Reeves, L. D.

REEVES, DOUGLASS, STEPHENS, HARRIS, RICHEY, SCOTT, PEARSON

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/15/2009 at 07:28:53

L. D. Reeves

The record of the life of this gentleman affords a striking illustration of the results of decision of purpose, as well as the influence which an honorable character exerts upon others. Well dowered with stability and firmness, these attributes, together with persistent labor, have been instrumental in bringing about his present prosperous condition. A well-known agriculturist of Jasper County, he owns and occupies a farm located on section 8, Washington Township.

A native of Meigs County, Ohio, Mr. Reeves was born about ten miles from the county seat, Pomeroy, on the 3rd of March 1830. He traces his ancestry to England, whence his grandfather, Richard Reeves, immigrated to the United States in childhood, settling in Pennsylvania and removing thence to Ohio. The father of our subject, Richard Reeves, Jr., was born in Athens County, Ohio, in May 1803, and was reared upon a farm in that county. He married Miss Mary Douglass, a native of Ohio, who, after having become the mother of five children, died, when our subject was a lad of five years.

The third in order of birth among the five children was the subject of this notice. He received his primary education in the
district schools of Meigs County, but his knowledge has been acquired principally by self-culture. At the age of twenty-four he left his father's home and commenced in life for himself. On the 7th of August 1851, he married Miss Elizabeth Stephens, who was born in Morgan County, Ohio, on the 18th of October 1834. Her father, Samuel Stephens, was supposed to be of Irish descent; he died when his daughter was quite small. Her mother, whose maiden name was Mary Harris, was descended from English ancestors. Mrs. Reeves was the eldest child of her parents, and was reared in the home of her grandfather, James Harris, in Meigs County.

After his marriage, Mr. Reeves located upon a farm in Meigs County, where he commenced the independent career of a farmer. His father gave him twenty-five acres, to which he added from time to time, as circumstances permitted, until his landed possessions aggregated one hundred acres. He disposed of his property in 1867, and two years later came to Iowa, where for a few months he operated a rented farm in Fremont County. Not being satisfied with the country, he sold the crop in the field and removed to Vernon County, Wis., where he bought a farm consisting of one hundred acres. After conducting general farming upon that place for five years, he sold the land and removed to Cherokee, Iowa, in the winter of 1874-76.

In the spring of 1875 came to Jasper County, and for one year rented a farm in Poweshiek County. He then bought forty acres in Washington Township, on section 9, where he remained for two years. He then purchased the farm where he has since resided. He is the owner of eighty-seven acres, all of which is in a fine state of cultivation, embellished with substantial buildings and all the improvements of a model farm. The air of thrift everywhere present bespeaks a good manager and successful man.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Reeves resulted in the birth of nine children, as follows: Electa the wife of Dr. Milton Richey, a practicing physician of Plymouth County, Iowa; Minerva J., who is the wife of James Harris, a blacksmith living in Raymond, Black Hawk County, Iowa; Celestia M., who married Charles Scott, of Mitchellville, Iowa; Louisa M., who married Thomas Pearson, a hardware merchant of Earlham, Dallas County, Iowa; Ettie L., wife of David Pearson, who is engaged in the hardware business at Mitchellville, Polk County, this state; Odella M., who resides with her parents; Jesse L., a student in the schools of Des Moines; Charles L., who is conducting his studies in the Colfax schools; and Earl H., who is a pupil in the district schools. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA Page 284.