In celebration of the 250th Anniversary of our country, local members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will highlight the patriots buried in Southeast Missouri.
John Reeves was born in 1760 in Frederick County, Virginia, based on his Revolutionary War Pension Statement. At this time, his parents are not verified; the pension record states that “his father moved the family to Guilford County, North Carolina around 1765 when he was 5 years old.” Reeves stated that he joined the revolutionary forces in September 1780 in Burke County, North Carolina. He recalled that Captain Thomas Price’s company were engaged in a battle at King’s Mountain, but John and his brother were sent down the Broad River to the mouth of the Green River to deliver a message to a company of men in Georgia. They were to direct these men to join Col. William Campbell’s forces at King’s Mountain in another battle that British Major Patrick Ferguson was defeated.
John spent the next 12 months serving at several forts; one the North and South Carolina border that were built to protect the inhabitants from the Indians and Tories. His next service involved joining a volunteer company of militia raised by Captain John Miller of Rutherford County, North Carolina, that marches against the Cherokee Indians in Tennessee.
Again, Reeves’ pension statement records that he and Rachel Barnes were married on May 1, 1796, in South Carolina. The Reeves lived in South Carolina for a period of time, having two children before moving to Madison County, Missouri, around 1803. The Reeves had four other children in Missouri. This gave them four sons and two daughters. The children born in South Carolina were Mary Reeves (married Gideon S. Francis) and Hiram Reeves (married Elizabeth Hauser). The children born in Missouri were John Reeves (married Mary Jane Oakley), Isaac Reeves, Casewell Reeves (married first Matilda Pruitt and second Elizabeth Parks) and Levina Reeves. John Reeves died on April 30, 1834, in Madison County, Missouri. This information was taken from her testimony at the time she requested a widow’s pension. It is known that John Reeves is buried in the Matthews Farm Cemetery off of Highway E in Madison County, but there are over 200 unmarked graves.
Compiled by Pamela Johnson, John GuildChapter NSDAR with the assistance of Teri Moss of the Captain Henry Whitener Chapter NSDAR.
Sources
Matthews Farm Cemetery in Missouri
John Reeves Revolutionary War Pension Statement http://southerncampaign.org/pen/r8684.pdf
https://thereevesproject.org/data/tiki-index.php?page=Reeves_John_3376
https://usreeves.blogspot.com/2011/11/
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/sources/LKX5-15W
https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/81208378/person/342758345252/facts
https://gw.geneanet.org/imacuzz2?n=reeves&oc=&p=john&_gl=1*g4ksre*_gcl_au*MTIxOTYyMjAyMC4xNzc4Nzc5NTQ1
U.S., Indexed Early Land Ownership and Township Plats, 1785-1898
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2179
John Reeves in U.S., Revolutionary War Pensioners, 1801-1815, 1818-1872
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1116
