More Myth Bustin' - Mrs. Harriet E. Bedingfield

John T. Reeves son of Jeremiah Reeves and Jane Brazile is said to have married widow Mrs. Harriet E. Bedingfield on the 6th of December 1812 in Baldwin County, Georgia according to page 92 of The Reeves Review II. As a result countless Reeves' descendants have copied this incorrect marriage to their family trees and list Harriet Elizabeth Bedingfield as the mother of John T. Reeves' children.

A more accurate narrative of Harriet E. Bedingfield's story begins with a marriage record for Harriet Eliza Hargrove's marriage to John Bedingfield on 27th of May 1807 in Richmond County, Georgia. By the 7th of January 1811, John Bedingfield was deceased and his will was presented for probate in Baldwin County, Georgia. That abstracted will is as follows:

Will of JOHN BEDINGFIELD of Baldwin and Richmond Co.'s, 10/5/1810:1/7/1811, Wife: mentioned, not named. Exrs: Wife, and George R. Clayton. Son: John. Niece: Harriett Pegram Fox, dau. of Colonel James Fox, decd. Testator to be buried in St. Paul's Churchyard near son, John. Wits: F. Walker, Thomas Watkins, Robert Watkins, Vas Walker. Baldwin Co. WB A p. 31

The next year, Harriet married John T. Rives, son of Timothy Rives of Richland County, South Carolina originally from Prince George County, Virginia. The Georgia Journal of Baldwin County, Georgia published this notice - 23 Dec 1812 - Turner Reeves of Washington Co. married to Harriet Bedingfield of this place. After his marriage to Harriet, John T. Rives served as guardian for Harriet's son John Bedingfield.

Further proof that the husband of Mrs. Harriet Bedingfield was not the son of Jeremiah Reeves, is found in the 1820 Will of Timothy Rives of Richland County, South Carolina. The will recorded in Will Book G, page 180-183 includes the following:

Whereas there now unhapily exists a Suit and controversy either in Law or Equity in the County of Washington in the State of Georgia between Harriet Rives Widow & relect of my deceased son John Turner Rives as Administratrix of her Said deceased husband Plaintiff and my son Thomas Rives (who is in this suit acting as my agent) Defendant...

John Turner Rives died between 1816 when he was recorded as the guardian of John Bedingfield, Jr. in Baldwin County and the 5th of February, 1820 when his father Timothy wrote his will. Harriet Hargrove Bedingfield Rives had lost two husbands in less than a decade and by August of 1828 was deceased when her own estate was probated in the records of Baldwin County.

John T. Reeves, son of Jeremiah and Jane Brazile Reeves, married an Elizabeth, born circa 1797, whose maiden name is still unknown sometime around 1810. They are recorded in Jasper and Muscogee counties in Georgia but by 1860 are listed in the census of that year in Gadsden County, Florida and were still there in 1870. Based upon all the documentation presented here, it is completely impossible for Harriet E. Bedingfield to have been the wife of this John T. Reeves as proposed by The Reeves Review.

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Thanks so much to Reeves' researcher Joan Chase who found the will of Timothy Rives of Richland SC while searching for her Thomas Reeves and let me know that Harriet had been mentioned in the will as the widow of his son John Turner Rives.

The Wayfarer - William Reeves of Ashe County

William, the son of George Reeves of Grayson County, Virginia, and most of his children left Ashe County, North Carolina shortly after 1820. Based upon estimates of his age from census, he would have been around 55 years old at the time. He was a justice of the Ashe County court and appears to have been prominent in the community, but for whatever reason, he left North Carolina and ventured to the new state of Indiana. By 1822, William was listed on the Lawrence County, Indiana poll tax list. Once William left North Carolina and began to migrate westward, he seems never to have stopped moving.

