Reeves, John

Summary

Father: Unknown
Mother:

Birth: 1760, Frederick County, Virginia
Birth Source: Revolutionary War Pension Statement of 1833 R8684

Death: c 30 Apr 1834, Madison County, Missouri
Death Source: Statement of widow in RW pension file #R8684.

Spouse1: Rachel Barnes, m. 1796 in South Carolina

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Narrative

Children of John Reeves and Rachel Barnes:

1. Hiram Reeves, b. 1799
2. John Reeves, b. 1804
3. Isaac Reeves, b. c1811
4. Mary Reeves
5. Levina Reeves
6. Caswell Reeves, b. 1815

John Reeves pension statement given in 1833 concerning his revolutionary war service, states that he was born in Frederick County, Virginia in 1760. His father moved the family to Guilford County, North Carolina around 1765 when he was 5 years old. He stated that he joined the revolutionary forces in Burke County, North Carolina.

He married in South Carolina around 1796 and lived there for a few years before moving to Madison County, Missouri where he died in 1834 according to the statement of his wife, Rachel.

It appears that John Reeves settled in the area that became Madison County, Missouri when it was still part of French Louisiana before the Louisiana Purchase:

• John Reaves (1801), says in 1804 on account of the Osage Indians, the inhabitants were driven together for a common defense, and that they raised a common crop in that year...¹
• December 26, 1833 - And also came John Reaves, a witness, aged about 73 years, who, being also duly sworn as the law directs, deposeth and saith that he was well acquainted with Benjamin Pettit, jr. the original claimant; that he came to this country, then the province of Upper Louisiana, in the year 1802 or 1803. Witness also knows the land claimed, and knows that the claimant actually settled on the same in the spring of 1803; built a cabin on the land, in which he resided with his family...²

Sources

Revolutionary War Pension Record, John Reeves, R8684
¹A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union (Volume 1) by Louis Houck
²Missouri Land Claims - 1976 POLYANTHOS, New Orleans
pg 252 (Claim of Benjamin Pettit, Jr.)
1830 Census - Madison County, Missouri