Elmer M. Reeves

REEVES, HARMON, BUTLER, AUSTIN, RYAN, CADWALLADER, WRIGHT, JOHNSON

Posted By: K. Armstrong
Date: 8/7/2007 at 19:20:06

Elmer M. Reeves is a native of Bremer county and a representative of one of the best known pioneer families of this locality, his father having settled in Waverly in 1854. For the past twenty-nine years he has been engaged in the nursery busness at Waverly, now owning one hundred and twenty-five acres devoted to this purpose in and near the city. His business interests are carried forward in a practical and able way and his success places him among the men of the community. He was born in Jackson township, June 28, 1859, and is a son of Norman and Rhoda Reeves, natives of New York, who came to Bremer county when they were still very young and married in Waverly. William Harmon, brother-in-law of Norman Reeves, purchased land of the government, buying a tract on the present site of Waverly for one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. In 1854 Norman Reeves, then twenty-one years of age, associated himself with Mr. Harmon in the building and operating of a sawmill on the east side of the river and north of the present city hall. The dam was built by cutting elm trees of large size and hauling them endwats of the river and filling in with stone and earth, while a wooden frame finished the job and protected the dam from washing. They later erected a flourmill at the east end of the dam, Mr. Reeves hauling much of the machinery from Dubuque, Rock Island and Rockford, Illinois. In 1858 Mr. Reeves traded his interests in Waverly for a farm near the present site of Riverside Park on the Shell Rock river, where he remained for seven years, after which he sold this farm and bought one hundred acres in Lafayette township, to which he removed. He set out large orchards on this place and a grove of forest trees covering about twenty acres. A large part of the grove was of evergreens and European larch. He also carried on a local nursery in connection with general farming until 1896 when he retired from active life and died in Tanneyville, Missoui,in 1898, his wife surviving him five years. Five children were born to this union; Elsie, the wife of B.J.Butler, of Tanneyville; Elmer M. of this review; James, of Tanneyville; Charles of Minneapolis; and Minnie, twin to Charles and wife of C.E. Austin, who lately removed to San Pedro, California.

Elmer M. Reeves acquired his early education in the public schools of this county, starting in the log school house in the Sewell District in Jackson township. His recollections of this temple of learning include the hollow log upon which he sat; Uncle Tommy Sewell's hogs that regularly sought shelter under the floor of the house; and colored Uncle Ben and Aunt Hannah, two of the first of the freed slaves who found a home in this section.

When Elmer was nine years of age his father began the planting of evergreens in a nursery and in this the boy took an active part. He attended the Spring Lake school and later in Southwest district in an irregular way until he was eighteen, at which time he entered the high school in Waverly, where he attended the fall and winter terms of that and the following year. Most of this time he boarded at home, riding the six miles on horseback. It was while attending the country school and feeling the need of a wash basin and other simple conveniences that were denied the pupils that he determined to become the director of schools near where he would live when a man and see that the schools were sopplied with every convenience and made attractive. This he claims to have fulfilled as he has been director of the Waverly schools for the past fourteen years.

At the age of twenty Elmer left home and took a place as farmhand to earn the money necessary to attend the Agiricultural College at Ames, entering that school as a sophomore in 1881. He considers the time spent there the most profitable of his life.

Having determined to engage in the nursery business, he spent some time working in the leading nurseries of the state and after he had learned the details of this occupation bought twenty acres of land which is now inside the corporate limits of Waverly. Upon this he established a nursery in 1884 and this enterprise he has since conducted, it being today one of the leading nurseries of the state. He has added to his holdings and now owns one hundred and twenty-five acres, one-half of which lies within the city limits. Not only has the business grown but Mr. Reeves' connections have led him into important relations with horticultural and agricultural interests.

In addition to the operation of his nursery he raises high class Holstein cattle and Percheron horses and this branch of his business has proven valuable to the community and profitable to himself. He also owns one hundred and sixty acres of timber land in Minnesota and fifty acres of orchard land in Hood River, Oregon.

Mr. Reeves has been twice married. He wedded first in 1886 Miss Ida Ryan, a native of Bremer county and a dater of william Ryan. She died in 1887, leaving one son, Ralph now a farmer near Cherokee. In 1890 Mr. Reeves was again married, his second wife being Miss Eva Cadwallader, who was born in Jackson township, this county, in 1863. She is a daughter of Chester and Laura Cadwallader, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Vermont. They came to Bremer county in 1862 and settled on a farm near Janesville, where the mother died in 1888. The father afterward sold his property and removed to Waterloo, where he now resides. In their family were three children: Eva, the wife of the subject of this review; Minnie, who married B.S. Wright of Emmett, Idaho; and Martha, the wife of Rev. J.E. Johnson, who is connected with the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company of Waterloo.

