Reeves Rancher Dies of Covid-19

This morning I came across an article in the Texas Tribune about Raymond Reeves who recently died at the age of 91 in the Texas Panhandle. Whenever I happen upon a gravestone, photo or other interesting information about a previously unknown Reeves' individual, I usually look to see if we have recorded them or their family in The Reeves Project. Finding no Raymond Reeves born in 1929 in Texas, I decided to do a little research to learn more about his ancestry.

Raymond Reeves

After a little sleuthing, I traced Raymond's family from Texas back to Alabama, then Georgia and found his earliest known ancestor to be John Reeves who died in Craven County, North Carolina in 1790.

Raymond descends from John Reeves' son Jesse Tinion Reeves of Hancock County, Georgia. A lot of research has been done to find John Reeves' origins and his father appears to be John Reeves of St. Mary's County, Maryland who migrated to North Carolina circa 1760.  Although there is currently no documentation of the relationship, the Y-DNA of a descendant of John Reeves matches that of other descendants of that Reeves' family.

Read the article which tells much about this Texas rancher's interesting life at The Texas Tribune

Thanks to the Texas Tribune for the photo above.

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.

Reuben A. Reeves of Todd County, Kentucky

Reuben A. Reeves was the son of Ottway Curry Reeves and Mary Ann Mansfield, the grandson of Brewer Reeves who was one of the earliest settlers of Christian County, Kentucky. The act creating Christian County was passed in 1796 and specified "that the Justices to be named in the commission of the peace for said county" should meet at the house of Brewer Reeves and organize for business. Brewer, his wife Martha and their family had immigrated to Kentucky from Augusta County, Virginia.

In January of 1846, Ruben married Sarah Mills in Todd County and soon afterward left Kentucky for Texas which had just been admitted to the United States. Anderson County was a popular destination for the stream of immigrants flowing into Texas from various U.S. states. By 1848, Reuben had established a law practice in Palestine, the county seat of Anderson County. He and his young family are found there in the 1850 U.S. census and by 1857, Reuben had been elected a district judge in Palestine.

After the civil war began, he enlisted on the 11th of April 1863 in Terrell's Regiment of Texas Cavalry of the CSA and became captain of Company E. A year later when the term of James H. Bell, associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court expired, Ruben Reeves ran for and was elected to that office in August of 1864. The resignation of his commission from the CSA was written on the 19th of September 1864 in Tyler, Texas.

Reuben Reeves served as associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court until the war's end and participated in the Constitutional Convention of 1866. He was then elected district court judge for the Ninth Judicial District but on November 30, 1867 when Texas came under federal military control, he was among the officials removed from office as "impediments to Reconstruction". When Governor Richard Coke was elected, Reuben Reeves was reappointed associate justice of the Supreme Court of Texas on January 30, 1874 and served until April 18, 1876 when he returned to Palestine to practice law. At one time his son William also held the office of district judge in Anderson County.

President Grover Cleveland appointed Reuben Reeves to the Supreme Court of New Mexico Territory in the 1880's, and he served in that office until 1889. He died in Dallas at the home of his daughter on January 30, 1908, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

Read more about Reuben A. Reeves at The TSHA Handbook of Texas Online

Tombstone Tuesday - B. Robert Reeves

B. R. REEVES
June 16, 1869
Dec. 24, 1905

The grave of B. Robert Reeves is located in the Oakwood City Cemetery in Leon County, Texas along with that of his son Hobson D. Reeves.

B. Robert Reeves married Pearl Bradley on 17 Dec 1893 in Limestone County, Texas. In the 1880 census of Limestone County, Robert was recorded living in the home of his parents W. J. (William J.) and Mary E. Reeves. This family was located in Tallapoosa, Alabama in the 1850 census prior to their appearance in Limestone County, Texas in the 1860 census. William J. and Mary E. Reeves both give Georgia as their places of birth, but at present, there is no further information regarding this Reeves' family's lineage.

A Surprising Connection

Some time ago, I discovered a John Reeves, Revolutionary soldier of Columbia, Georgia that I was previously unfamiliar with and added a post here with what information was available. Shortly after writing that post, I noticed the grave of Nannie Hazel Reeve in the cemetery at Boerne, Texas and wrote another post about this mysterious Reeve family who came to Texas around 1880.