1829 Indiana Land Grant
to William Reves

In the years preceding William's departure from the New River area of Virginia & North Carolina, his father had died in 1811 as well as his brother George Reeves, Jr. George Reeves, Jr. was killed by his brother-in-law William Tolliver, husband of sister Susanna Reeves. The trial was held in Wilkes County and there are various theories but the actual cause of the incident still remains unknown. Beginning around 1813, there was another court case, Landreth vs. Reves, which continued over a lengthy period with documents in the court records as late as 1822 in regard to it. There are numerous documents in the Ashe County Civil Action Court files regarding this case although there is no clear explanation of the events that precipitated the court case. From various documents, John Landreth states that he had been accused of perjury by William Reves although there is no exact explanation of the nature of the accusation. It would appear from these documents that the entire extended Reeves' family, even William's wife Anne Terrell Reeves, became involved in a fracas which resulted in the issuance of a summons. Oddly, members of both the Tolliver and Landreth families also migrated to the same area of Indiana in the 1820's.

1816 Bond by William Reves and
Allen Burton for John and Ann Reves

Whether the unpleasantness of the death of his father, the murder of his brother or the Landreth court case played a role in William Reeves' decision to leave Ashe County is unknown, but following these events, the family began the first of their migrations. They settled in the area of Greene & Lawrence Counties where they remained until sometime before 1840 when they are found in the census of Carroll County, Arkansas.

From: History of Greene County, Indiana, pub. 1870 by J. Ward, Worthington, Indiana - As taken from the official records, and compiled from authentic recollections by pioneer settlers. Chapter XV - Beech Creek Township: Among other pioneers whose name deserves a place in the history of the township, may be mentioned...William and Noah Reeves...Pg 47 - William Reeves and his boys first settled the farm now owned by Edward Walker.

Between Indiana and Arkansas, the Reeves' family must have spent some time in Missouri probably in the area of Washington County. William's son Albert married there in 1837. Lenoir (Noah) Reeves was also living in Missouri briefly for several of his children were born there before he ventured briefly to Arkansas, Iowa and Nebraska then eventually to Oregon, dying there in 1888. Both Albert and Timothy settled in the area of Iron and Butler Counties in Missouri.

Missouri Reeves Emmons
daughter of Timothy Reeves

By the Census of 1840 for Carroll County, Arkansas, William along with his sons John, Terrel and Gaston Reeves are listed. The 1840 tax list for Carroll County lists Lenoir, William, Terrel and John Reeves. They, along with Gaston, are also listed in the 1841 tax lists for Carroll County. Located near the headwaters of the Buffalo River in Van Buren Township in Carroll County there is a Reeves' Creek which is said to have been named for this Reeves' family.

The 1841 tax list appears to be the last historical record of William Reeves. Several family trees list a date of death of 1854 in Missouri but no documentation can be found in support of that theory. It is likely that William, and his wife Anne as well, died in Carroll County between 1840 and 1850 when most of his sons are found in the census of Independence County, Arkansas.

Descendants of William Reeves' brothers Jesse and John have participated in the Reeves DNA Project and been placed in Group 6. A descendant of George Reeves, Jr.'s son Enoch, also a participant in the Reeves DNA Project, has been placed in Group 14 with a descendant of George Reeves whose paternity is currently unknown but may be the son of Jesse. Whether these are NPEs (non paternity events) is unknown and more extensive research is needed to resolve this mystery. Hopefully at some future time, descendants of William Reeves will participate in DNA studies, either Y Chromosome DNA or the new autosomal DNA projects that are now available and help to clarify this lineage.

Other posts in this blog pertaining to the family of George Reeves of Grayson County, Virginia:

George Reeves of Grayson County, Virginia
Who really are the descendants of Henry Reeves?
Col. Timothy Reeves, CSA
The Reeves' Gang
Episode 2 - More of the Reeves Gang
Pewter John Reeves Stamper

Reeves' Migration to the Louisiana Purchase

The French had ceded the vast Louisiana territory that lay west of the Misssissippi River to Spain before it became the property of France again and was purchased by the United States in 1803. The French had made few settlements in Louisiana, primarily establishing trading posts from which trappers and hunters explored the wilderness. Spanish authorities, however, encouraged migration. They offered land grants to all who could prove they had cleared and improved the land with the intention of making permanent settlement.

