Reeves, John Wisdom

Summary

Father: Reeves, Charles
Mother: Wisdom, Lucy

Birth: 1804, Dartmouth, Halifax co., Nova Scotia
Birth Source: Newspaper death announcement

Death: 3 Aug 1865, Fall River, Halifax co., Nova Scotia
Death Source: Newspaper death announcement

Spouse1: Wisdom, Sophia King, m. 4 Dec 1825, Halifax County, Nova Scotia
Spouse2: Grant, Ann, m. 31 Mar 1842

Narrative

Children of John Wisdom Reeves and Sophia Wisdom:

1. Mary Reeves (1826-1836)
2. Henry N. Reeves (1834-1922)

Children of John Wisdom Reeves and Ann Grant:

1. Sophia E. Reeves, b. 28 Jun 1844
2. Lucy Ann Reeves, b. 1846
3. Alexander S. Reeves, (1850-1899)
4. Charles Reeves, b. 1853

John Wisdom Reeves was born to parents Charles & Lucy Reeves about 1804, in the Dartmouth area of Halifax county. He married Sophia King Wisdom in 1825. She died in 1835 leaving him with 5 children to raise. He re-married 7 years later in 1842 to Ann King in Chester, Lunenburg co., Nova Scotia.. He died in 1865 at the age of 61.(4)

He worked as a farmer when he was first married.(1) Other jobs he had were that of government surveyor, millwright and he even was called on for his medical expertise, although he had no formal medical training. He also had some legal training as he assisted with some of the local land transactions.

The marriage record of John and Sophia describes John as bachelor and a farmer. Sophia was a spinster. William H. Reeves was on the bond and both he and John W. Reeves were of Dartmouth.

From History Along The Old Guysborough Road:
"The Miller brothers married sisters, Lucy and Eliza Reeves of Porto Bello whose grandfather, Dr. Wm. Henry Reeves, was a surgeon who accompanied Lord Cornwallis at the founding of Halifax. Dr. Reeves is believed to have cut the first tree in the clearing of Citadel Hill. The Honorable Joseph Howe, a family friend of the Reeves family, was best man at Phillip and Lucy's wedding...

"Just beyond Miller's Dam lived John Reeves, a government surveyor, who built a home on the west side of Miller Lake in 1840. Later he was instrumental in the building of several more mills along Fall River. He did much of the legal work necessary in local land transactions and seems to have had a knowledge of medicine for he was often called upon in the absence of a doctor to administer to the sick. John Reeves was sincerely religious and read from the Bible daily. His daughter Sophia (Rafters) profited from this religious fervour for it has been said that she could recite some hundred verses from the Bible at the grand age of 87. Born in this religious atmosphere it appears only fitting that her son become a minister - Rev. John Wesley Rafter, Manchester, N.H., U.S.A."

Presbyterian Witness, 5 Aug 1865
On the 3rd inst., at Fall River, Guysboro' Road, after a long and severe illness, which he bore with patience and resignation to the Divine Will, Mr John W. Reeves, in the 62nd year of his age, leaving a widow and family to mourn the loss of a kind and affectionate husband and parent, New York and Yarmouth papers please copy.

Research Notes

Sources

Marriage1:  Nova Scotia Archives - Nova Scotia Births, Marriages, and Deaths
Death:        Obituary, Presbyterian Witness, 5 Aug 1865

(1). See Marriage1

(2). 1861 Canada Census for John W. Reaves family; location: Halifax county, Polling district 18

(3). History Along The Old Guysborough Road by M. Noreen E Gray & Annie A.(Blois) Smith, pub. 1987

(4). The Presbyterian Witness and Evangelical Advocate, Halifax, Nova Scotia; Sat. 5 Aug 1865, Vo. XVIII, no. 31, p.248; on microfilm # 8398 at Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia Archives - Birth of Sophia Reeves
History Along The Old Guysborough Road by M. Noreen E Gray & Annie A.(Blois) Smith