In the course of doing some research to learn more about the family of Nannie Hazel Reeve, I found that her grandfather Randolph Reeve had come to Texas by 1880 where he died in 1891 in Blanco County. Prior to the family's arrival in Texas, they were living in Grant Parish, Louisiana at the time of the 1870 census and in the 1860 census were recorded in Rapides Parish.

Randolph Reeve married Clementine Ewell in Amite County, Mississippi on the 17th of May, 1846 and they were living there in the 1850 census. Their three children - John R., Mary Elizabeth and William Thomas Reeve were born in Amite County.

Also living in Amite County from around 1830 was a John Reeve, born 1789 in Georgia. John appeared to be a likely candidate for the father of Randolph Reeve so I began to search the probate records of Amite County. Probate documents show that John Reeve died on the 20th of February 1867 and there are numerous petitions and filings in regard to his very large estate. A last will and testament is eluded to numerous times but doesn't appear to be extant in the records. Amite County only has two will books that do not appear to be complete.

John Reeve's third wife Elizabeth Dunn appears to have died before 1860 and the probate documents state that John Reeve had no family. The only legatees named are the heirs of his deceased sisters and those of a half-brother and half-sister. As I began to read the documents, I immediately recognized the names as being the heirs of John Reeves who died in Columbia County, Georgia in 1833 - Susannah Baggett, Sarah Englett (Inglett), Rebecca Hardin and Thomas Reeve. Thomas was named as a half-brother and a half-sister, Polly Hardin was also named.

The Amite County MS census of 1830 lists John Reeve's household as including 2 males under 5 years old, 1 male 5-9 and one female under 5. Did all of these children die before 1867? The missing will might have contained explanations regarding his children but the probate books do not. A Thomas Reeve, born 1822, and found in Amite in 1850 was very likely his son but he can't be found in records after 1850 so he may have been deceased before 1867, possibly dying in the Civil War. But Randolph was not deceased in 1867.

It is currently not possible to define it, but there must be some connection between John and Randolph Reeve even though he is mentioned nowhere in the probate records. In 1850, John Reeve's next neighbor was William Ewell, Randolph's wife Clementine's brother. William Ewell was also an executor of John Reeve's will. Could it be that Randolph was John's son and a disagreement caused their relationship to be severed and Randolph was excepted from receiving any legacies from the estate? Unless the will of John Reeve is eventually found, the questions of Randolph's parentage may never be resolved.

UPDATE: In the course of further research of this family, it seems more probable that Randolph was the child of Spencer Reeves who was also living in Columbia County, Georgia at the time of Randolph's birth and had several sons who are as yet unidentified. The 1820 census of Columbia County, Georgia lists Spencer Reeves' household with 4 males ‹10, 1 male ›45, 1 female 10-15, 1 female 16-25 and 1 female 26-44. There are also several instances of the use of the name Randolph among Spencer's descendants. Spencer was likely a brother to John Reeves, but there is currently nothing to support that theory other than proximity.


(Gravestone photo by Wendy Johnson for FindaGrave.)

A Mysterious Reeve Family in Texas

On a recent visit to the Boerne City Cemetery just north of San Antonio in Kendall County, Texas, I happened upon the grave of Nannie Hazel Reeve. She died at just 28 years old. There doesn't seem to be a Texas Death Record for Nannie so the cause of her death is unknown.

Nannie Hazel
REEVE
Born Jan. 18, 1888
Died July 9, 1916

A search of the 1900 census records, found that Nannie was the daughter of William Thomas and Martha Reeve who were living in neighboring Comal County at that time. William Thomas Reeve was born in Mississippi in 1850, the son of Randolph Reeve and Clementine Ewell. According to the inscription on Randolph Reeve's gravestone, he was born on 2 Dec 1819 in Wilkes County, Georgia. The family was listed in the 1850 census of Amite, Mississippi:


Randolph Reeve moved from Mississippi into Louisiana where he is found in Rapides Parish in 1860 and Grant in 1870. From there he migrated into Texas and is recorded in Comal County in the 1880 census. He died in Blanco County, Texas on 26 Jul 1891.

