Dr. David Addison Reese, born in Mecklenberg County, N. C., was the son of a Revolutionary soldier and grandson of a signer of the Mecklenberg Declaration of Independence. As a young man he moved to Monticello and married Mary Gaines Merriweather. He represented Jasper County in the state senate for a number of consecutive terms, served as a trustee of the University of Georgia for almost 25 years, and in 1831 President Andrew Jackson appointed him commissioner to treat with the Cherokee Indians. A Whig in politics, he succeeded Alexander H. Stephens as congressman in 1853. During the War Between the States he moved to Russell County, Alabama, where he died at age 78. This land was also the site of the first county court after Randolph County, now Jasper County, was separated from Baldwin County on Dec. 10, 1807, and the legislature ordered that all courts and other public business in the new county be conducted at the home of John Towns, which stood on this land lot behind the Reese house.