Reeve, Mark

Summary

Father: Mark Reeve
Mother: Hannah Foster

Birth: 30 Aug 1765
Birth Source: Rahway and Plainfield Monthly Meetings

Death:
Death Source:

Spouse1: Hannah Whitall, m. 23 Oct 1795, Gloucester, New Jersey

Narrative

Children of Mark Reeve and Hannah Whitall:

1. Job Reeve, b. 1 Sep 1796, d. 15 Jul 1797
2. Casper Reeve, b. 3 Jan 1798, d. 20 Oct 1829
3. Robert Reeve, b. 1 Jul 1799
4. Job Whitall Reeve, b. 30 Dec 1800
5. Clayton Reeve, b. 12 Nov 1802
6. Hannah Ann Reeve, b. 31 Mar 1806
7. Sarah Whitall Reeve, b. 22 Feb 1808
8. Rebecca Reeve, b. 9 Nov c1826?, m. Dr. John Scott
9. Franklin Reeve, b. 9 Nov 1811, d. 25 Nov 1811

Marriage Intention published in the Woodbury Monthly Meeting Minutes states that Mark's father's name was also Mark and that he was deceased. Hannah was the daughter of Job Whitall.

Quaker Births and Burial records note that Casper and all the children younger than him (except Franklin) removed to New Hope, Tennessee. Casper, Robert, and Job in 1819, and the others later. Mark is listed as disowned.

Mark Reeves apparently ran a business, Mark Reeves and Sons, in Carter County, Tennessee. Several deeds indicate the above named Robert, Whitall, and Clayton were his sons and business partners (DB E, p175).

He is listed in the 1840 census, but seems to have disappeared by 1850.

The following excerpt from the biography of grandson Mark holds details on the life of Mark 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:         Union County, New Jersey, Rahway and Plainfield Monthly Meetings, Births and Deaths, 1686-1798 (Ancestry)
Marriage: New Jersey, Marriages, 1670-1980 (FamilySearch)
                   Minutes of the Woodbury Monthly Meetings, Gloucester County, New Jersey, 15 Sep 1795
History:    1835 Relinquishment - Mark Reeves et al to James White - Carter County, Tennessee Deed Book E, p175
                   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
                   Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Arch Street, Births and Burials, 1693-1871,
Census:    1840 Census - Carter County, Tennessee