Thisbe's Letter

The following letter was written by Thisbe Jones Reeves of Hillsborough, North Carolina to her niece Julia Jones. Julia was the daughter of Thisbe's brother Horace Jones of Massachusetts who was visiting another brother, Doctor Calvin Jones in Wake Forest.

Thisbe Jones had married David Higbie around 1805 in Massachusetts but he soon moved the family to New York where he abandoned them. Dr. Calvin Jones described him as a wastral who had squandered everything, abandoned his wife and daughter, leaving for distant parts. In Wake County, North Carolina in 1813, Thisbe obtained a divorce and later married Rev. Willis Reeves of Orange County.

It is a bittersweet letter, Thisbe is noticeably thrilled to be able to have her niece visiting in North Carolina and once again be able to see someone from her home in Massachusetts but she is also somewhat downhearted. From her description, life in Orange County was much more backward than what she had found at Wake Forest in Wake County while residing there with her brother. In spite of Thisbe's melancholy comments it is still a delightful letter and a very personal vignette of Thisbe Jones Higbie Reeves.


To Miss Julia Jones- August 1830

My dear Julia,
you are at last so near me as the forest and yet I cannot see you. I am more impatient than ever to see you. You have not been absent from my thoughts, half an hour since bro- informed me of your arrival. I feel as tho in seeing you, I shall again see my departed parents- my brothers and sisters, and my own dear, dear, native place. I shall also see, not in imagination, but in reality my Julia, the child of my brother in whose house I have spent many happy hours and some of the happiest in carrying in my arms and playing with his Julia.

Shall I indeed once more behold, one of my far distant relations. I now live far from all. Seldom indeed am I blest with their sight. Bro- Calvin is the only one within reach and inconveniences prevent seeing him half as often as I wish.

He came by on his way to the mines but only staid one night- we could not prevail upon him to stay longer. He was not well when he started, I should be glad to hear from him. I was myself but barely able to crawl about. He gave me some medicine which has --- me. When sister writes to him I wish she would tell him.

Your letter arrived a few days after he was here. I was pleased with your coverage- If any one has resolution they can do much - I have --- the time when I could do so, too and have and could again, --- my heart as light and hopes ever highting. But I am now weighted down with many sorrows and forbodings. Thus I have no bright hopes no fair prospect in view, I bless and praise God I have the christian life which extends beyond the limits of mortal --- . By faith I see the promised land where the wicked ? from troubling and the weary are at rest. Yes, there is a land where we shall live forever. Who would not content for ? desire this happy county. Christ the lamb of God has, conjoined death and the graves. then where -- death is thy sting and to grave thy victory.---

If you are not preparing to start when you receive this- do write me and tell me as near as possible when you will come. A week ago, I fixed two rooms for you, sister and the children. Tho I cannot lodge you elegantly- I hope I can comfortable and I do not think you will either (pg torn)

When I do my best the only good so (pg torn) of any size up stairs M- occupies ?(pg. torn) have no right whatever to enter it and ? always keep it locked. I was mortified to put bro. and M- both in the little room- when so warm. I thought I would tell him the cause but had no opportunity nor time. I did not see him half long enough- had I been well I might have managed better. I could have put Mont. with Calvin but did not think of it but I have now turned topsy turvy an unfinished room which is quite pleasant- have moved out many things and would have moved more had I a place to put them, however, I think you will not dislike it. I have even been down on my knees to scour up the old seasoned stairs- make haste and come before it gets dirty. Tell sister to bring her children, there is plenty of room. You are pleased with Carolina. So was I when I lived in Wake- but it is very different in this county. You will here see back-ward style. I give this warning that you shall not be disappointed and hope after all you may enjoy yourself awhile very well the novelty will be something, and I think you will for my sake make yourself contented. I think if I could have you with me a prison would be a palace, at best for a time. This hermitage might so fiting be named a prison for I have no means to get away. I wish you had been here to the ?. I want much to go to a methodist one this fall and if you are here and are desirous to go Mr. R. I think will fix us off .

My love to sister and children- yours ever T.J.R.


(This letter is included here by permission of Pamela G. Boan descendant.)

Hannah Smith's Husband - William Rives

Countless family trees list the wife of William Reeves who died in Wilkes County, Georgia in 1816 as Hannah Smith, most of them using the Reeves Review II as a source. In an effort to prove or disprove this connection, I found the marriage license of Hannah Smith to William RIVES in Mecklenburg County recorded on 14 Dec 1820 which I mentioned as Myth #7 in a previous post about the numerous myths circulating in Reeves' genealogy especially in regard to the Reeves' family of Granville County, North Carolina. Since this marriage took place four years after the 1816 death of William Reeves, it is obviously incorrect. This data was apparently submitted to the Reeves Review by someone who did not properly research the individuals involved.

