Sarah Reeves Dickey of Leon County, Texas

Although no document has yet been found stating absolutely that Sarah Virginia Reeves was the daughter of Avery Reeves of Franklin County, Tennessee, there is ample evidence to support the belief. Several posts to this blog have listed the various records that have been found pertaining to Avery Reeves. Just as his parents are still undocumented, so are his children but it is fairly certain that William Reeves, Jonathan Reeves, Nancy Reeves who married William Claiborne Handley, Sarah Reeves who married James C. Dickey and Hance Henderson Reeves of Franklin County, Tennessee are some of those children.

In 1850 before they left for Texas, the household of James C. Dickey is recorded in Franklin County in the census of that year. Sometime after the birth of their youngest child, Claiborne in 1854, James and Sarah left Tennessee for the state of Texas which had been annexed to the United States in 1845. They're found in Leon County, Texas in the 1860 census. During the early years following Texas' annexation, it was an extremely popular destination for settlers migrating from the eastern United States and east Texas counties were filled with families from Kentucky and Tennessee.

On a recent visit to east Texas, we spent a pleasant fall afternoon locating the Pleasant Grove Cemetery where most of the members of the Dickey family are buried. It is east of the small town of Leona in Leon County on Farm Road 1119 close to the area where Leon and Madison counties join just west of the Trinity River. The area is said to have once been called the "Dickey community". It probably hasn't changed substantially since these early pioneers arrived and is still not heavily populated.

Most of the older sons of James and Sarah Dickey served in Texas Regiments of the Confederacy and returned to Leon County following the end of the Civil War.

Both James and Sarah Dickey were deceased by 1885, but many of their descendants still live in this area of east Texas where they settled back in 1855.

The search for Avery Reeves continues…

In a previous post I mentioned the theory that Avery Reeves was the son of Jonathan Reeves and Nancy Hooker of Granville and Wake counties of North Carolina. Not only Avery’s parents are a mystery but his wife and children are as well.

The 1790 census of Wake County lists a Jonathan Reeves with 2 Males over 16, 5 Males under 16 and 4 Females. Jonathan Reeves is undoubtably the same Jonathan who was first listed as a tithe of Malachi Reeves in Granville County in 1762. In 1769, he married Nancy Hooker in Granville County and during the 1780’s is listed on the tax lists of Beaver Dam Creek in southern Granville County just north of the Neuse River. By the 1790 census he is living on the south side of the Neuse River in the Fish Dam community of Wake County along with his presumed brother-in-law Richard Banks. Richard Banks married Karenhapuch Hooker on 16 Jun 1774 in Granville County after the death of his first wife, Ruth Hooker, who was probably another daughter of John Hooker.

The first record of Avery is on 15 Sep 1795 when he was bondsman for the marriage of Ruth Reeves, believed to be his sister, and John Sanders in Wake County. Avery arrived in Franklin County, Tennessee before 1812 when he is listed in the tax lists there. In Franklin County, John Sanders was a neighboring property owner, his land being adjacent to Avery’s in deed records.

Prior to his arrival in Franklin County, Avery lived briefly in York County, South Carolina where he is recorded in the 1810 census. Avery is found in that census living in the Rich Hill community among other descendants of Malachi Reeves of Granville.

Recently, when transcribing a Franklin County deed of Avery Reeves, I noticed that one of the witnesses was Hance McWhorter. I found this especially interesting since one of Avery’s presumed sons was Hance Henderson Reeves. An internet search for Hance McWhorter revealed that he was the son of Hance McWhorter, Sr. Additionally, I found that Hance, Jr.'s sister Mary had married a John Henderson in York County, South Carolina and one of their sons was Hance Henderson.

Rebecca, the youngest daughter of Hance McWhorter, Sr. was supposedly born circa 1775 in South Carolina. There currently seems to be no credible documentation available regarding Rebecca's spouse and she was known to have still been single in 1800 about the time Avery would have arrived in South Carolina. There is a documented connection between Rebecca McWhorter and the Reeves' family in York County, South Carolina for Rebecca was a witness in Nov of 1800 when John Henderson (her brother-in-law) was plaintiff in a suit against Wiley, William and William Reeves, Sr.

