George William Reeves was born in 1780[1] in Halifax County[2], Colony of Virginia. Halifax County is in southern Virginia, adjacent to Mecklenberg County, Virginia and just across the border from Granville County, North Carolina.

One researcher says the Reeves family, including George, moved from Wake County, North Carolina, to Madison County, Kentucky, in about 1801. With George moved his father, William Reeves[3], and his brothers William, Jr.[4] (and his wife and children) and Jeremiah[5].[6] The exact year of the move has not been confirmed, but 1801 seems likely since George took out a marriage license with Elizabeth Wilkinson in Madison County on January 1, 1802.[7]

Census records showed he and his family lived there in 1810.[8] They list him as a resident, along with his wife, three sons and one daughter. These were his daughter Susan and his sons Walter Avis, Curtis F. and Jesse Britt Reeves.[9] Later that year, Peter M. Reeves would be added to the family.[10] In addition, there was a white female over 46 years of age living with them. Two slaves rounded out the household.

According to a Kentucky history, Elizabeth was of English descent.[11]

The next few years were busy ones for George. He served under General—later President—William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812.[12] His dates and places of service are not known, but history records that in 1813 Harrison’s forces, including a bunch of Kentucky militiamen,[13] pursued British troops and an army led by the famous Shawnee Indian chief Tecumseh into Upper Canada.

On October 5, 1813, in a battle near Moraviantown, the British turned to fight, but were dispersed and Tecumseh was killed. It is likely that George William Reeves was one of the militiamen involved in this battle. His regard for his general was shown by his later naming his fourth son “William Harrison Reeves” in honor of him.[14]

He moved to Warren County, Kentucky, in about 1815.[15] At that time, Warren County was strictly a rural area. Not quite wilderness, but almost. There were fewer than 12,000 people in the entire county, a density of only about 17 people a square mile.[16] The largest town, Bowling Green, had only a few stores, a brick tavern, and several modest homes facing the square. The federal census taker listed 23 households in the small town, with a total of 98 white and 56 slave residents.[17] There were fewer than half a million people in the entire state, most of them along the Ohio River and in the eastern parts of the state.

The 1820 census for Warren County showed that the George Reeves family had grown.[18] There was one male and one female between the ages of 26 and 44 (George and Elizabeth), one female and three males between 10 and 15 (these are the same children shown in the 1810 Madison County census) and three males under age 10 (Peter M. Reeves, William Harrison Reeves and Sidney Preston Reeves).[19] In addition, the number of his slaves had also grown to six, four of them children under the age of fourteen.[20]

George was not wealthy, but was a man of some minor substance since, in 1824, he was one of two people signing as surety on a $2,400 bond posted by Noel Sweeney as administrator for the estate of his wife, Polly Sweeney.[21]

George William and Elizabeth Reeves were involved in a couple of real estate transactions in the next few years. First, in 1824, George[22] bought 666 2/3rds acres of land in northern Warren County along the Big Barren River. The cost was $430.[23] George and Elizabeth sold this property eighteen months later to John Heard for $800, a $370 profit.[24] The next transaction was seven months later of the same land back from John Heard to George for the original $430 price.[25]

We can only speculate the reason for these back and forth transfers. They may have been what are known as "straw man" transactions. Such transfers were common in the 1800s to correct problems in the ownership of real estate. However, such transfers usually were done the same day rather than months apart.

Another possibility is that George really sold the property to John, and financed all or a part of the transaction but John found himself unable to pay and gave the property back. However, since there is no evidence that George and Elizabeth moved their family and slaves off the land and then back on, that seems unlikely.

A third possibility was that the land was transferred from George and Elizabeth to John to collateralize a loan from John to them and, once the loan was paid, the title was transferred back to them.

Whether any of these possibilities is the actual reason we cannot know, but we do have reason to believe George and Elizabeth were friends of John, and possibly were related to him for earlier that year their daughter Susan was married to James Heard.[26]

Interestingly, on October 20, 1826—the day the last deed was signed from John back to George—George had other legal work done, too. He signed what would be his last will, a handwritten copy of which is recorded in the Warren County Clerk’s office. That will names John Heard as one of George’s executors. The will is reproduced below with the misspellings in the transcribed copy preserved.