Reeves, Thomas C.

Summary

Father: James Reeves
Mother: Deborah

Birth: 15 Dec 1813, Rowan County, North Carolina
Birth Source: Headstone, Biography

Death: 1896
Death Source: Headstone

Spouse1: Mary Jane Doolittle, m. Feb 1840
Spouse2: Caroline Jones, m. 20 Dec 1865, Peoria, Illinois

Narrative

Children of Thomas C. Reeves and Mary Jane Doolittle:

1. Mary V. Reeves, b. c1841
2. Margret Reeves, b. c1844
3. Lucy L. Reeves, b. c1847
4. Infant Reeves

Children of Thomas C. Reeves and Caroline Jones:

1. James T. Reeves, b. c1867

The book Atlas Map of Tazewell County contains a biography of Thomas C. Reeves as follows:

HON. THOMAS C. REEVES is a native of Rowan county, North Carolina. He was born December 15, 1813, and is the sixth of a family of twelve children of James and Deborah (Chum) Reeves. James Reeves was born near Saulsbury, Maryland, about the year 1780, of English parentage. After he grew to manhood he went to live in Rowan county, N. C. There he became acquainted with and was married (in 1806) to Miss Deborah Chum. Mr. Reeves' vocation was that of a farmer and teamster, which he carried on until the spring of 1815, when, with his family, he started, with teams, and traveled over the Cumberland mountains to middle Tennessee, and settled on Stone river, where he improved a large farm near the town of Murfreesboro. A large portion of his farm work was carried on by slave labor. As a business man he was successful. His farm comprised a tract of twenty-five hundred acres of land situated on the alluvial bottoms of Stone river. Not being desirous of raising his large family under the influence of slavery, he therefore determined to settle in a free state; so disposing of his property, he started for the prairies of Illinois, landing in Springfield December 25, 1829, with his family. They spent the winter in Sangamon county, and on the 3d of March following he made a permanent settlement in Tazewell county. He located on a tract of land situated on the Mackinaw creek, near what is known as "Wagenseller’s Bridge." He there improved a large farm. Two years after (in 1831) Mrs. Reeves died. Mr. Reeves and wife were both members of the Episcopal Church. After the death of his first wife, Mr. R. was married to Mrs. Mary Barker. His death occurred in the latter part of the spring of 1856.

Thomas C. Reeves, the subject of this sketch, received his early education in the schools of Tennessee, which at that time were rather meagre. He assisted in carrying on the farm until the death of his mother, after which he went to Springfield and became an apprentice to learn the carpenter trade, which business he followed about twenty-six years. In speaking of the hardships which the early settlers were forced to endure, we will mention the fact that in the fall of 1829, Mr. James Reeves lost all of his horses but two, fourteen having died with the milk sickness. In order to bring their fire-wood to the house they had to draw it on hand-sleds, and to crack their corn for bread they had to resort to the use of handmills. These are only a few of the innumerable hardships that Mr. Reeves and the other pioneers of those primitive times had to encounter. The Indians were still roaming over their hunting grounds on the Illinois river. Our space would not permit us to note the many incidents which yet linger fresh in the minds of the few old settlers of that period. Mr. T. C. Reeves also learned the millwright trade. In 1835 he returned from Springfield to Tazewell county, which has since been the arena of his career. In February, 1840, he was married to Miss Mary Jane, the only daughter of Benjamin M. Doolittle. By that union they had four children, one of whom died in infancy; their second daughter is the wife of William Delany. Mr. Reeves assisted to build some of the first houses in the town of Tremont. Mrs. Reeves died in the spring of 1861. Mr. R. was subsequently married to Miss Caroline Jones, of Peoria county. Said marriage occurred in December, 1865. By that union they have had one son.

