Rebecca Washington (1839-1904) was the daughter of George W. Washington (1809-1876) and Sallie Wright Washington (b.1811-1886). Rebecca's siblings were Edward, Esther [Ettie], George, Robert , Sallie, Betty and John, all raised on Ridgedale farm near Romney, then in Virginia. After the Civil War Rebecca married James Benjamin Reese [also Rees] (1836-1904), and the couple settled in Mineral County, W. Virginia. Rees and his brother Samuel managed the Rees Tannery of New Creek (later Keyser). James and Rebecca raised five children: Lucy M, Sallie W, Ellen J, George S, and Samuel S.
Rebecca's childhood home on Ridgedale farm near Romney, WV, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The Washington family owned 16 slaves in 1850, but only one is listed on the 1860 census; they supported the Confederacy. Edward and John both joined the Hampshire Guards of Virginia and left for Harper's Ferry in May 1861. John was killed in the battle of Cold Harbor the following year. Confederate Capt. Turner Ashby established "Camp Washington" for the 7th Virginia Cavalry on the farm; when Richard Ashby and a scouting party were ambushed in 1861 in the New Creek area, Ashby was brought to Ridgedale and died there. Edward Washington led a McNeil's Rangers party that kidnapped Generals Crook and Kelley from a house in Romney towards the end of the war, and Rebecca is said to have ridden to Virginia with her sister to carry news of the Union forces in Romney to General Stonewall Jackson.
From the description of The Rebecca Washington collection (Berea College). WorldCat record id: 436682951
