Reeve, Orval Lewis (aka Reeve, Pete)

Summary

Father: Reeve, William Urbin
Mother: Lewis, Edith May

Birth: 31 May 1904 in Wilson County, Kansas
Birth Source: U.S. World War II Draft Card

Death: 22 October 1961 in Wilson County, Kansas
Death Source: Obituary

Spouse1: Demorest, Osa Alva; m. 25 December 1923 in Polk County, Arkansas

Narrative

Orval Lewis Reeve was known as Pete to his family and friends. He was born in Wilson County, Kansas, but his family moved to Arkansas when he was about 8 years old. There he met and married his wife, Osa Alva Demorest, in 1923. Following the birth of their first child in 1925, Pete and Osa moved to a farm in Chetopa Township, Wilson County, Kansas (west of Thayer, Neosho County, Kansas). Pete died in 1961 of cancer and is buried in the Altoona Cemetery in Wilson County, Kansas. Osa relocated with their youngest children to near Denver, Colorado.

Pete and Osa had nine children. The following seven named children were deceased as of 2022.

1. Viola Marie Reeve b. 1925
2. Vera Lois Reeve b. 1928
3. Ivan Leon Reeve b. 1930
4. Leo Albert Reeve b. 1934
5. Lola Faye Reeve b. 1937
6. Gaylord Wayne Reeve b. 1941
7. May Elizabeth Reeve b. 1946
8. Daughter
9. Son

Research Notes

Following their marriage in 1923, Pete and Osa farmed on the Cossatot River in northwestern Arkansas. After the crops were harvested in the fall of 1925, they sold out and moved to Kansas, near where Pete's father was located. They traveled by train with their infant daughter, Viola. (Reeve, 1976. Page 51.)

Sources

Birth:          U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 (Ancestry.com)
Marriage1:  Arkansas, County Marriages, 1837-1957 (Familysearch.org)
Death:        Obituary; The Parsons Sun; publication date: 25 October 1961; place: Parsons, Kansas.
Burial:       Find-A-Grave Memorial #112350276; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/112350276/orval-l-reeve, accessed 7 June 2021.
                   
1910 Census:  Cedar, Wilson County, Kansas
1920 Census:  Duckett, Howard County, Arkansas
1930 Census:  Chetopa, Wilson County, Kansas
1940 Census:  Chetopa, Wilson County, Kansas

Reeve, Derral William. 1976. Reeve and Lamberton family history, part 1. Nevada, IA: Oak Park Academy Press. (Copy in library of Holly Witt.)