Reeves, Manassah

Summary

Father: Puryer Reeve
Mother: Mary Fordham

Birth: 16 Feb 1796, Connecticut
Birth Source: Headstone

Death: 29 Aug 1868, near Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa
Death Source: Headstone

Spouse1: Esther
Spouse2: Hester (Hathaway), m. 9 Oct 1864, Buchanan County, Iowa

Narrative

Children of Manassah Reeve and Esther:

1. Clara Reeves, m. Mr. Stowell
2. Mahatible Reeves, m. Mr. Robbins
3. Ozias Reeves
4. Benjamin Marvin Reeves, b. 21 Feb 1825
5. Alvina Reeves, b. c1831, m. Mr. Harmon
6. Norman Reeves, b. c1833
7. William Reeves, b. c1837

Manassah and later his widow tried to receive a pension for his service in the War of 1812. However it was rendered invalid.

The Courier, 10 Sep 1868
Suicide of Manasseh Reeves
On Saturday last Mr. Manassah Reeves, an old citizen of Buchanan County, residing about three miles northeast of Independence, Iowa, committed suicide by hanging. The evening before, the deceased had been in better than usual spirits---his wheat crop had turned out well, and was selling for several cents per bushel more than he anticipated. He loaded his wagon with wheat to take to town the next morning, intending to get an early start and do a heavy day's work next day.
The next morning at early dawn he arose and left the house. He did not appear at breakfast, but his absence occasioned no alarm, as it was supposed he had failed to find his oxen. Not making his appearance at dinner (noon), search was instituted, and between three and four o’clock his body was found suspended to a small poplar tree in a little grove about half a mile from the house, but on the other side of the road. On leaving the house in the morning he had, with common drawing knife, cut off some three feet from a clothesline in the door yard, with which he had committed the fatal act.
Mr. Reeves was about seventy or seventy-five years of age, and universally respected. He is, if we are correctly informed, a native of New York State, but removed to Buchanan County about sixteen years ago. From there he went to Waverly, Bremer County, where he lived several years, but returned to his old farm, which had never passed out of his possession, two or three years ago. Shortly before, he had married a second time, a Mrs. Hathaway, with whom he lived happily and affectionately till the day of his death.
He leaves seven children, four sons, Ozias, Marvin, Norman and William, who reside in or near Waverly, and three daughters, two of whom Mrs. Alzina Harmon Mrs. Clara Stowell, reside at Waverly, and one, Mrs. Mahatible Robbins, at Manchester, Iowa.
The deceased was in good circumstances, owning a farm of 160 acres of prairie land and 80 acres of timber, within three miles of Independence, and other property, the whole amounting to some eight or ten thousand dollars.
The cause of this fatal act cannot now be definitely ascertained. Suffice it to say, the relations between himself and wife were known to be such as to preclude the idea of any difficulty between them being the cause of his suicide. Mr. Reeves is well known to have been a man of sensitive and somewhat variable temperament; having always been a hard working man, but whose constitution was new breaking up, the most plausible theory seems to be that amid the perplexities of business, which he was becoming to discover he could not carry on as he once could, in one of his moody despondent seasons he came to the conclusion that he had outlived his usefulness and so ended a life that he had deemed henceforth would be a burden to others and a weariness to himself.

Research Notes

Sources

Marriage1:  FamilySearch - Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934
Death:        Headstone - Harlington Cemetery, Waverly, Bremer County, Iowa
                   The Courier, 10 Sep 1868

1840 Census:  Sempronius, Cayuga County, New York
1850 Census:  Sempronius, Cayuga County, New York
1860 Census:  Washington, Bremer County, Iowa

War of 1812 Pension Record, Manassah Reeve