The Reeves Family and the Ewing Family Genealogies

George Webster Reeves

(January 28, 1863 — 1916)

Allie Elizabeth Price

 (June 17, 1865 — June 3, 1924)

Webb grew up on  his father’s farm in the Greencastle area of northern Warren County.  There is no indication when Allie moved to the area.

Webb Reeves wrote a letter to Allie before they married that Allie saved.  It was dated October 8th (year unknown) and was mailed from Greencastle, Warren County, Kentucky.  Allie apparently was leaving home soon to attend school.  Webb was suffering anxiety and conflict over her impending departure.  The letter demonstrated both the formality and the creative spelling of the era.  It was addressed to Miss Allie S. Price and began,

The pleasantries having been expressed, Webb turned quickly to his concerns about her impending absence:

He apparently enclosed a photograph:

And then there was the matter of a competing suitor:

Having expressed his concerns about his competition, Webb made it clear his loyalties were undivided when he closed his letter by saying:

After expressing these warm feelings, he returned to formality when he signed his letter as “your true and loving friend, G. W. Reeves.”

Either Allie wound up not going away, or their relationship survived the separation, for they married on December 15, 1884 in Warren County.  Webb was then twenty-one and Allie nineteen.  Their marriage lasted for thirty-two years, until Webb’s death.  By that time, the Reeves family consisted of eight children: Ethel, Hubert, Yandel, Eula, Doile (D.D.), Bruce, Bertie and Ray.

In a conversation on July, 1975, Doile Dennis Reeves, talking about the Reeves family, spoke of Webb—his father.  He said that Webb worked on his own farm for a number of years, employing a couple of dozen pickers each year when his strawberries ripened.  A packet of postcards was sold at the time in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which had a picture of Webb and his pickers in a strawberry patch at harvest time.  There is a picture of Webb, Doile, two of Doile’s sisters and others in the strawberry patch.

Doile related how they laid out the strawberry rows with plows pulled by mule.  He was proud that he could plow in a straight line.  The trick, he said, was to keep your eyes focused on the end of the field, where you wanted the row to go, rather than on the ground in front of you.  By doing that, you would plow straight.

As a farmer, Webb needed land.  During his life, he bought and sold several tracts, all farmland.  He sold two of these farms to his son-in-law, John Runner.  He both bought land from, and sold land to, Obediah Milam.  And he sold land in ____ to the Ayer & Lord Tie Co.

In 1901, he bought a small farm from Jo and Melissie Rone.  The original of this deed was included in the Doile’s papers.  It was dated October 17, 1901 and transferred ownership of 25 acres of land near Green River and Barren River.  Webb paid $200 for the land, $125 down the remainder through a promissory note.

Click on the above thumbnails images to see the larger ones.

A promissory note with the papers of Doile Dennis Reeves dated January 9, 1909, show that G.W. Reeves, along with Jas C. Beals and James H. Reeves (another son-in-law), committed themselves to paying $190 to J.H. Alexander within 6 months, with interest at 6%.  Their payments were noted on the reverse side of the note.

A promissory note with the papers of Doile Dennis Reeves dated January 9, 1909, show that G.W. Reeves, along with Jas C. Beals and James H. Reeves (another son-in-law), committed themselves to paying $190 to J.H. Alexander within 6 months, with interest at 6%.  Their payments were noted on the reverse side of the note.A promissory note with the papers of Doile Dennis Reeves dated January 9, 1909, show that G.W. Reeves, along with Jas C. Beals and James H. Reeves (another son-in-law), committed themselves to paying $190 to J.H. Alexander within 6 months, with interest at 6%.  Their payments were noted on the reverse side of the note.[1]

According to Doile, in 1916, at the age of fifty-three, Webb came from northern Warren County into Bowling Green to begin working on the L&N Railroad.  While working there, he drank some contaminated water from a well and contracted typhoid fever.  He died soon thereafter.  He is buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Bowling Green.

Though the Reeves family was diminished by Webb’s death, Allie carried on.  In 1922, Allie and her children signed a deed to Eugene Miller covering 50 acres on Barren River in Warren County, Kentucky.[4]  Thaddus Ray Reeves was only fifteen when his father died.  As a minor, he was unable legally to handle his own share of his inheritance.  Papers filed in the Warren County Clerk’s office showed that his mother was appointed to handle his funds until he reached adulthood.[5]  

They also signed another deed that same year, to Alfred McNall, covering seventy-five acres on the north side of the Barren River.  A copy is below.

Click on the above thumbnails images to see the larger ones.

Once the land was sold, Allie used part of the proceeds a year later to buy a car in her name, a 1921 Model T Ford 5-passenger touring car.[6]  

Unfortunately, she did not have long to enjoy her new car.  A year after buying it, she died of a stroke.[7]     A newspaper clipping reporting her death reads as follows:

There was, in the papers of Doile Dennis Reeves, a statement from John M. Gerard, Dr., Funeral Director and Embalmer" dated October 27, 1925, for the funeral services for "Mrs. Allie Reeves Estate."  The total bill was $220.  Of that amount, $60 was paid immediately and additional payments totaling $50 had been received.  The outstanding balance was $110.[9]

Contact Brian@BrianReeves.com with any suggestions corrections, etc.

Copyright Brian Reeves, 2005 — 2007.