In speaking of the political record of Mr. Reeves, we find him, from his earliest youth, a supporter of the principles of the whig party. His first vote for president was for General Harrison in the contest of 1836. He voted for every whig candidate for president up to the dissolution of that party. In 1854 Mr. Reeves was elected, by a large majority, sheriff of Tazewell county, and reelected to the same office in 1858. After the expiration of the latter term, Mr. Reeves, retired for awhile to private life. In October, 1852, he commenced keeping hotel at the Tazewell House, and kept the same up to the time of being elected to the sheriff ’s office in 1858. In the spring of 1860 he bought out a dry goods store in Pekin, and besides carrying on the store he turned his attention to grain buying, closing up that business after one year’s trial, and devoted his attention to the grocery business. Two years after he opened a boot and shoe store, and did considerable business in the way of manufacturing those articles. He subsequently devoted his attention to merchant tailoring and the drug business. It is said that he kept the two largest establishments of the latter class of business ever kept in Pekin. On the formation of the republican party he was the first to identify himself with its principles in Tazewell county. He voted twice for Abraham Lincoln, with whom he was personally acquainted; and during the war Mr. Reeves was a firm supporter of the Union cause. In the fall of 1870, the people of Tazewell county, for the third time, elected Mr. Reeves to the office of sheriff, and re-elected him to the same office in 1872. He is still the present incumbent. He is the only man whom the citizens of Tazewell county have honored with four terms of the sheriff ’s office. Since his residence in the city of Pekin he has, at different times, served as alderman, marshal, and assessor of the city. In 1864 he was elected mayor of Pekin, filling that office with ability and general satisfaction to all. The many official positions to which he has been called by the franchises of his fellow-citizens, will of itself attest the warm appreciation in which he is held by the people with whom he has been so long associated.

In appearance, Sheriff Reeves is a fine looking man, and is an excellent type of the early pioneers of Illinois. He is about six feet in stature, and would weigh probably about one hundred and eighty pounds, has large firmness, with combativeness and destructiveness under the control of the former; the motive temperament predominates; his head is broad between the organs of combativeness, thus denoting a good-sized brain. His mind is of the active and penetrating order. He is not easily deceived, is a good judge of men, and, in the general business of life, reasons from Causes to effect. He is courageous, and determined in whatever he undertakes to perform; not easily deterred from carrying out his ideas of things. He has an honest, open, and manly countenance, with a clear, penetrating eye. In social life he is affable and courteous, and by his genial manners wins many friends.

Tazewell County deeds reveal that Thomas C. Reeves was the administrator for Josiah Reeves, who had lived in Tazewell previous to 1846.

Probate records have the following entry which show Josiah to be his brother:
14 Mar 1844 - Thomas C Reeves applied and the court gave the order to "grant him letters of administration on the estate of Josiah Reeves deceased and the Court having satisfatory (sic) evidence that the said Josiah died intestate on or about the 4th day of March 1844 and that the said Thomas C is a brother of the deceased and there being no widow."

The Emporia Gazette, 17 Feb 1896
Funeral of Thomas C. Reeves.
The funeral of Thomas C. Reeves, an old timer in this county, was held yesterday at the Rosseen school house, ten miles north of this city. Rev. Morrison conducted the services and preached a very powerful sermon. Mr. Reeves group up in this country and came to Kansas sixteen years ago. He was well known and universally respected. He leaves a wife, two daughters and a son. The bereaved family have the sympathy of a large circle of friends.

Research Notes

In 1850, there is a James Reeves, b. c1778, in the household with him, probably his father. Although difficult to read, it appears his birthplace was Maryland. There is a James B. Reeves, b. c1820 in TN, living next to them in 1850. Supposing that James B. and Thomas were brothers, sons of this James Reeves, that indicates this family may have moved through the States MD-NC-TN-IL. It's interesting to note that if this family was from Maryland, they probably descend from the wider Thomas Reeves family from St. Mary's County. Josiah(s), Thomas, and James were frequent names in this family. Given that he was from Rowan County, North Carolina, further research should explore a possible connection to the immediate family of Samuel Reeves who died in Rowan Co., North Carolina. There is a James Reeves on the 1820 census in Montgomery County, Tennessee, the only James Reeves in the 1820 in Tennessee unaccounted for. He appears in two deeds in that county. In the first, from 1820, James sells 100 acres of land to William Lowthers (DB K, p167). The second, from 1821, is a Deed of Trust in which a negro woman is sold to someone (DB K, p83). This may be the same James, since the apparent son James B. Reeves was born in TN c1820.

Sources

Marriage2:  Illinois, Marriage Index, 1860-1920 (Ancestry)
Death:        Headstone, Rosean Cemetery, Emporia, Lyon County, Kansas

1850 Census:  Tazewell County, Illinois
1860 Census:  Tazewell County, Illinois
1870 Census:  Tazewell County, Illinois
1880 Census:  Lyon County, Kansas

Tazewell County, Illinois Deed Book 16, p28
Tazell County, Illinois Probate Record Book F, 1843-1847, pp. 101
Atlas Map of Tazewell County (1873), p43