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Reeves, Asa (c1813 OH - 1897 IN)

Reeves, Asa

Family of George Reeve  »  Reeves, George  »  Reeves, Asa  »  Reeves, William  »  Reeves, Asa

Reeves, Asa


Summary

Father: William Reeves
Mother: Catherine Brown

Birth: c1813-1815, Brown County, Ohio
Birth Source: Census

Death: 31 Aug 1897, Brown County, Indiana
Death Source: Undocumented. Find A Grave memorial for Mount Zion Cemetery, Van Buren Township, Brown County, Indiana indicates that he is buried there in an unmarked grave but there is nothing to document.

Spouse1: Lucinda Joslen, m. 19 June 1834, Brown County, Ohio
Spouse2: Sarah Deaver, m. 20 Nov 1875, Brown County, Indiana

Narrative

Children of Asa Reeves and Lucinda Joslen:
  1. William M. C. Reeves, 1835
  2. Nancy J. Reeves, b. 1838
  3. James Albert Reeves, b. 20 Dec 1841
  4. Eli M. Reeves, b. 1844
  5. Elisabeth A. Reeves, b. 1846
  6. John M. Reeves, b. 1848
  7. Elisa Reeves, b. 1849
  8. Amanda Reeves, b. 10 Jan 1851
  9. Charles W. Reeves, b. 1852
  10. Thomas H. Reeves, b. 1854
  11. Alvin Newton Reeves, b. 16 Sep 1856
  12. George B. Reeves, b. 1859

Although no probate documents have currently been found for William Reeves, Sr., the following are the bases for believing that Asa was a son of William and Ellinor:
  • Brown County OH marriage records (FamilySearch, Ohio, County Marriages 1789-1994) indicate that Asa Reeves married Lucinda Joslen on 19 Jun 1834.
  • As noted in the justification for John T. Reeves, there were only a few Reeves families in Brown County in 1830. Even by 1834 only William Sr and the deceased Eli Sr were reasonable candidates for father of the groom. Although Eli Jr was presumably old enough to have a son of marriageable age, he was late to marry (first marriage believed to have occurred between 1826 and 1818). Eli Sr. did have a son Asa, but in 1830 he was already a head of household in Byrd Twp, Brown Co OH, where he was living with his wife Rebecca and several young children. Asa and Rebecca would migrate to Rush County IN by 1840, and in the 1850 census for Rush Co, Rebecca was still listed as his wife. That leaves William Sr as the logical choice for the father of the Asa who married Lucinda Joslen.
  • William Reeves Sr’s census listing in 1820 included two males <10 years of age. I have advanced the hypothesis that one of them was John T. The second may have been Asa. In 1830 this male was still in William Sr’s household — aged 15-19 (thus establishing his birth year as sometime between 1810 and 1815).
  • In 1840 Asa was a head of household in Brown County OH, where he was listed with his wife and three children in Scott Twp.
  • Sometime between 1847 and 1849, the family migrated to Brown County IN, where Asa lived for the remainder of his life. (The 1850 census for Brown County IN includes son John M with OH as place of birth in ~1847-8, and daughter Elisa with IN as place of birth in ~1848-9, thereby establishing the period during which the family migrated to IN.) The oldest child listed in the 1850 census was a son named William, thus establishing the possibility that he descended from a man named William. That census indicated that Asa was 36 years old (b ~1813-14) and born in Ohio. The family continued to be listed in Brown Co IN in censuses for 1860 and 1870.
  • Unsourced family trees at Ancestry.com indicate that Lucinda died on 6 Oct 1875. Less than 2 months later, on 20 Nov 1875, Asa married again — his new wife a woman named Sarah Deaver. (Public trees at Ancestry.com indicate that Sarah was born Sarah Ann Hanna and at the time of marriage to Asa Reeves was the widow of John Deaver; no source information provided). Asa and Sarah were listed together in the 1880 census. Asa’s 1880 census listing indicated that his father was born in eastern Virginia, the known birthplace of William Reeves Sr. Asa’s mother’s birthplace was left blank, thus — arguably — creating a link to John T Reeves’ mother’s “exotic” place of birth. (One would assume that — given what was entered for parents’ places of birth — it was Asa who was doing the reporting to the census-taker. He was familiar enough with his father’s birthplace to report not just that it was Virginia, but eastern Virginia. He had no clue where his new wife’s parents were born. And he was similarly sketchy about the birthplace of his own mother. It was far away; perhaps he even knew it was foreign; but he didn’t remember, or perhaps had never known, exactly where.)

Research Notes

Asa: born ~1813-15 (per census listings for 1850-1880); died 31 Aug 1897, per Find-a-Grave memorial associated with the Mount Zion Cemetery, Van Buren Twp, Brown Co IN (However, the memorial indicates that the grave is unmarked, and there is no indication of the source of information about the date of death.)
Lucinda: b ~1816-17 (per census listings for 1850-1870); d 6 Oct 1875 (per public trees at Ancestry.com
Sarah: b ~ 1832-3 (per 1880 census); d unknown

Note: Research by TRP members Lois Downey and Anne McDonald.


Sources

Marriage1:  FamilySearch - Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2016
Marriage2:  FamilySearch - Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019

1820 Census:  Brown County, Ohio
1830 Census:  Brown County, Ohio
1840 Census:  Scott Township, Brown County, Ohio
1850 Census:  Brown County, Indiana
1860 Census:  Brown County, Indiana
1870 Census:  Brown County, Indiana
1880 Census:  Brown County, Indiana