A Wilson Family Tree
Notes for Martha Davis
From the Parks manuscript:
The second child of Walter and Martha Davis was Martha, born about 1754. At about seventeen years old, she married William Long, who in little more than a year after his marriage died, leaving her a very young widow with one child, a boy, William Long, who died at about twenty years of age. Some years after the death of William Long, his widow was married to Daniel Smith, brother of John Smith, her sister’s husband. With him she lived a number of years, and was the mother of three children, who all, with their father, Uncle John, and a large portion of the Smith family, died of an epidemic fever then prevailing, and Martha was a second time left a widow. In the year 1782 she was married to Brewer Reeves. The children of this marriage were six, – Richard, who died in infancy, Margaret who died at fifteen or sixteen, Benjamin Harrison, Archibald Stuart, Otway Curry, and Willis Long, and all but Archibald married and raised families. B. H. Reeves was well known both in Kentucky and Missouri. At the death of her husband, about 1798, Martha Reeves was left a widow in a wild country, for they had a few years before emigrated to Christian County in Kentucky, at that time almost a wilderness, with here and there an inhabitant. Often they were for weeks if not months without bread. I have heard her say sometimes they had to send to Nashville, sixty miles off, for meal; flour was a luxury rarely enjoyed in those days. I have heard her say it was not uncommon to use venison for bread and the flesh of the bear for meat. Brewer Reeves did not leave his wife destitute of means. She had lands, some slaves, and home comforts, such as a wild country could afford, but an unfortunate security for a friend who proved recreant, left her at the mercy of a relentless and cruel creditor, who took from her all the slaves and personal property, leaving her destitute. The land could not be sold for debt at that time. But she did not sink under the strike; her energies were aroused, and with what help she could obtain from her rude but kind neighbors, she managed to raise and educate so far as that rude country would allow, her four boys. – her daughter died not long after her husband. I may here remark that but a short time previous to the death of Mr. Reeves, her brother James Davis (her only brother in Kentucky) had died; and that being doubly, trebly bereaved, an ordinary woman would have sunk to the level of all around her. Not so with Martha Reeves, although educated so far as she could be said to be educated in Augusta County, Virginia, when it was a frontier, almost a wilderness. She had studied in the best of schools, – from the age of thirteen she had read her Bible as regularly as the sun set, and was then taught to improve the many severe lessons of afflictions which she received through her long life. Had I the pen of a ready writer, I would give a page to the character of my dear Aunt Reeves; as it is I can only give a scant summary of her eventful life.
Born in Augusta County when a frontier, subject to the (1754) invasion of savages, destitute of schools except of the most ordinary classes, a widow with an infant boy after a little more than a year of married life, a few years later married again and again a widow, having buried her second husband and three children, married again – removed to the southern wilderness of Kentucky, where her third husband, her favorite brother, (I say, favorite, because he was the favorite of the whole family) and her only daughter, just budding into womanhood, were in a few brief months buried, – and she bereft of the property which would at least have secured personal comfort for her family, by the ruthless creditor of a man for whom her husband stood surety.
Her oldest living (for her oldest, William Long, a favorite in his grandfather’s family, and of all who knew him, had died years before at about the age of twenty) son was not more than ten or twelve years old, and the oldest son of her brother was still younger, her sister-in-law not able to give her any assistance or even judicious advice, yet under all these difficulties, afflictions, and privations her courage and trust in God never forsook her. She managed to raise her family in a respectable manner and to have them at least as well educated as any of those around them; so that when they grew to manhood they took their stand on a level with the most cultivated of their company. When Aunt Reeves was about sixty-three years old, I sixteen, I was privileged to make her acquaintance. I had been in the society of ladies before and often since; and now I can look back on the varied scenes that have passed before my vision, and contemplate the characters of the many excellent and refined ladies whom I have known, I can truly say that she who had passed her life on the frontier and in the wilderness, was in all that constitutes the true woman and the refined lady, the peer of the best. The privilege of intercourse with that dear old lady continued at that time but two years, for in 1818, before the first land sales in Boon’s Lick country, she and her son Benjamin removed to Howard County Missouri, again on the frontier. Some nine years afterwards, I came to Missouri, and had the privilege of spending much time in her company, and continued to visit her, I believe every year till the close of her life, at the ripe age of eighty-six, and still found her the same cheerful, trusting, loving, intelligent Christian woman, respected and beloved by all who knew her. One fact more I will state, Clergymen of different denominations, of fine mental culture who visited her, admired her for her general intelligence, and were even astonished at her for the amount of her scriptural knowledge.
Martha Davis was in two places in the Ancestral File. As wife of Brewer Reeves, her birthdate was listed as about 1765 and her death date was listed as about 1840. As daughter of Walter and Martha Davis, her birthdate was listed as about 1754 and her death date was listed as 1840. The actual birth date is from Bob Reeves. The Ancestral File charts had the parents of Martha Davis (wife of Brewer Reeves) as Thomas Reeves and Sarah, so it was really messed up somehow.
WFT 22 #1690:
Her first child William Long died at 20 years of age. After marrying Daniel Smith she had three children. They all died, along with their father, their Uncle John Smith and a large portion of the Smith family of an epidemic. Once when asked how she endured all her sorrows she replied "It Sems to me that my first sorrow made a hole through my heart and all that came after went through that hole". She moved with Brewer Reeves to the wilderness in KY. They often went for weeks and months without bread. They sometimes had to send to Nashville, 60 miles away, for meal. They did have plenty of venison and bear meat. When Brewer died she was left in this wilderness to raise her children. He left her land and slaves. A cruel creditor took many of her slaves and personal property. The creditor was a brother of Mr. Reeves. They were not able to take her land. With assistance of her neighbors she managed to raise and educate her four remaining sons. [H]er daughter died after Mr. Reeves and her brother, James Davis, also died in KY.
She had a good education and had attended the best schools in VA. From the time she was 13 she read her Bible daily. Her courage and trust in God never failed. In 1818 she moved with her son, Benjamin Harrison Reeves to Howard Co., MO again on the frontier.
According to Bob Reeves, she is buried at Oak Hill, Christian, KY? or Greene site MO.
WFT 137 # 299:
Davis Family Records
Family History Christian County, Kentucky, 1797-1986, page 149
Note: Some of the information in these pages is uncertain. Please let me know of errors or omissions using the email link above. ...Mike Wilson
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