This migration was accelerated by the arrival of Daniel Boone in Missouri in 1795. He established a claim in St. Charles county and within a few years signed an agreement with the Spanish authorities to bring one hundred families from Kentucky and Virginia to Upper Louisiana.

John Reeves, Revolutionary War soldier, who was subject of a previous post left South Carolina within a few years of his 1796 marriage to Rachel Barnes and was present in the area south of the Missouri River that became Madison County, Missouri by around 1801. On 26 Dec 1833, he gave a statement in regard to the land claim of Benjamin Pettit, Jr. where he was recorded as saying that he was well acquainted with Benjamin Pettit, Jr. the original claimant; that he (Benjamin Pettit, Jr.) came to this country, then the province of Upper Louisiana, in the year 1802 or 1803. John Reeves is also documented as making a statement that in 1804 on account of the Osage Indians, the inhabitants were driven together for a common defense, and that they raised a common crop in that year.

In the course of recent research of the Reeves of Patrick County, Virginia, I found that after the removal of all that family from Virginia around 1820, two of the presumed sons of George Reeves of Patrick County, had migrated to Missouri after leaving Virginia. Thomas Reeves and his brother Josiah were present in Franklin County, Missouri shortly after leaving Virginia.

The State Historical Society of Missouri gives the following information regarding the Harrison-Reeves Bloomery in Crawford County: Thicketty Creek, in the northeastern part of the county close to the Washington County line, three miles south of Bourbon. It is the second earliest record of the mining and smelting of iron ore in Missouri. It was probably erected in 1819 or 1820 by William Harrison, one of the earliest settlers of Crawford County, and Josiah Reeves, with Thomas Reeves as forgeman. Early bloomeries in Missouri usually consisted of a forge which resembled a smith's forge and a furnace. This crude furnace, known as Harrison's Furnace, Harrison's Forge, Harrison's Bloomery, or Harrison's Iron Works, continued in operation for several years.

Around the same time the Reeves of Patrick County settled in Franklin and Crawford Counties, two of the sons of Samuel Reeves of Rowan County left North Carolina and by 1830 were recorded in the census of St. Francois County, Missouri. Bennet Abner Reeves and his brother William were then listed in the 1840 census of Cape Girardeau, County. The Bureau of Land Management issued land warrant #2707 for 40 acres in Cape Girardeau County on 20 Jan 1827 to Bennet A. Reeves as well as another warrant #5740 for 40 acres in the same county on 1 Aug 1838.

In Crawford County by 1840, Josiah Reeves and his descendants were joined by Jesse Jefferson Reeves of Buncombe County, North Carolina, who was probably a son of James Reeves. Jesse J. Reeves' sisters, Mary and Sarah, who had married into the Eaton family, also migrated to the area of Missouri south of the Missouri River.

Reeves' families were not only settling in the Missouri River area of the Louisiana Purchase, others like Jordan Reeves were migrating across the Mississippi River into Arkansas. Jordan had settled in Independence County, Arkansas by 1825 and numerous other Reeves' families followed within a very few years.

Middle Tennessee: 18th Century Melting Pot

The stories of Tennessee’s earliest white settlers are well known such as the attacks by native Americans on the first stations or forts built in the Cumberland settlements. After the revolution, North Carolina soldiers were given bounty land grants along the Cumberland River in Tennessee while grants to soldiers of the Virginia line were just to the north in Logan County, Kentucky. Ramsey’s Annals of Tennessee written in 1853 chronicles the struggle to settle the early Cumberland settlements. James Robertson and his wife Charlotte Reeves are famously a part of that history. Charlotte is credited with saving Fort Nashborough by turning the hounds loose in order to distract the attacking Indians and allow the men time to return to the fort from the fields where they were working.