Interestingly, the death of a Rebecca Reeves, age 85 and born 1775 in South Carolina, is recorded in the U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules Index in Franklin County, Tennessee in Sept. 1860.

Much more research is needed to prove Avery’s parents as well as his spouses and children, but based upon current research and a vast amount of circumstantial data, the following are believed to be some of the children of Avery Reeves:

William Reeves, b. 1795 in North Carolina, d. 1862 in Franklin, Tennessee

Jonathan Reeves, b. circa 1801

Nancy Reeves, b. 1804 in South Carolina, d. 1857 in Franklin, Tennessee, m. William Claiborne Handly

Sarah Virginia Reeves, b. 1810 in South Carolina, d. 1878 in Leon County, Texas, m. James G. Dickey

Hance Henderson Reeves, b. 1814 in Tennessee, d. 1861 in Franklin County, Tennessee, m. Amanda Bean

Check back – I’ve only just begun to search the records of Franklin County and have lots more documents to find. Hopefully some of them will produce more information about this family.


(Photo of Nancy Reeves Handly's gravestone by Patti Campbell of Estill Springs, TN for Find A Grave.)

Vanished

A Jonathan Reeves is listed on the 1790 Wake County census as head of a household that consists of 2-5-4-0-0-11 (2 males over 16, 5 males under 16, 4 females and 11 head of cattle). The 1793 Wake County tax list shows him with 200 acres and 2 white poles. He was living in an area close to the family of William Reeves in the neighborhood of the Fish Dam on the Neuse River, but is not a member of that family since neither he nor his heirs are mentioned in the probate records for William Reeves recorded in Madison County, Kentucky in 1821.

He is undoubtably the son of Malachi Reeves for he had been listed as a tithe of Malachi's in the 1769 Granville County NC Tax records. After his marriage to Nancy Hooker in Granville County in 1769, he was listed as a taxpayer in the Tabbs Creek area along with his father in 1771, then in the 1780's he is found on the tax lists of the Beaverdam Creek District of southern Granville County just a few miles north of the Fishdam area of Wake County.


Jonathan Reeves died sometime in late 1797 or early 1798 for an estate sale and settlement of the estate is recorded in the Wake County probate records, Will Book 4 at Page 114, in March of 1798. There are no guardian records in the Wake County probate records for underage children of Jonathan Reeves after his death which would indicate that his children were all over the age of fourteen. His widow and children appear to have left Wake County shortly after his death because there is no hint of them in the 1800 census.

The three daughters and six sons of Jonathan Reeves appear to have simply vanished, leaving Wake County and blending into the countless unidentified Reeves of the southern United States in the early 19th century. The marriage records of Wake County through the 1790's provide few clues, but when Ruth Reeves married John Sanders there on 15 Sep 1795, Avery Reeves was bondsman for the marriage. Neither Ruth nor Avery are members of the other Reeves or Reavis families located in Wake County at that time.

After a short stay in York County, South Carolina around 1810 where other members of the Reeves' family of Granville County had migrated, Avery Reeves is found in Franklin County, Tennessee in the 1820 and 1830 census. John Sanders who married Ruth Reeves, probable sister of Avery, had also migrated to Franklin County and is only a few households from Avery Reeves in the 1830 census. Avery apparently died between 1830 and 1840 for there is no mention of him in any records after that time.

The census records above list Avery with several sons although no documentation has currently been found to positively identify them. Hance Henderson Reeves who is found in Franklin County census starting in 1840 is very likely his son as is William Reeves who is shown in census as being born in North Carolina in 1795. A descendant of Hance Henderson Reeves has been placed in DNA Group 3 of the Reeves DNA Project which identifies him as being of the same lineage as the Reeves of Granville County, North Carolina.

If Avery and Ruth Reeves are in fact children of Jonathan's, that still leaves two daughters and five sons who have yet to be identified. When you happen upon a mysterious Reeves whose origins you just can't find, don't forget to explore the records of this family, they might just be one of the missing children of Jonathan and Nancy Hooker Reeves.


(Photo of William Reeves' gravestone by Terri for Findagrave.)