I've currently been unable to find a documented link to Randolph's parents but he may prove to be the son of a John Reeve, born 1789 in Georgia. From around 1820 John Reeve is recorded in Amite, Mississippi. He married Elizabeth Andrews there on May 20, 1823. Elizabeth was probably a second wife for, based upon census records, it appears that John had two small children, Randolph born 1820 and Thomas born in 1822, prior to his marriage to Elizabeth. To further link John Reeve to Randolph, in the 1850 census William Ewell, brother of Clementine, is his next neighbor.

Busting Myths about William Steel Reeves

Page from James Robertson bible

William Steel Reeves was born in Pendleton District, South Carolina on 9 March 1794, the son of George Reeves Jr and Mary Polly Steele (surname unproven). His birthdate is recorded in the James Robertson bible.

William Steel Reeves married Nancy Totty in Hickman County Tennessee in 1816. He moved to Crawford County, Arkansas before 1836 and stayed for several years before moving to Grayson County, Texas before 1850.

William Steel Reeves died on 7 June 1872 and is buried in the Georgetown Cemetery in Pottsboro, Grayson County, Texas.

It is in a book called "The History of Grayson County, Texas" where at least two myths about William seem to have gotten their start.

In this book, William's descendant Geraldine Coe wrote the section on the history of the William Steel Reeves family which begins thusly:

My great great grandfather was born March 9, 1794 in Pendleton District South Carolina. His ancestors came from Ireland to S.C. in 1792. He was orphaned at age 3 and his uncle raised him in Nashville, Tennessee.  

In this short excerpt, two myths appear:

Myth #1 -  the family "came from Ireland to S. C. in 1792." They did not. See William Steel Reeves' lineage in the ancestry tree: Reliques of the Rives -- Group 8 DNA.

Myth #2 -- "he was orphaned at age 3 and his uncle raised him in Nashville, Tennessee." This is not true either. His mother died when he was very young, but his father George Reeves Jr remarried quickly to Mary O'Barr while still living in Pendleton, South Carolina." The family later moved to middle Tennessee where William is found in the 1820 census of Hickman County.

Sadly this book is found in libraries all over the country and continues to serve to perpetuate these myths. It never seems to work to put too much faith in genealogy books as so many rely on family lore and unfounded conjecture rather than research and documentary evidence. You must still verify, verify, and verify again.

The Reeves of Christian County, Kentucky: Part 1

The history of Christian County as published in The County of Christian, Kentucky - Historical & Biographical edited by William H. Perrin in 1884 lists Brewer Reeves as one of the earliest settlers to that county. In fact, the act creating Christian County which was passed in 1796 and took effect on the 1st of March 1797 provided “that the Justices to be named in the commission of the peace for said county” should meet at the house of Brewer Reeves and organize for business. Three weeks after the act became effective, they met, Brewer Reeves, Jacob Barnett, Moses Shelby, Hugh Knox and Jonathan Logan constituting the court and began to transact the business of the new county.

Brewer Reeves is believed to have been the son (correction - brother, see update below) of Thomas Reeves, Jr. of Augusta and Rockingham counties of Virginia where Brewer is found in the court, tax, and deed records prior to his arrival in Kentucky in the mid 1790's. Brewer died within a few years of migrating to Kentucky and his estate was entered for probate in Christian County in November of 1799. Mrs. Martha Reeves and their children remained there and Brewer's descendants continued to be actively involved in Christian County affairs where their son Benjamin, after serving in the War of 1812, became a state senator in 1812, 1814 and 1817.

Another Brewer Reeves immigrated from Augusta County, Virginia before 1830. This second Brewer was the son of the elder Brewer Reeves' nephew William. William's older brother John had also migrated to Christian County where he had married Lucretia Dunkerson in 1819.

In 1820, Todd County was formed from Christian and Logan Counties, thereafter the descendants of this Reeves family could be found in both counties.

