Reeves, Robert Lee Sr.

Summary

Father: William Harrison Reeves
Mother: Penelope B. White

Birth: 3 Sep 1865, Ballard County, Kentucky
Birth Source: Kentucky Death Certificate and Census

Death: 30 Nov 1951, McCracken County, Kentucky
Death Source: Kentucky Death Certificate

Spouse1: Anna Weil, m. c1890
Spouse2: Mary Belle VanLiere, m. c1912

Narrative

Child of Robert Lee Reeves and Anna Weil is:

1. Azalee Reeves, b. Aug 1893

Children of Robert Lee Reeves and Mary Belle VanLiere are:

1. Robert L. Reeves, b. 3 Jan 1913, d. 4 Jan 1913
2. Robert Lee Reeves, Jr., b. 1915
3. George Willis Reeves, Sr., b. 1918
4. Lucia VanLiere Reeves, b. 1920

Robert L. Reeves was prominent in Paducah, Kentucky both in business and local society. He was president of the Bank of Paducah and both he and his wife are frequently mentioned in the local newspaper at social functions.

In 1910, his wife Anna Weil Reeves became ill and died within a three week period of what was recorded as uremic poisoning. His only child, Asilee, also battled a serious illness in 1910 and died in 1911 at age 18.

Robert remarried in 1912 to his second wife, Mary Belle VanLiere.

Biography of Robert L. Reeves
Source: A History of Kentucky, Vol. 5
By William Elsey Connelley, Ellis Merton Coulter
Pub. 1922

Robert L. Reeves, president of the First National Bank of Paducah, is one of the dependable citizens and prominent men of this part of Kentucky, and a man whose influence is widespread. He was born in Ballard County, Kentucky, September 3, 1865, a son of William Harrison Reeves, and grandson of George Reeves, a farmer, who died in Warren County, Kentucky, before the birth of his grandson.

William Harrison Reeves was born in Warren County, Kentucky, in 1815, and he died in McCracken County, Kentucky, in 1888. He was reared in Warren County and there received his education. His marriage took place in Ballard. County, and he located there and developed into the most extensive farmer of that region, remaining there until 1881 when he moved to Paducah, and embarked in the tobacco warehouse business, in which he was engaged until his retirement a short time prior to his demise. A democrat, he took an active part in local affairs, and was elected sheriff of Ballard County. Fraternally he was a Mason. He was married to Penelope White, who was born in Ballard County, Kentucky, in 1826, and died in the same county in 1878. Their children to reach maturity were as follows: Ann Elizabeth, who is now deceased; George W., was an attorney, served in the Kentucky Senate as a member from the First District, moved to Montana where he became judge of the District Court at Missoula, and was a candidate for governor of Montana, and is now deceased, having passed away in Montana; Josephine, who is the widow of William J. Puckett, who was connected in an official capacity with the United States Government at Denver, Colorado, where she is now residing; Martha Harriet, who is deceased; William T., who was a prominent attorney of Ballard County, died at Blackfoot, Idaho; Emma, who is deceased; Fannie, who married Thomas H. Miller, a merchant of Denver. Colorado; and Robert L., whose name heads this review.

Robert L. Reeves attended the public schools of Ballard County and Paducah and then became a student of Clinton College of Clinton, Kentucky, leaving that institution for Old Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky. Coming to McCracken County, he read law, was admitted to the bar in 1878, and for eight years was engaged in a professional practice at Paducah. In 1895 he was made president of the First National Bank of Paducah, and still holds that important office. This bank was established in 1865, and is one of the oldest financial institutions in this part of the state. Mr. Reeves is a democrat. He resides near Twenty-eighth Street and Broadway, and owns suburban property and other realty.

In 1888, Mr. Reeves was first married at Paducah to Miss Annie Weil, a daughter of Jacob and Asilee Weil, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. Weil was a retired merchant of Paducah at the time of his death. Mrs. Reeves died in 1910, having borne her husband one daughter, Asilee, who died at the age of eighteen years. In 1913, Mr. Reeves was married to Miss Belle Van Liere at Kenosha, Wisconsin. She is a daughter of. Martin and Wilhelmina (Pieper) Van Liere, residents of a farm in the vicinity of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Reeves have three children: Robert L., Jr., who was born in 1914; George W., who was born in 1917; and Lucia, who was born in 1920.