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Below is a family biography included in The History of Moniteau County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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B. F. Reavis, president of the bank at Tipton, and one of the leading men of the town, was born in Cooper County, Mo., February 29, 1836, and is the son of William T. and Mary A. (McCulloch) Reavis, the father a native of North Carolina, and the mother of Virginia. The paternal grandfather, Joseph Reavis, was a native of North Carolina, and immigrated to Missouri in 1818, settling in Franklin County, where he remained five years, or until 1823, when he came to Cooper County. Here he followed the trade of wagon-maker, and manufactured the first wagons in the county. He died in 1847, at the age of sixty-five years. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, was a member of the Baptist Church, and was a man who took an active part in church matters. In his family were six children, five sons and one daughter: Lewis (deceased), Johnston (deceased), William T., Andrew Jackson (deceased), Clayton (deceased) and Mary, wife of John O’Bryan, and now deceased. William T. Reavis, father of our subject, was reared on a farm in Cooper County, received his education in the common schools, and learned the wagon-maker’s trade, which he followed, in connection with farming, all his life. He was a Democrat, and was quite active in politics; always attended strictly to business, and was a quiet, law-abiding citizen, and never had a law suit in his life. He died in November, 1877, at the age of sixty-six years, and the mother died in 1875, at the age of fifty-nine years. They reared a family of four children, all now living but one: B. F., Andrew J., now on a farm in Cooper County; Mary Ellen, wife of B. W. Levens, a farmer and fruit-grower of Cooper County, and William T. L., who died at the age of nineteen years. B. F. Reavis was reared on his father’s farm until twenty years of age, receiving his education in the common schools. At the age of twenty he commenced teaching school, then clerked for a year, after which he engaged as collector for a factory for one year. He then went to Round Hill, and sold goods for W. T. Seeley, until the latter’s death in March, 1864, when in connection with his brother, A. J. Reavis, he bought the stock of goods, and moved to Tipton in 1866, buying out his brother. He continued in business in Tipton until 1883, since which time he has directed his entire time to the Bank of Tipton, of which he was made president June 1, 1873. He is largely interested in real estate in Kansas City, as well as in Tipton, and is also interested in mining lands. He is active in politics, and in all public enterprises for the good of the county. He has been a resident of the town since 1866; assisted in surveying it, and is one of its pioneer settlers. He was married in St. Louis, in March, 1865, to Mrs. Lottie Whitson, nee Fugate, a native of Kentucky, who is the mother of one daughter by her first marriage. This daughter, Laura, is now the wife of Samuel C. Lee, of Kansas City. Mr. and Mrs. Reavis are members of the Baptist Church, and he is superintendent of the Sunday School, also church treasurer and trustee. He was the prime mover in the Central Missouri District Fair Association, and was its first president. During the war he was six months in the Missouri State Guard, was with Gen. Price, and participated in the battle of Dry Wood; was also at Lexington, and was flag bearer at that battle. Politically he is a Democrat, and has been one of the leading men of Tipton since it was laid out.

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This family biography is one of 187 biographies included in The History of Moniteau County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Moniteau County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Moniteau County, Missouri family biographies here: Moniteau County, Missouri Biographies

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