A search of the deed records of Mecklenburg County produced a quit claim deed by the heirs of Daniel Smith of that county assigning their rights to any legacies from his estate to their mother Elizabeth (Deed Book 24, page 133). Additionally that 1822 Quit Claim Deed named William "Reaves" as the husband of Hannah Reaves, daughter of Daniel Smith. From that quit claim deed, the parents of Hannah Smith were confirmed as Daniel Smith and Elizabeth Darnall, but even though William Rives appeared many more times over the course of the next 25 years in the deed records of Mecklenburg County, there was no clue to his origins.

William's name was recorded as Rives, Reaves and at times Reeves over those 25 years but since he was the only William with any variation of the Reeves name in Mecklenburg County during those years, it can be assumed that all of these references refer to the husband of Hannah Smith. It appears that Hannah died before the 20th of July 1824 for on that date, William Rives married Jane Cunningham in Mecklenburg County. He apparently continued to have a relationship with the Smith family for he was the witness in further documents filed by the heirs of Daniel Reeves regarding his estate in 1835.

There were no deeds in the Mecklenburg records listing William Rives as either a grantor or grantee after 1847 which created the impression that he was deceased before 1850. Estate Settlement Book 6 on page 358-359 lists the inventory of the estate of William Rives decd and a continuation on Page 451 of that book makes a reference to the estate of William & Mary Rives deceased, formerly residents of the state of North Carolina. There was nothing to indicate the nature of the connection, just their names.

Because the surname "Rives" had been the most consistently used in the Mecklenburg records for William's transactions, I began to research other Rives' families of North Carolina in hopes of finding a missing child, William. For once, I found the answer to the mystery in the first place I looked - the estate file of William McGuffey Rives of Warren County, North Carolina. In his 39 page estate file there were documents from the executors of the Mecklenburg, North Carolina estate of William Rives, deceased, regarding distributions from the estates of William McGuffey Rives and his deceased wife, Mary Catherine Turner Rives. William, the son of Mary C. Turner and William McGuffey Rives was previously believed to have died in South Carolina circa 1845, but then that's not too far off since Mecklenburg County is on the border between North and South Carolina.

It's a shame that all genealogical mysteries can't be solved this quickly and painlessly.

Back to Christian County, Kentucky

Previously Carolyn and I collaborated on a three part series of posts regarding the various Reeves' families who were early settlers to Christian County, Kentucky. Part 2 of that series discussed James Reeves, John Reeves, a somewhat older Reeves' individual, William Reeves, and William Reeves with wife Susan Hunter who was said, by her descendants, to be full-blood Cherokee.


There is no documentation in Christian County to connect these Reeves' families but James Reeves is known to have married Nancy Goodwin, daughter of Jesse Goodwin previously of Pendleton, South Carolina whose origins are said to be in Greenville. Both a James Reeves and a John Reeves are recorded in the 1790 census of Greenville County, South Carolina. They appear to have lived in an area claimed by both Spartanburg and Greenville since some deeds state the land was in Spartanburg yet were recorded in Greenville County deed records. Also in Spartanburg in the 1790 census are two William Reeves.

In the Greenville County deed records, John Reeves or Reaves (listed both ways in the deed book) sold 58 acres on George Woolf's Creek on the waters of the Saluda River in Spartanburg to George Woolf in June of 1793. One of the witnesses to this deed was William Reaves. Also in the Greenville County land records in Grant Book C, at page 291, James G. Reaves was awarded a 1794 grant (pictured above) for 237 acres on both sides of Beaver Dam Creek in Spartanburg County.

I subsequently discovered the 1812 will of this George Woolf in Greenville County. He named his three nephews William, Ewel and John Reaves among the legatees. These nephews were described as the sons of "his brother" (presumably his brother-in-law) John Reaves. The will creates the impression that John Reeves was deceased by 1812 but does not specifically state that.

John Reeves' sons appear to have been living with George Woolf at the time of his death in 1813. The only other members of his household had been a wife and two daughters in the 1790 census, but in the 1810 census of Greenville County he is listed with 3 Males 16-25 and 1 Female 16-25 (probably Elizabeth, wife of Ewel) in addition to George Woolf himself.

Several members of the family of George Woolf also migrated to Christian County, Kentucky in the early 1800's. Another nephew and legatee in the will of George Woolf, Henry Woolf, Jr., migrated to Kentucky where he was granted 200 acres in Christian County on the Muddy Fork of the Little River. Land was surveyed on January 24, 1799 (Kentucky Land Warrants Bk. 17 p.305). Henry Woolf, Jr. appeared on the Christian County, Kentucky tax rolls for years 1798-1801 but moved back to South Carolina in 1802.