Benjamin H. Reeves had moved to the Territory of Missouri in 1818 after his terms in the state senate. In 1821 he was elected a Delegate from the Missouri county of Howard to assist in framing a Constitution for that State, and was, a few years thereafter, elected Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri. In 1826 he was appointed by the Government of the United States a Commissioner to survey and mark out a road from Missouri to the Spanish provinces in a direction to Santa Fe. Returning from Missouri in 1836, he settled in the recently created Todd County.

The descendants of this family continued to be politically active. Brewer Reeves' son Willis Long Reeves was for many years clerk of the Todd County Court and a grandson Crittenden Reeves, son of Benjamin, was elected to the Kentucky Legislature. Brewer's grandson Reuben A. Reeves, the son of Ottway Curry Reeves, married and moved to Palestine, Anderson County, Texas where he practiced law and in August 1864 was elected associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Another grandson, Willis Long Reeves, Jr. was a judge of the Todd County Court of Appeals at the turn of the 20th century.

In Part 2 of this series I'll present the limited information available on what may be another Reeves family, or possibly two more Reeves families. The family of James Reeves seems to have migrated into Kentucky from South Carolina while there is no definite known origin of William Reeves with wife Susan Hunter.


Update: Rather than being the son of Thomas Reeves, Jr., it appears that Brewer Reeves was his brother based upon several suits in the Augusta County, Virginia Chancery records. In the suit Sevier vs. Thomas Reeves concerning 304 acres in Augusta County purchased in 1769, Brewer Reeves is named as the brother of Thomas Reeves. In another 1770 Augusta County Chancery action, Herndon vs. Thomas Reeves, a statement by Brewer Reeves mentions living in Thomas Reeves' home so it may be possible that Brewer was much younger. Thomas Reeves, Jr. with wife Sarah, formerly of Spotsylvania County, was the son of Thomas Reeves, Sr. who died in Spotsylvania County in 1760. Thomas Reeves, Sr. was the son of Henry Reeves, Jr. of Essex County. George Reeves named his nephew Thomas Reeves, Jr. as well as nephews George, Henry and John Reeves, all sons of Thomas Reeves, Sr. in his 1754 will, but did not mention Brewer.

Bass Reeves, U S Marshal

I was researching the novel True Grit by Charles Portis for a book club presentation, when I started reading articles about real U S Marshals who served when Judge Parker and the Western District of Arkansas had jurisdiction over Indian Territory in the 1870s and 1880s. In one of my google searches, the name Bass Reeves caught my eye. Bass Reeves could have been a prototype for Rooster Cogburn. At 6'2" and 180 pounds, he could shoot a pistol with either hand. 

He populated the Fort Smith federal jail with the desperate criminals he captured, including the notorious Seminole Greenleaf, who was on the lam for eighteen years. Once tried for shooting his trail cook, Bass Reeves was acquitted and went on to bust up a horse stealing ring, capturing 19 horse thieves at one time.  During his 32 years as a federal peace officer, he arrested more than 3000 felons and shot and killed fourteen outlaws in defending his life while making arrests. Bass Reeves was one of the first African-Americans (perhaps the first) to receive a commission as a Deputy U S Marshal west of the Mississippi River. 

He was born a slave in 1838 in Crawford County, Arkansas. Moving to Grayson County, Texas in 1846 with his owners, the William Steel Reeves family.  Bass Reeves ultimately became a fugitive slave, taking refuge amongst the Creeks and Seminoles in Indian Territory. After the civil war he returned to Crawford County with a wife and several children where he farmed and served as a scout and guide for U S Marshals going into Indian Territory. In 1875, he was hired by the Parker court in Fort Smith as a commissioned deputy U S Marshal. 

Read more about Bass Reeves at: The Encyclopedia of Arkansas Bass Reeves - Wikipedia Or if you wish, watch a movie made about his life: Bass Reeves at IMdb

Connie Reeves, Cowgirl

Connie Douglas Reeves (September 26, 1901- August 16, 2003) was the oldest member of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, and one of the first women to study law at a Texas law school.

Connie Reeves was also the aunt of Reeves researcher Gerald Witt who submits this highly entertaining story of her:

My written word can not possibly capture the humor and excitement Connie always showed when she told this story. She had a hoarse raspy voice and as far as I know she never had a cigarette in her life. She was always full of laughter; I’m sure she had her down days, but I never witnessed one.

