fellowmen,
which he himself deemed his first duty."[13]

Katharine Reynolds' philanthropy …

R. J. Reynolds and his family played a

large part in the public life and history of
the city of Winston-Salem. After his death,
his widow Katharine Smith Reynolds
continued his philanthropic activities. She
contributed land and 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 began 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
Katharine Reynolds, a 20-foot-tall obelisk,
now sits on the grounds of the Richard J.
Reynolds High School and R.J. Reynolds
Memorial Auditorium (it was originally
placed on a site in Reynolda Village,
around Reynolda Church, but was rescued
from demolition and moved to the site on
the school grounds).

Children's philanthropy …

The Reynolds' estate, Reynolda House,

was completed just prior to Reynolds'
death in 1918 and was later donated by his
daughter, Mary Reynolds Babcock, for use
as an art museum. At the age of 28, Mary
inherited $30 million and became one of
the world's richest women.[15] She
contributed to the William Neal Reynolds
Coliseum in Raleigh, North Carolina in
honor of her uncle.[15] Her will gave
$525,000 for a dormitory at Salem College
in Winston-Salem.[15]

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation was

formed by Mary Reynolds Babcock and her
siblings to honor their brother, Reynolds'
son Zachary, whose mysterious death at
the age of 20 at Reynolda is still disputed
to this day as murder or suicide.[15] The Z.
Smith Reynolds Foundation to this day
gives away millions annually in the
Piedmont Triad region. Babcock and her
husband Charles also donated land and
funds to start a country club from the
grounds of Reynolda in 1939, allowing
members to sign up for $1 a year while
she was alive.[9]

An area of 350 acres (1.4 km2) of the

grounds of the Reynolda estate was
donated to Wake Forest University, which
then relocated from Wake Forest, North
Carolina to Winston-Salem in 1956 and
was given $350,000 annually from the Z.
Smith Reynolds Foundation in exchange
for the move. The Reynolds family is
honored through many names on the
Wake Forest campus, including Reynolda
Hall, the university's library, the Z. Smith
Reynolds Library, William Neal Reynolds
Gymnasium, along with a dormitory
named for Mary Reynolds Babcock.[15] Her
husband, Charles Babcock, is honored by
Wake Forest through the Charles Babcock
School of Business Administration.[15] The
school was begun through $500,000 each
in gifts from the Z. Smith Reynolds
Foundation and Nancy Susan Reynolds.[15]
Winston-Salem's airport, the Smith
Reynolds Airport, is named for Zachary
Smith Reynolds.

Reynolds' older son Dick also donated

acres of land and funds to the county for
the establishment of a golf course and
public park in 1939, called Reynolds
Park.[9] Its opening in 1940 marked the
first time that the Winston-Salem public
had access to swimming pools, tennis
courts, and a golf course—previously, one
had to be a member of a private club to
use these types of facilities.[9]

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 of her
father's boyhood. In 1969, she deeded
Virginia Tech 710 acres (2.9 km2) of Rock
Spring Plantation. In 1980, she deeded
them another 7 acres (28,000 m2), where
Reynolds' childhood home and a
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 her Quarry Farm, designed
by architect Frank Forster, in Greenwich,
Connecticut, to actor Frank Gorshin in
1977 for $650,000 [16] He would later sell it
in 1980 to Diana Ross formerly of the
Supremes. She also headed the effort to
turn the Virginia farmstead where her
father was raised into a historic site. Now
called the Reynolds Homestead, it is a
State and National Historic Landmark
listed in the National Register of Historic
Places. 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 for free. It is open
for tours, April through October, Monday
through Saturday.

The house was restored in 1970.

Descendants of Hardin and Nancy
Reynolds brought together many original
heirlooms, including the bed their 16
children were born in. Only eight 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 three-story
brick kitchen, a brick milk house, a spring
house, and a log granary.

Family's companies …

Descendants 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.

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 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. The Richmond,
Virginia-based company was acquired by
ALCOA in 2000.

See also
Arca Foundation

References
1. Scott, Gerald. "Emory & Henry
Students Proud of History, Looking
Toward Future" . Educationth.
Archived from the original on 2010-
10-03.
2. "North Carolina Highway Historical
Marker Program" . North Carolina
Department of Cultural Resources.
Archived from the original on 2009-
07-26. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
3. Tursi, Frank (1994). Winston-Salem: A
History . John F. Blair, publisher.
pp. 110–11, 183.
4. Eubanks, Georgann (September 1989).
"The Gilded Leaf: Triumph, Tragedy,
and Tobacco, Three Generations of the
R.J. Reynolds Family and Fortune" .
Washington Monthly. Retrieved
1 September 2010.
5. McNeal, Joanne (30 November 2001).
"Researchers explore history of slave
cemetery at Reynolds Homestead"
(PDF). Virginia Tech Conductor.
Retrieved 1 September 2010.
. Burrough, Bryan (2003). Barbarians at
the Gate . HarperCollins. pp. 40, 46.
7. Shirley, Michael (1997). From
Congregation Town to Industrial City .
NYU Press. p. 1.
. Information displayed in Reynolda
House orientation gallery, November
14, 2008
 9. Cartner, Mark (September 1998).
"Reynolds and Golf: Longtime
Companions" . Triad Golf. Archived
from the original on 2008-11-21.
10. Mason, Dick (2008-10-21). "R.J.
Reynolds' grandson warns students
about the danger of Tobacco
addiction" . La Grande Observer.
11. Henderson, Archibald (1941). North
Carolina . Lewis Publishing Company.
12. "Slater Hospital" . Winston-Salem
State University Archives.
13. "Legacy of Community Involvement" .
R.J. Reynolds Co. Archived from the
original on 2008-12-21.
14. Bullins, Strother (2008). North
Carolina . Winston-Salem Journal.
15. Roberts, Dave (July 1970). "M O N U M
E N T S of Brick and Learning" . Wake
Forest University Magazine.
1 . [1]

Further reading
Gillespie, Michele. Katharine and R.J.
Reynolds: Partners of Fortune in the
Making of the New South (University of
Georgia Press; 2012) 381 pages; dual
biography of R.J. and his much younger
wife (1880-1924)
 Mayer, Barbara. Reynolda: A History of an
American Country House 1997. Reynolda
Museum of American Art. U.S.A
Patrick Reynolds; Tom Shachtman
(1989), The Gilded Leaf: Triumph,
Tragedy, and Tobacco: Three Generations
of the R. J. Reynolds Family and Fortune ,
Boston: Little, Brown and Co., ISBN 0-
316-74121-3
Tilley, Nannie M. The R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Company (2009); scholarly
business history

External links
 Works by or about R. J. Reynolds at
Internet Archive
Works by or about R. J. Reynolds in
libraries (WorldCat catalog)

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