It appears that John Reeves joined these Woolf family members in the migration to Kentucky but died shortly thereafter and his children returned to South Carolina possibly with Henry Woolf, Jr. in 1802.

We still don't have definitive proof of the extended family of any of these Reeves' individuals, but thanks to the will of George Woolf and other Greenville/Spartanburg County records, we are beginning to have a better idea as to their origins prior to their arrival in Christian County, Kentucky.

Once again - it would be wonderful if more male Reeves' descendants from these families would participate in the Reeves' DNA Project.

Bennett Reeves of Wilkes County, Georgia

It wasn’t my intention to write another post about the Maryland Reeves family but in the course of researching Reeves in Georgia, I have recently found several interesting items in regard to Bennett Reeves who left Charles County, Maryland after 1790 and relocated to Wilkes County, Georgia. On 2 Nov 1791, Joshua Hill and his wife Amey sold 300 acres on the waters of Newford creek in Wilkes County to Bennett Reeves. One of the testators to that deed was John Dyson, Bennett's cousin who was also from Charles County, Maryland.

Previously, Thomas Reeves who married Bethany Stinson in Wilkes County, Georgia in 1808 was believed to have been the son of Thomas Reeves the son of Malachi and Fortune Reeves of Guilford County, North Carolina, but the statements by three of his children who lived until the 1880 census contradict that theory. This supposition appears to have been based upon proximity due to the fact that other members of the family of Malachi Reeves had relocated to Wilkes County.

In the 1880 census, Hickerson Reeves, Thomas Reeves and Caroline Reeves Yeager, children of Thomas Reeves and Bethany Stinson, as well as Bennett F. Reeves and John D. Reeves, Jr., sons of John D. Reeves, each gave information that their father was born in Maryland. This confirms that they were grandchildren of Bennett Reeves, son of Thomas Reeves and Mary Murphy of Charles County, Maryland and identifies both Thomas Reeves and John D. Reeves as his sons. Bennett Reeves also had at least two daughters according to the census of 1820, but neither has been identified.

Additionally an 1816 deed for 33-3/4 acres in Guilford County on Mairs Fork of the Haw River from Thomas Reeves to Leven Covey describes Thomas Reeves as "of the State of North Carolina & County of Guilford". This indicates that as late as 1816, Thomas Reeves was still living in Guilford County on Mairs Fork of Haw River. This was undoubtably the same land willed to him by his grandfather Richard Burton in his 1799 will.

Following Bennett Reeves death sometime after 1820, both of his sons left the Wilkes County area. John D. Reeves is next found in the western portion of Georgia in Meriwether County where his descendants eventually migrated further southwest into Stewart County. Thomas and Bethany Stinson Reeves along with their children were found in Morgan County, Alabama after leaving Wilkes County.

Again, this is another instance of the “perils of proximity”. In the course of Reeves research, we repeatedly find two or even three different Reeves families and lineages living in the same county so it should never been assumed that all the families in a particular county are related.


(Gravestone photos by Barbara Parks of the Herring Cemetery in Morgan County, Alabama and Christine Thacker of Red Hill Christian Church Cemetery in Stewart County, Georgia for Find a Grave.)

John A. & Nancy Reves Remembered

Recently, I happened upon an online book of "acrostics" by Robert Blackwell published in 1861 which contained verses written about John A. Reves and Nancy Cole Reves. John A. Reves was the son of George B. Reves and Mary Farmer who had left Stokes County, North Carolina, migrating to Carroll County, Mississippi sometime between 1840 and 1850.

According to the dictionary, an acrostic is "a series of lines or verses in which the first, last, or other particular letters when taken in order spell out a word, phrase, etc."

John A. Reves
Of Carroll County, Miss.

JUST and true, thy course pursue,
Offending none, from errors free,
Helping all who on thee call,
Now listen what we say to thee:
All love thee well who round thee dwell,
Regarding all thy actions true;
Extending light, each day and night,
Victorious on thy course pursue;
Encouraged by each motive high,
Still serve the Lord who rules the sky.

Nancy Reves
Of Carroll County, Miss.

NEATER by far, than a precious gold ring,
And once on a time, hearing her sing,
Nightingales came, her presence to greet;
Conscious that they, her music could beat,
Yet failing in this, did quickly retreat,
Resolving no more, in the land to be heard.
Excelled at last, by a mortal endeared,
Visions of glory, all vanished away;
Each fearing to speak, did secretly say
She sang more sweet, than an angel to-day.

From:
''Original Acrostics on all the States and Presidents of the United States,''
''and Various Other Subjects, Religious, Political, and Personal''
by Robert Blackwell
Pub. 1861 in Nashville TN, pg 157
IBID, pg 188