After William's mother, Florence, died, her father, William, adopted William and from that point his name was William Mendenhall, Jr.

The following was obtained from the Chanute Kansas Public Library, Chanute, Kansas. The book was "History of Wilson County, Kansas". The account was copied by Martha (Reece) Fulton and was furnished to W. D. Reece in October 1994.

LEWIS C. REECE--He whose name initiates this review is rightly reckoned with the pioneers of Pleasant Valley township, Wilson county. The farm which he selected was owned by the great and good friend of all, "Uncle Sam," and it was occupied by coyotes, jack- rabbits and serpents which then had undisputed possession of nearly all the land in the beautiful and fertile valley. He built his little shanty on a part of section 22, housed his wife and three children in it and prepared them to spend the first summer alone; the bleakest, dreariest and longest summer of them all. Returning to Eastern Kansas himself Mr. Reece spent his first summer in the west farming in Bourbon county where he raised a bountiful crop of wheat and other cereals which sustained his household while his own claim was being reduced and prepared for cultivation. Being reunited with his family in the autumn the weary monotony of lonesomeness was broken and the first evidence of domestic contentment in the west visited their home. It was not an unusual circumstance to see a community settled by a little band or colony of emigrants from the same point, during pioneers days, and of such was Mr. Reece a member. In his company were the well known settlers, George N. Dewey, Henry Carver and Emery W. and Gilman D. Smith. These all reared families in the county and the second and third generations constitute an important part of its population. Lewis C. Reece came to Kansas from Delaware county, Indiana, where he came to maturity from a boy of seven years. He was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, June 25, 1836, and was a son of John N. and Catherine (Myers) Reece, and the second of fourteen children. The father was born in 1809 and is still living in Delaware county, while his mother passed away in 1887. Our subject acquired a good common school education while growing up and had passed well into the experimental stage of life when he enlisted for the closing acts of the rebellion. He joined Company E, 147th Indiana volunteer infantry, February 3, 1865, and was discharged August 4th of the same year when the great volunteer army melted away at the close of the war. He went back to the farm and was an Indiana farmer till the spring of 1869 when he brought his effects to Kansas and on the 5th of March became a settler of Wilson county. The presence of a married sister in Bourbon county served, partly, to attract him to Kansas and it was his brother-in-law's farm in that county that he cultivated so successfully his first season in this state. April 7, 1861, Mr. Reece married Nancy E. Hiatt, whose father, Amos Hiatt, married Susan Dillon and reared a family of fourteen children. Five of their sons were Indiana soldiers in the Rebellion and one, Henry, was killed by bush-whacking secessionists while in the service. Mrs. Reece was born in Ohio--the native state of her parents--April 21, 1841. She is the mother of four children, as follows: Susan, widow of Fred Dudgeon, residing in Pleasant Valley township; Dora, wife of Fremont Duncan, of Delaware county, Indiana; John N., of Pleasant valley; and Mrs. Alberta Stone, widow of the late Fred Stone. Mr. Reece, in politics, cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln and is still in the ranks of the Republican party. His life record has not been made as a politician but as a farmer and worthy citizen and it is as such that we commend him to the favor of posterity.