Mrs. Reeves is well known in the affairs of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, being the present regent. She traces her ancestry to Colonel Johathan Brewer, who served in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war, taking part in the battle of Bunker Hill and who spent a large fortune during the war in caring for the sick soldiers. Mrs. Reeves is a graduate of the State College at Cedar Falls and for several years was a teacher in the Waverly schools.

Mr. Reeves also has fighting blood in his ancestry, having traced his descent from three ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary war-- Puryer Reeves, Ozias Pery and Benjamin Marvin, the last named being a British colonel at the beginning of the war but who took part with the colonies. Manassah Reeves, the son of Puryer, was a soldier of the War of 1812 and is buried in Harlington cemetery at Waverly. He was the grandfather of Elmer.

Mr. and Mrs. Reeves have three children: Chester, who was born in 1893 and is a graduate of the Waverly schools; Kenneth, born in 1897; and Laura, born in 1903.

Fraternally, Mr. Reeves is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having passed through all the chairs in the lodge and encampment. He is also a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He gives his political allegiance to the republican party but so far has had no desire for public office, although he gives much of his time to the promotion of public enterprises and does all in his power to advance the community interests. For ten years he was treasurer of the State Horticultural Society and for the past fourteen years he has had charge of the fruit department at the state fair, being a director during the past seven years. He was one of the organizers of the Farmers Institute of Bremer county and of the county fair, of which he is now preseident. He was largely instrumental in the building of the Baptist church, of which he is a deacon and trustee. For two years he was the superintendent of the National Horticultural Congress at Council Bluffs, taking the place of Colonel G.B. Brackett, United States pomologist at Washington, who had been chosen for that place. In 1900 he made an exhibit of apples at the Paris exposition and won a first award on the collection, receiving the medal to which this entitled him. For a number of years Mr. and Mrs.Reeves have held a "get acquainted" social at their home at the opening of the school year at which all the Waverly teachers and the board are expected to appear. This has resulted in much good to the schools.

Mr. Reeves has a hobby regarding the duties of owners of land adjoining the public roads. He regularly drags the roads adjoining his lands and repairs any slight defect. No rubbish is allowed is allowed to accumulate, the roadside is seeded to grass and regularly mowed--not so much for the hay but for the improved appearance it give to the premises. He is also an enthusiastic experimenter, having tested hundreds of the different varieties of the different fruits, trees and flowering plants. He has produced many new fruits on his grounds and has a greatly varied collection of plants that is a delight to the lover of nature. Knowledge gained in this way and through the experience of others enables him to give the most reliable advice to tree planters which he is always glad to do. He takes delight in the many groves scattered over the country that have come from his grounds. He grows his evergreens from seed and keeps as full an assortment of the reliable plants as possible. He is making a specialty of the peony, of which he has selected some forty varieties, and when in bloom they are worth traveling a long distance to see. He claims that this flower should be as plentiful and popular in Iowa as the rose is in Oregon, it being of such easy cultre and hardy and when once planted will continue for many years.

Besides the nurseries conducted by the subject of this sketch and his father there have been several started in the county, each of which has had its influence on the community. Marvin Reeves, a brother to Norman, lived on his farm in the southwest part of the city limits and from 1870 to about 1890 conducted a local nursery, much as did his brother, also planting a large grove of larch and a large orchard. In an early day George W. LeValley came to Waverly from eastern Canada and brought with him many trees and plants and started a nursery northwest of the village, the grounds including the present park of Wartburg College. He introduced the English elm, grand specimens of which are now growing in and near his old grounds. His enterprise was abandoned some time in the '70's. About this time a Mr. Rosencrans conducted a nursery and small fruit farm just northwest of town. A Mr. McDonald also planted a nursery but continued it only a short time. For many years M.H. Robinson supplied his neighbors with evergreens, flowering plants and small fruits from the nursery on his farm in Warren township. S. Goodspede for a time conducted quite a large local nursery on his farm just east of town.

While fruit growing is becoming universal upon Bremer county farms there were but a few of the early settlers who had courage to plant orchards. Some, however, had the courage and by good care managed to raise orchards of the eastern varieties that for many years were very fruitful and of course profitable. Of those near Waverly there might be mentioned the one planted by William P. Harmon just west of his brick residence in the north part of town, the orchard and vineyard planted by James Moss in the northeast of town, the Bryant orchard and vineyard three miles south of Waverly and the Davis orchard on the Janesville road. There was also a good orchard planted by Daniel Smith on Willow Lawn farm on the western border town and one mile west on the Mudge farm or Mount Ary. These trees have all disappeared but were fruitful for many years, due to the good care given by the owners. They planted better than they knew, just as did Thomas Lashbrook when, to supply pasture for his bees, he carried a pocket of sweet clover seed and scattered some on every bare spot he came across. We have learned the use of that once despised plant and recognize it as a valuable forage for stock. Just so Mr. Reeves claims it is with some of the fruits he is growing. He has lately added about forty varieties of the pear to his collection and is determined to make this choice fruit a success in Bremer county.

--History of Bremer County, Iowa, 1914, Vol II

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