Reeves, William

Summary

Father: George Reeves
Mother: Jane Burton

Birth: after 1766 Grayson County, Virginia
Birth Source: 1810 Ashe NC Census and George Reeves Probate Documents

Death: c 1850, probably Carroll County, Arkansas
Death Source: Last records are in 1841 Tax Lists of Carroll County AR

Spouse1: Anne (Sarah Anne?) Terrill born 10 Aug 1776 in Botetourt County, Virginia, married circa 1790 1791

Narrative

Probable children of William Reeves and Anne Terrill:

1. Sylvia Reeves, b. 27 Aug 1792, m. Allan Burton before 1810
2. Jennie Reeves, b. c1794, m. Rev. Hardin Burton on 6 Dec 1815
3. John Reeves, b. c1796
4. Hannah Reeves, b. 1796, m. John M. Burton
5. Obedience Reeves, b. 25 Dec 1798, m. William Buchanan Burton on 25 Oct 1814
6. Anne Reeves, b. c1803, m. Terrell Cox
7. Terrell Reeves, b. c1807
8. Lenoir Reeves, b. 1808
9. Albert Reeves, b. c1813
10. Gaston Reeves, b. c1814
11. William H. Reeves, b. c1815
12. Timothy Reeves, b. 1821
13. Unknown Female born after before 1820

The first record currently found of William Reves as an adult is the Wilkes County tax list of 1795 where he is listed with 500 acres and 1 poll. His brother Jesse is also listed on that same tax list with 400 acres and 2 polls.

Identification and documentation of William Reeves' children is still an ongoing process and several of the children below have yet to be proven and are listed based upon census records and various other undocumented sources:

• Listed in the household of William Reeves in the 1800 census of Ashe County NC are 1 Male 0-10, 1 Male 26-44, 3 Females 0-10 and 1 Female 16-25.
• The 1810 census of Ashe County NC lists a total of ten members of the household: eight children - 3 boys and 5 girls, as follows: 2 males 0-10, 1 male 10-15, 1 male 26-44, 3 females 0-10, 2 females 10-15 and 1 female 26-44.
• The 1820 census of Ashe County lists 5 males 0-10, 1 male 16-25, 1 male +45, 2 females 10-16 and 1 female 26-46 in William Reeves' household.
• William Reeves is recorded in the 1830 census of Greene County, Indiana with 1 male 5-9, 2 males 10-14, 1 male 15-19, 1 male 60-69, 1 female 15-19 and 1 female 60-69.
• 1840 census of Carroll County, Arkansas lists 1 male 15-20, 1 male 20-30, 1 male 70-80, 1 female 10-15 and 1 female 60-70 in the household.

Various family trees suggest that William Reeves was married to two wives, sisters Anne and Sarah Terrill. To date, no documentation has been found to substantiate this. The gravestone of daughter Obedience born 1796 or 1798 lists her parents names on the stone: Wm. & Ann Reves. If William Reeves did, in fact, marry a sister of Anne Terrill's, it would have been after 23 Jul 1818 for on that date he and his wife Anne executed a deed found in Grayson County, Virginia Deed Book 4 at page 73. Additionally, there is supposedly a Terrill or Cox family bible listing her name as Sarah Anne Terrill, daughter of Timothy and Elizabeth Terrill. Timothy Terrill is recorded in Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee as being killed by Indians in Tennessee in 1781. After Timothy's death, Mrs. Elizabeth Terrill married James Cox.

The court minutes of Ashe County Court May Term 1806, list William Reeves, Esqr. among the magistrate justices of the court present when counting the votes for the election of a sheriff. His brother-in-law Joseph Doughton is also named as one of the justices. He is mentioned in the court orders for that year as the justice assigned to take in the lists of the taxable property in Capt. Edwards district of Ashe County.

William Reaves received a warrant for 300 acres in Ashe County, entered December 14, 1802, (Grant No. 700 issued December 9, 1809).

The probate documents of the estate of George Reeves, Sr. include the following unexplained entry from the Grayson County VA Court Minutes:
Aug 1811: On motion of Jesse Reeves and for reasons appearing to the court a certificate is granted him and Martin Dickinson for obtaining letters of administration on the Estate of George Reeves, dec'd whereupon they together with Joshua Cox, Alexander Sutherland, Benjamin Phipps, Zachariah Osborne, Joseph Doughton, Bartholomew Austin and Joseph Fields their securities entered into bond acknowledged a bond in the penalty of $30,000 conditions as the law directs and qualified according to law, to which order William Reeves one of the heirs of the deceased by his attorney excepted which was sealed by the court and made part of the record. Recorded in Grayson Co., VA County Court Order Book.

William Reeves was still a justice of the Ashe County, NC Court when he is mentioned in the Minutes of the Grayson County Court on 24 Mar 1812 as one of the justices taking the deposition of a witness in a case filed in Grayson County.

William Reeves received warrants for 100 and 250 acres on Elk Creek, Ashe County, both entered March 9, 1812, Grant No. 841 for 100 acres and Grant No. 865 for 250 acres were issued December 7, 1814.

By 1822, William was listed on the Lawrence County, Indiana Poll Tax List.

