A Wilson Family Tree
Notes for Benjamin Harrison Reeves Jr.
I have seen him referred to as Benjamin Harrison Reeves Jr. in many places, and took for granted that it was right. However, John Wanamaker (a great-grandson) says that he has never seen a middle name for him, so it's possible that this was just an assumption on someone's part. I will continue to list him as BHR Jr., but beware!
From the Wanamaker manuscript:
In 1872 Benjamin and Martha Reeves and their children, which by then included a third child – Jessie, and probably a fourth – Kate, removed to Fremont County, Iowa. Two of Martha Kaziah’s sisters and one brother emigrated to Fremont County as well. Benjamin was known as “Colonel” Reeves, as his father had been. We cannot know with certainty what prompted the family to choose Fremont County as their destination, but apparently some of the Payne family had preceded them. M.U. Payne sometime after the Civil War had acquired large land holdings in the Missouri River bottom of Fremont county and had married Martha Reeves’s sister, Sallie Patton in 1867. The Reeves family took up residence in the Missouri River bottom in what was called the Valley Farm community, where he apparently rented land from his brother-in-law, M.U. Payne....
Col. Reeves bought the original 505 acres of what became known as Hollywood Ranch* in 1883 from Mr. Wm. Knappe for $10,000. He added 160 acres to the farm in 1891 and 120 acres in 1900. The farm has the reputation of being one of the finest in Fremont county and remains in the family at this time (2001).
*My aunt Jean Good reluctantly told me that the farm got its name because at one time there was considerable “hanky-panky” (her words) going on among the hired men and some wives, and someone said the place was “just like Hollywood”. She never referred to the farm by that name, always calling it “Knox” (for the nearby early village).
Also of interest, from the Wanamaker manuscript:
[Joseph C. Brown's] determination of the north border of Missouri became the basis for an intense controversy that was ended only by decree of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1849. The result was moving the Iowa – Missouri boundary a few miles to the south of Brown’s line. This decree assured the location of Hamburg to be in Iowa and not in Missouri.
There is more about Ben Jr. in the Wanamaker manuscript.
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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