John Reeves and Cynthia Murphy
Husband John Reeves 1 2 3
Born: 9 Feb 1825 - Beaver Falls, Beaver Co, PA 1 3 Christened: Died: 1917 - Beaver Falls, Beaver Co, PA 3 Buried:
Father: Daniel Reeves (1783/1785-1837) 1 4 Mother: Margaret Steen (1792- ) 4
Marriage: 25 Mar 1847 1 3
Wife Cynthia Murphy 1 2 3
Born: 18 Dec 1826 3 Christened: Died: 11 Sep 1907 - Patterson Heights, Beaver Co, PA 3 Buried:
Father: John Murphy ( - ) 3 Mother: Mary Stratton ( - ) 3
Children
1 M Daniel F. Reeves 1
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1888 Buried:
2 F Mary Ann Reeves 1
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: James F. Merriman ( - ) 1
3 F Ada Reeves 1
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: W. H. Nair ( - ) 1
4 F Hannah Reeves 5 6
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Dr. James M. May (1849-1921) 5 6 Marr: 2 Oct 1877 7
5 M William Reeves 1
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1888 Buried:
6 M J. Charles F. Reeves 1
Born: Christened: Died: Bef 1888 Buried:
7 M Jessie Benton Reeves 1
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
8 F Grace Reeves 1
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: George W. Coats ( - ) 1
9 M Jacob Henrici Reeves 1
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
10 M John T. Reeves 3
Born: 11 Nov 1863 - New Brighton, Pulaski Twp, Beaver Co, PA 3 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Lulu N. Knight ( - ) 8 9 Marr: 1888 9
General Notes: Husband - John Reeves
He was the third son and seventh child of his parents.
He received a limited common English education at the subscription schools of the day; traveling a distance of two miles on foot to enjoy but meagre advantages. At the age of nine years these opportunities ceased, but Mr. Reeves, by habits of close observation and reflection, made amends in a great degree for the want of thorough training in youth. His father having died when he was but twelve years of age, he at once sought employment with a farmer in the neighborhood, and for three years thus aided in the support of the family. Subsequently becoming a driver on the Pittsburgh & Erie Canal, he soon found himself the owner of boats, and continued this life of comparative adventure until 1852. He then accepted the position of conductor on the Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad, and at the expiration of the fourth year embarked in mercantile pursuits at New Brighton under the firm name of H. T. & J. Reeves. Disposing of their business in 1865, the brothers engaged in real estate operations, acting as agents in the purchase and sale. In addition to this, Mr. Reeves became in 1868 one of the projectors and the cashier of the Economy Saving Institution. He was also director of the Beaver Valley Street Railway; of the Pittsburgh, Chartiers & Youghiogheny Railroad; director of the Beaver Falls Bridge Company; of the Art Tile Company; of the Pittsburgh & Chartiers Block Coal Company; director of the First National Bank of Beaver Falls; president of the First National Bank of New Brighton and of the Brighton Bridge Company.
In his political preferences he was a Republican, but is no sense a politician; however, at various times he accepted local offices, but no others. His religious sympathies were with the Presbyterian church, of which he was both a trustee and member. [HBC 1888, 713]
He was twelve years of age when his father met death by drowning. For two months he had attended a private school under the preceptorship of a Quaker, and he afterward attended a select school on Patterson Heights. His mother was, however, the instructor, and saw to it that her son was firmly grounded in the rudiments of education. From the time that he was eleven years old he was engaged in work of some kind or another. He was a farmhand in 1836-38. Later he was a fireman in a paper mill, next a picker in a cotton factory, then a worker on a grain boat, then a barrow man, and afterward a cooper in a cooperage shop; next a worker on a boat, clearing the Beaver and Ohio rivers of snags. His summers spent in boating and his winters in coopering, by 1846 he had accumulated a competence, which he invested in lots in New Brighton. He built a cooperage shop, and made flour barrels until 1852. When the railroad came to New Brighton he disposed of his boats and joined the railroad force as a first freight conductor on the Fort Wayne Railroad. Then he became station agent at New Brighton. About 1852 he entered into partnership with his brother, Henry T. Reeves, for the operation of a mercantile store at New Brighton. They sold out the business in 1865, their profits having reached the then large total of $50,000. Mr. Reeves and his brother, Henry T., again united as a firm under the style of H. T. & J. Reeves, and, on removing to Beaver Falls, they acted as agents for the sale of the land then owned by the Economites, which became the site of the city of Beaver Falls. The entire city was disposed of by them in lots, and the returns paid to the Economites totaled more than $2,000,000. During the Civil War John Reeves enlisted under Captain George Barker to go to Antietam, and again enlisted for service along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In 1869 he moved into the commodious brick house erected by the Harmony Society at No. 1207 Seventh Avenue, Beaver Falls, for a residence and bank, and he and his family lived there until 1917, in which year he died.
1 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 713.
2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1914), Pg 589.
3 George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (SW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 104.
4 George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (SW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 88, 104.
5 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 693, 713.
6 George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (SW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 216.
7 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 693.
8 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 675.
9
George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (SW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 105.
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