Reeve, Job Whithall

Summary

Father: Mark Reeve
Mother: Hannah

Birth: 30 Dec 1800, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Birth Source: Headstone

Death: 18 July 1861
Death Source: Headstone

Spouse1: Hannah Garvin

Narrative

Children of Whitall Reeve and Hannah Garvin:

1. Sarah Reeve, b. c1850
2. Roxana Reeve, b. c1853
3. Martha Reeve, b. c1855
4. Mark A. Reeve, b. 21 Jan 1857
5. Eliza A. E. Reeve, c1859, m. Jesse E. Miles

1850 census puts birth around 1805, and the 1860 puts it about 1810. They also say he was born in New Jersey.

Headstone states he was the "Son of Mark & Hannah Reeve." This together with the unique name identify him as the same one mentioned previously of Carter County, Tennessee, where he was a business partner with his father.

From The Friend, v59:
Died, at the home of his parents, Jesse E. and Elisa A. E. Miles, near Americus, Lyon Co., Kansas, on the 21st of Third mo. 1855, Mark Whitall Miles, aged nearly four years, a grandson of the late J. Whitall Reeve.
At her home near Americus, Lyon Co., Kansas, Eliza A. E. Miles, wife of Jesse E. Miles, and daughter of Hannah L., and the late Job Whitall Reeve, on the 1st of Fifth mo. 1885, aged 26 years, 3 months and 17 days. She was o member of Fruitland Monthly Meeting.

The following excerpt from the biography of son Mark holds details on the life of Whitall and his family:

MARK A. REEVE. Although Mark A. Reeve cannot properly be classed as a pioneer in Stevens County, he preceded many others here, owns desirable property and is one of the leading business men of Hugoton. He identified himself with this county in 1906, entered and proved up a homestead six miles south of Moscow, the northeast quarter of section 34, township 32, range 36, after which he came to Hugoton, where he has been most active and successful in the building line.

Mark A. Reeve was born southeast of Knoxville, Tennessee, January 21, 1857. His parents were J. Whitall and Hannah (Garvin) Reeve. His paternal grandfather was Mark Reeve, who married Hannah Whitall, the Reeves and Whitalls, with the Claytons, Wistars and Coopers, being prominent families of English Quakers who settled in Pennsylvania in 1702. A number of children were born to Mark and Hannah Reeve, but no complete family record is at hand. J. Whitall, father of Mark A. Reeve, appears to have been the only member of that family to leave descendants. Two of his brothers and a sister, Robert, Clayton and Rebecca, joined a party bound for California in 1849, at Fort Scott, Kansas, and started on their way across Kansas. At some point west of Wichita Clayton Reeve was killed by the Indians and was buried on the bank of either the Arkansas or the Ninescah rivers. The survivors went on their way and reached California, in which state Robert met an accidental death in a mining blast. Rebecca subsequently married Dr. John Scott, and they settled on the present site of St. Clair, California.

Mark Reeve was a foundryman at Moorestown, New Jersey, at the time of his son J. Whitall's birth. He moved with his family to Tennessee during the days of General Jackson's popularity and lived there during Jackson's presidential term.

J. Whitall Reeve attended school in Pennsylvania, just across the state line from Moorestown, New Jersey. In 1832 he accompanied his parents to Eastern Tennessee. He was a pattern maker and foundryman, and for some years, with his brother, conducted a foundry in the hamlet of Unitia, and from that neighborhood, after selling their iron works, the brothers in 1849 migrated to Kansas. But J. Whitall went into the business of marble cutting for tombstones and continued as long as he remained in Tennessee. In the meanwhile he began to foresee the war cloud then gathering, and being a Quaker and a man of peace determined to seek a home for himself and family farther from probable war territory. In 1859, with an ox team, Mr. Reeve and his family began their journey to Kansas, and although they passed through what later was considered dangerous territory in Missouri, on account of the bushwackers, they were not molested and spent the first winter in that state at Springfield. They reached Toledo, Chase County, Kansas, in 1860. There Mr. Reeve made an effort to prove up a pre-emption, but met with dishonesty and lost his money. He went on into Lyon County and took up a claim near Americus, but did not survive long, his death occurring in 1862, at the age of sixty-seven years.

J. Whitall Reeve was married in Tennessee to Hannah Garvin, who was born in Tennessee and died near Americus, Kansas, in 1899, at the age of seventy-four years. Her father was William Garvin, a Tennessee farmer, whose family did not favor slavery, but nevertheless when the Civil war broke out allied themselves with the secessionists and some of Mrs. Reeve's brothers entered the Confederate army from Georgia. To the above marriage the following children were born: Catherine, who married Samuel Worthington, died at McLouth, Kansas, leaving eight children; Roxy, who died unmarried; Susie, who married Edwin Swartz, died at Americus, leaving six children; Mark A.; and Eliza A. E., who married Jesse Miles and died at Americus, survived by two children.

Sources

Birth:        Headstone, Cottonwood Cemetery, Emporia, Lyon County, Kansas
Death:      Headstone, Cottonwood Cemetery, Emporia, Lyon County, Kansas
Census:    1850 Census - Jefferson County, Tennessee
                   1860 Census - Chase County, Kansas
History:    The Friend, v59
                   A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka., 1919, p2193-2194