Although he gained wide visibility as the nation's "baseball doctor", Reese reportedly "drew no line between rich and poor patients".

[1] During his long career, the Welsh-born Reese delivered therapy to clients including industrial workers, celebrity athletes, and heads of state.

Reese was taken in by an ironworker named Tom Jones, who taught him the trade of "bonesetting", a term the Welsh used for treatment of strains of muscle and tendon, not the setting of broken bones.

[1] There, his skills as a healer came to the attention of one of the mill's administrators, James A. Campbell, who later became chairman of the board of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company.

As Time magazine wrote: "His deft fingers developed Reese into an outstanding and nationally famed expert at rehabilitating errant bones.

Especially desired is he of athletes–precious professionals require the delicate care of specialists, hardy amateurs must please the alumni regularly–and many a sports luminary has hastened to Reese as a Good Samaritan".

[8] His eclectic group of patients included baseball players Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Walter Johnson, and John McGraw.

His compassionate and egalitarian approach to medical care was conveyed in a brief article that appeared in a local newspaper about a year before his death.

[1] Meanwhile, the New York Times noted that Reese developed his much-vaunted skills during the years of poverty and obscurity that he spent in his native Wales.