On the 10th of April, 1822, William Reves, of Green County, Indiana, received Federal Land Certificate No. 1357, for 80 acres, for the east half of the SW quarter of Section 26, in Township 8N, of Range 4W (land located in Greene Co, about 4-5 miles NW of present-day Town of Solsberry), in the district of lands offered for sale at Vincennes, Indiana.

From: History of Greene County, Indiana, pub. 1870 by J. Ward, Worthington, Indiana - As taken from the official records, and compiled from authentic recollections by pioneer settlers.
Chapter XV - Beech Creek Township:
Among other pioneers whose name deserves a place in the history of the township, may be mentioned James Turpin, Edward and Charles Beasley, Frederick Hendricks, Nathan Hogan, Joel Burks, William Sanderpher, Robert and Frank Chaney, William and Noah Reeves, James Crockett and William Watkins...Pg 47 - William Reeves and his boys first settled the farm now owned by Edward Walker.

In 1830, William and his oldest son John along with Terrel and Noah (Lenoir) Reeves are listed in the census of Greene County, Indiana. By the Census of 1840 for Carroll County, Arkansas, William, John, Terrel and Gaston Reeves are listed. The 1840 tax list for Carroll County lists Lenoir, William, Terrel and John Reeves. Those same Reeves' individuals, in addition to Gaston, are listed in the 1841 tax lists for Carroll County.

John, born 1809, was the child of Jesse Reves and Obedience Terrell and is documented as such in a Power of Attorney by John Reeves to Enoch Reves dated 22 Apr 1833. In that document he refers to a suit pending in the superior Court of Chancery for Wythe District of Virginia. The records of this chancery case in Wythe District of Virginia are recorded in the Chancery Case Index at the Library of Virginia online. Records of that suit have currently not been found document the parentage of William's wife Sarah Ann Terrell as the daughter of Timothy Terrell and Elizabeth MNU Terrell Cox. The suit pertained to the division of legacies from the estate of Timothy Terrell's father John Terrell.

In Carroll County, Arkansas there is a Reeves Creek said to have been named for William Reeves who appeared there on the 1840 census. It is located near the headwaters of the Buffalo River in Van Buren Township.

In 1850, John, Gaston, William and John's son William Terrell are named in the census of Independence County, Arkansas, but the elder William Reeves is not found there. Various family records show a death date of about 1854 in Missouri for William but that is undocumented. It is far more likely that William and probably his wife Anne as well died in Carroll County, Arkansas sometime between 1840 and 1850.

Research Notes

∗Daughter Hannah Reeves was initially believed to be Elizabeth based upon Marriage Records of Grayson County; however, the transcription in the Ancestry.com database was incorrect. Elizabeth was listed as Elizabeth Raves (Reves) who married a John D. Barton in 1822 but her surname has been discovered to actually have been Davis. The unidentified daughter of William Reeves and Ann Terrell listed in early census records is believed to be Hannah who married John M. Burton. The information indicating Hannah Reeves was a daughter of William Reeves and Anne Terrell comes from other Reeves' family members who settled in Greene and Lawrence Counties of Indiana after leaving the New River. However, according to the 1850 census of Greene County, Indiana, Hannah Reeves Burton was born in 1796 (per 1850 census of Greene County IN) which does not agree with the ages of William Reeves daughters as listed in the census records of 1800 and 1810. There is also no documentation found in either Ashe County, North Carolina or Greene County, Indiana that would support a connection between Hannah and William Reeves.

It might be possible Recent research has established that Hannah could have been was the child of William's brother Jesse who has four female children under the age of 10 listed in the census of 1800 but only 3 of those four have been identified. One of the documents contained in the Chancery Case pertaining to the division of legacies from the estate of Timothy Terrell's father John Terrell names what appears to be children of Jesse Reeves and Biddie Terrell Reeves, i.e. George. William, "Hanner", Nancy, Betsy and others unnamed. The "William and Hanner' could be William Reeves, son of George Reeves and his wife Anna Terrell, but included with the other heirs of Jesse and Biddie Terrell Reeves, they could also be the two previously unidentified children (one male and one female born before 1800) listed in the early census in Jesse Reves' household,

Another document discovered in Grayson County Court Order Book V2 which lists the daughters of Jesse Reeves involved in that case names Hannah Reeves as the wife of John M. Burton.

In the Wythe County VA Chancery Case "George Reeves ETC vs James Cox ETC" (LVA Chancery Index 1833-007), Bartholomew Austin's statement in that case includes information regarding the dates of the marriages of Timothy Terrell's daughters to the sons of George Reeves, Sr. He stated that William Reeves married Anne Terrell in 1791, the same year her brother William Terrell married. He also stated that Obedience Terrell married Jesse Reeves in 1792.

This family connection requires much more research.

Sources

NC Archives Manuscript and Archive Reference System (MARS)
Minutes of the Ashe County, North Carolina Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions
1795 Tax Lists - Wilkes County, North Carolina (800 acres)
1800 Census - Ashe County, North Carolina
1810 Census - Ashe County, North Carolina
Probate documents and Deeds regarding the Estate of George Reeves, Sr., d. 1811
1820 Census - Ashe County, North Carolina
1830 Census - Greene County, Indiana
1840 Census - Carroll County, Arkansas
The Cheek Family of Alleghany County, NC
Wythe County VA Chancery Case "George Reeves ETC vs James Cox ETC" (LVA Chancery Index 1833-007)