Let me set the scene. Connie was the only daughter of a Judge in Eagle Pass, TX. I believe he was a District Judge. She graduated from Eagle Pass High School and then went to Texas Woman’s University and later to University of Texas law school, one of the first women to enroll there. The Great Depression ended all of that.

In the mean time Connie’s parents moved from Eagle Pass to San Antonio. After college she moved to San Antonio and lived with her parents while she taught at Thomas Jefferson High School and formed the school’s “Lasso” girls drill team. In 1936 she joined Camp Waldmar as a riding instructor and on 4 Oct 1941 she married a wrangler named Jack Reeves. But, what she married into was much more involved than teaching “little rich girls” how to ride a horse. The owner of Waldmar was a man named Josh Johnson (not Lyndon as you find on many websites). Josh also owned a rodeo production company and a ranch in Junction, TX. This was a working ranch and this is where Jack and Connie lived for 9 months of the year. I don’t know the exact acreage, but it was in the 5000+ range. They raised cattle and pastured the horses used at the camp, but mainly the ranch was a sheep and goat operation. They literally had thousands of each.

You could not find two more culturally opposite people than Jack and Connie. Connie was the only child of a lawyer. And came from the Alamo Heights area of San Antonio. Alamo Heights is to San Antonio, what Highland Park is to Dallas and River Oaks is to Houston. On the other hand, Jack Reeves grew up with six sisters under foot, no electricity and no running water. Jack and my mother rode a donkey to school and neither graduated from high school.

Now to the point of my story---Jack and Connie had only been married a short time and they were living on the ranch in Junction. Within days after a lamb is born the males are castrated and the tails are cut off all the lambs. The simplest way to count the lambs in the herd is to count the tails.

Picture this-Connie is sitting on the dusty ground counting bloody lamb tails, when her mother and one of her San Antonio neighbors drives up. Junction is about 90 miles from San Antonio and this visit was totally unexpected. Her mother was disgusted with Connie’s new life style. This was not good enough for her daughter. Connie would tell this story and then say in her gravelly voice, “She never came back to see us without calling ahead.”

Mrs. Douglas ended up loving Jack Reeves. She spent the last five years of her life living with them and died in Junction.

Connie Douglas Reeves was elected to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1997, and rode in the parade to honor the Hall when it moved to new headquarters in Fort Worth in 2002. She was over 100 years old at the time.

Picture courtesy of Humanities Texas.

Read Connie's obituary in the New York Times. See a video of her at the Cowgirl website.

The Robertson Bible

One Reeves researcher hit a brick wall in his Reeves research that lasted twenty-one years until, during a 1996 visit to the Tennessee archives, he discovered the James Robertson Family Bible. Prior to that discovery, he had traced his Reeves line to probable ancestor John Reeves in Tishomingo, Mississippi. He had also connected John to his brother William Steel Reeves and had photographed William's tombstone in the Georgetown Cemetery in Texas.

When he saw the Robertson bible’s hand-written family birth records, suddenly he knew he had made a huge breakthrough. Therein he found the birth of William Steel Reeves recorded with the exact same birth date as the tombstone in Texas. Along with William’s birth, he found the birth records of William’s siblings: John (his ancestor), Thomas, Betsey, and Dorinda. William’s birth was actually recorded twice, the first entry identifying his father as George Reeves.


The researcher, Gerald, soon figured out who James Robertson was as well as his wife Charlotte Reeves Robertson. James Robertson, revered in Tennessee as the father of middle Tennessee and co-founder of Nashville, married Charlotte Reeves, sister of Gerald’s ancestor George Reeves Jr (and my ancestor Jordan Reeves) and heroine of the Battle of the Bluffs.

Over a period of years, working with other researchers, and with the help of DNA testing, this discovery led to many more breakthroughs and definitively identified this Reeves family as belonging to the Rives family of Reliques of the Rives, by James Rives Childs.

In addition to the children of George Reeves Jr and the children of James and Charlotte Reeves Robertson, the bible also contains records of numerous nieces and nephews of James and Charlotte.

For more information about the Robertson Bible, see this link. Reliques of the Rives is available on ancestry.com