Reeves, Columbus Palestine
Summary
Father: Thomas ReevesMother: Martha Davis
Birth: 19 Dec 1830, North Carolina
Birth Source: Biography and 1850 Census Ray County, Missouri
Death: 18 Nov 1910, Suisun, Solano, California
Death Source:
Spouse1: Mary J. Redman, m. 1856 in Missouri
Narrative
Columbus Palestine Reeves was born in Charlottesville, N.C, December 19, 1830. His father, Rev. Thomas Reeves, removed with his family to Missouri when this son was a youth. The father was brilliant and blessed with ample means.
Columbus Reeves received a thorough education, the latter part of his collegiate course being spent at Masonic College, in Lexington, Missouri, where be was a schoolmate with Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). In 1861 Mr. Reeves went to California, but after a year he returned to Missouri on account of his father's impaired health. He was the youngest of eleven children. He engaged in the mercantile business successfully in St. Joseph, and in 1856 he married a daughter of Rev. W. W. Redman, after which he removed to Richmond, Mo.
He was among the first to answer General Price's call for troops, and entered the Confederate army as aid-de-camp to General Slack. He was taken prisoner in the battle of Springfield, but was subsequently released on parole. Aterwards he settled in Suisun, Cal., where he continued to reside until his death. For many years he was quite successful in business, during which time he did much for the upbuilding of Suisun.
Mr. Reeves was a man of strong personality and great sagacity, a generous and true friend, devoted to his family. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Mary J. Reeves, an adopted son, W. W. R. Reeves, grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.
In sending the above sketch Comrade J. P. Goodman states : "I am getting old and shaky and can't write it myself. You can get the facts from clipping. I am the only Confederate left in this town, yet there are quite a number of G. A. R.'s." It appears from Volume L., Serial No. 106, "War Records," that after Comrade Reeves went to California he was still engaged for the cause of Dixie Land. The President of the Suisun Union League wrote Brig. Gen. J. S. Mason, suspecting him as cooperating with James Gibson, "formerly a keDei (?) colonel," "organizing for purposes unknown to the League."