Sturgis, Martha Elizabeth

Summary

Father: John Richardson Sturgis
Mother: Hannah Anna Wright Schooley

Birth: 24 May 1792, York County, South Carolina
Birth Source: Paran Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery

Death: 13 Jun 1875, Randolph County, Alabama
Death Source: Paran Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery

Spouse1: Wyatt S. Reeves, m. before 1810
Spouse2: Jesse Weathers, 24 Jan 1832

Narrative

Children of Wyatt S. Reeves and Martha Elizabeth Sturgis:

1. Martha C. Reeves, b. 1810, d. Sept 1859
2. Josiah F. Reeves, b. 1812, d. 15 Oct 1886
3. Malinda Elizabeth Reeves, b. 1814, d. 1833
4. James Washington Reeves, b. 1817, d. after 1880
5. John Wiley Reeves, b.3 Dec 1819, d. 31 Aug 1888
6. William Allen Reeves, b. 8 Nov 1821, d. 20 Oct 1884
7. Rebecca M. Reeves, b. 1822, d. 1850

Wyatt Reeves died in Fayette Co., GA. Purchasers at his estate sale included Allen Reeves, William Reeves, Isham Weathers, William Ward, and Elizabeth Reeves. Jesse Weathers had joined Elizabeth as administrator prior to 1 January 1834.

When Elizabeth Sturgis Reeves married Jesse Weathers, she was forty and he was twenty-seven. They were married for more than forty years. Jesse was born about 1805 and died 4 May 1876, less than a year after Elizabeth's death. Elizabeth and Jesse had two children together who were half-siblings of her children by Wyatt Reeves: Mary Ann Weathers and America Jane Weathers. Mary Ann Weathers, born 1832, died 1876, married Isham Bailey Lee, born 1818, died 1904, son of John Lee and Temperance Knight. America Jane Weathers, born 1835, died 1915, married Thomas Valentine Barrett, born 1830, died 1887.

Elizabeth, Jesse, and their children were enumerated in Beat 10, Randolph Co., AL, HH 1101/1101 in 1850: Jesse Weathers, 45, Farmer, $1500, GA; Elizabeth, 56, GA; Mary, 18, GA; Jane, 16, GA.

Research Notes

It is worth emphasizing that proximity and even family associations do not necessarily indicate a connection between different Reeves and Rives families. The Wyatt - Sturgis - Weathers connection is a case in point.

Elizabeth's husband Jesse Weathers was a brother of Willis Weathers, who married second Mrs. Melinda Gladney Pound. Melinda's first husband James W. Pound was the son of Matthew Pound and Sarah Reaves, who belonged to the Reaves family of Hancock Co., GA, and Wayne Co., NC.

Jesse Weathers's grandfather Jesse Weathers was born in 1754 and baptized in Albemarle Parish, Sussex Co., VA. He was a son of William and Mary Weathers; Richard Rives was his godfather. On the basis of frequent Rives-Weathers associations, Chiles speculated in Reliques of the Rives (p. 415) that Mary Weathers was a daughter of Richard Rives. The connection has never been proven; if correct, however, it would mean that Martha Elizabeth Sturgis Reeves's second husband Jesse Weathers was a descendant of Richard Rives of Surry and Sussex Counties, VA, and Pitt Co., NC.

Sources

J. H. Austin, Fayette Co., GA, Probate Records, 1824-1871.
1850 Randolph Co., AL, Census.
1860 Randolph Co., AL, Census.
1870 Randolph Co., AL, Census.
Reliques of the Rives, p. 410-415.