In the course of researching several Reeves’ families who migrated into Tennessee in the early part of the 19th century, I was surprised to find such a large influx of diverse families who were recorded there by the 1830 census.

The only Reeves’ individuals listed in the census of the Cumberland Settlements 1770 to 1790 (taken from various source documents found in the records of Sumner and Davidson counties) are Charlotte Reeves Robertson and a William Reeves who is presumably Charlotte’s brother. This William Reeves is listed as arriving with the Donelson flotilla and may have accompanied Charlotte as she and other wives made the perilous trip west in flatboats on the Cumberland River. If this was William Reeves the brother of Charlotte, he did not remain long for within a short time, he is again recorded in the Watauga settlement of North Carolina. It was approximately 20 years before Charlotte's brother William made a permanent move to Tennessee. Charlotte's nephew Jordan Reeves, Jr. is also recorded in Davidson County prior to 1800 and in tax lists of Wilson County between 1800 and 1810.


A Moses Reeves, listed as having been born in Virginia in 1768, married Sarah Gibson in Greene County on 5 Nov 1796 and is recorded on the tax lists in Blount County in 1800 and Greene County in 1805. Moses and his family remained in Greene County where he is listed as deceased on the 1850 Federal Census and Mortality Schedule. A William Reeves is also included on the 1805 Greene County tax lists. Two individuals descending from Moses and from William Reeves have participated in the Reeves DNA Project but their DNA does not match any of the other 14 groups currently identified. By the 1810 census, John Reeves and Hooker Reeves, both aged 26-44, are recorded in Wilson County. They were both also named as early settlers to Wilson County in Goodspeed’s history of that area.

The 1820 census records the surge of Reeves’ families who had migrated into middle Tennessee.

James, Jonathan, Reuben and William Reeves are listed in Hickman County. The DNA of descendants of several of these individuals confirm that they also descend from the Rives family of Surry County, Virginia from which Charlotte Reeves Robertson descends and have been placed in DNA Group 8.

In Perry County, just west of Hickman, George and John Reeves are found in the 1820 census living next door to each other. There also appears to be another John Reeves of the same approximate age living in Perry County in 1820.

Jeremiah Turner Reeves is recorded in the 1820 census of Wilson County. He was the son of George Reeves who had migrated to Tennessee from Patrick County, Virginia. George Reeves died in Wilson County in 1816 leaving a will naming Jeremiah and his sister Susannah. Other children of George Reeves have been identified from the marriage records of Patrick County.

In Franklin County, Avery Reeves a descendant of William Reeves of Granville, North Carolina, is found as early as the 1812 tax lists along with an Abner Reeves. Avery's lineage has been established by DNA of a descendant who is a participant in the Reeves DNA Project and placed in Group 3. Maulden Reeves, son of Burgess Reeves of Pendleton County, South Carolina, is found there in deed records by 1818 and recorded in the 1820 census in addition to an unidentified Edward Reeves. Maulden also descends from William Reeves of Granville NC.

William Reeves who was living in Smith County by 1820 gave a deposition for the revolutionary war pension application of his brother, Daniel Reeves of Davidson County. William’s son John is also listed in the 1820 census of Smith County. According to Daniel’s revolutionary war pension statement their father was a John Reeves of South Carolina, probably living in Lancaster County. This family appears to be descended from the Reeves family of Prince William County, Virginia although more participants are needed in the Reeves DNA Project to definitely confirm the lineage.

The flood gates had opened by 1830 and within the next few years the Reeves living in Tennessee are too numerous to mention here. In addition to the families already mentioned, they included descendants of Isaac Reeves, Sr. of Wilkes County, North Carolina living in Wayne County, Willis Reeves and his children of Orange County, North Carolina were in Fayette County, and descendants of Edward Reeves of Bladen County, North Carolina are recorded in Washington County along with countless other Reeves' families throughout Tennessee.