Theresa Wilhelmina (Greene) Reed MD, MPH (1923 - 2017)

Ancestors

Biography

Theresa Greene Reed was a medical doctor and the first Black female epidemiologist in the United States. She served as executive medical officer in the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for almost 20 years.

Theresa was born in 1923. She was the daughter of William Greene and Theresa Anderson. She passed away in 2017. ^[1][2]

Family Research

Mary and Warwick Spencer: Their Ancestors and Descendants by Theresa Green Reed

"Warwick Spencer, Sr. (1847-1927), my maternal great-grandfather, was the son of his slavemaster, Samuel Spencer (1804-1860) and his slave Patience (born 1824) both of Amherst County. In 1849, Samuel Spencer put three slaves, his 2-year old son Warwick, Warwick’s 5-year old brother Pleasant Spencer, and their 26-year old mother, Patience, up to secure a $50 loan - “to be sold for cash at public auction …” Payment was made. In the 1863 appraisal of Samuel’s estate, 16-year old Warwick was valued at $2500.

Mary Susan Payne (1848-1936), my maternal great-grandmother, was a descendant of slaves of Col. Phillip W Payne (1760-1840) of Campbell County. Mary and her mother became slaves of Dr Robert Wingfield (1791-1858) and his wife Elizabeth Sisson Wingfield (1820-1899) at their Mountainview plantation in the Buffalo Ridge section of Amherst County. Her mother, Susan Emaline Payne (1825-1915), called “Mammy”, became a close friend of her mistress and helped raise all of the Wingfield children. Emaline and Mary’s slave cabin was not far from the slave quarters where Warwick Spencer lived at the Samuel Spencer plantation. Teenagers Warwick and Mary met for the first time in the spring of 1863 while hiding in the bushes at Gallows Field watching the hanging of five neighbor slaves from the Islington plantation who had been convicted of murdering their master, General Terisha Dillard. While visiting in the Spring of 1865, Mary was horseback riding when she met Warwick again. He was holding the reins of Traveler, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s horse, at Appomattox Courthouse during the events surrounding The Surrender. Newly freed, they were married in Amherst County on December 26, 1865, at the home of her father, Nelson Payne (1818-1893). Her brother John Payne and Catherine Mundy were married with them in a double wedding. Immediately, with freedom Mary discarded her slave name “Lucy” and renamed herself Mary Susan Ann Rebecca Yankee Doodle Jay-Ho Bonaparte Dekelter Payne Spencer.

The families moved to the Clifton farm, the farm of Charles Mundy in the Stonewall District of Appomattox County, where they became tobacco farmers, and where Mary and Warwick’s first three children, my grandmother- Bettie Susan (1867-1948), Annie, and Emaline were born.

In 1873, the Spencers purchased a home in Lynchburg and moved there to be near schools and colleges. Eight more children were born: Charles, Edward, Warwick Jr., Howard, Nelson, Marietta, John, and Ophelia.

Mary was a midwife and an astute business-woman, and Warwick was an extract foreman in the Heald Bark Mill. They never learned to read or write, but they saw that all of their children completed school and were trained in some type of profession. Their children became schoolteachers, mail carriers, real estate dealers, a tailor, and a saleswoman.

In 1903, they purchased and moved to property that had been part of Camp Davis, a Confederate camp on Pierce Street that, today, is bordered by Pierce, Kemper, 12th, and 16th Streets in the center of Lynchburg. Split into lots for the Spencer children, it became known as Spencer Row. Edward and Ann Spencer’s Pierce Street house^[3] is registered in Virginia as a historic site.^[4]

Mary and Warwick Spencer lived very significant lives in quiet dignity and as outstanding, leading members of the Lynchburg community. Today, they have a large and extended family of approximately one hundred twenty five descendants spread all over the country."

Submitted by: Theresa Greene Reed, M.D., M.P.H
(article from Amherst County Virginia Heritage, by S. Grose; pp. 227-228; article by Theresa Greene Reed, MD, MPH)

Sources

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresa_Greene_Reed
2. ↑ https://www.uncrownedcommunitybuilders.com/person/theresa-greene-reed Uncrowned community builders
3. ↑ http://www.annespencermuseum.com/biography.php
4. ↑ https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=74009

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7CV-1BF : accessed 13 November 2021), Theresa Greene in household of Bettie S Anderson, Buffalo (Districts 1-250), Erie, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 149, sheet 4A, line 32, family 76, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1427; FHL microfilm 2,341,162.
• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ53-ZZH : 26 January 2020), Theresa Green in household of Theresa Green, Ward 12, Buffalo, Buffalo City, Erie, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 64-256, sheet 6A, line 24, family 128, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2831.
• U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1
• U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999

See also:

• Wikipedia: Theresa Greene Reed
• Wikidata: Item Q97366941, en:Wikipedia

Spencer family, Reed, Theresa Greene. Mary and Warwick Spencer: Their Ancestors and Descendants. [Rockville, Md.] (11516 Patapsco Dr., Rockville, MD 20852-2454); T.G. Reed, 1993. 20 leaves.
CS71 .S745 1993 (https://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/bib_guid/AfrAmerFamilyHistories.pdf African American Family Histories and Related Works in the Library of Congress)