My Genealogy Hound

William R. Reeves is one of the most successful and prominent men of Union county and introduced into the county the red polled cattle. In his agricultural interests he has made a specialty of dairying and milks on an average of twenty cows per year. He has a farm splendidly equipped for carrying on this business in the most scientific manner and all of his other farm work is conducted along most modern progressive lines. He stands for advancement and improvement and is doing much to further the interests of agricultural life in this part of the state as president of the Union County Farmers Institute.

Mr. Reeves is a native of Knox county, Illinois, his birth having occurred in Henderson on the 6th of April, 1852. He is a son of Reuben Reeves, a native of Washington county, Ohio, and a farmer by occupation, who in 1848 removed westward to Illinois, casting in his lot with the early settlers of Knox county, where he opened up a farm. There he married Miss Minerva McMurtey, a native of Knox county, Illinois, and after living in that locality for a number of years following their marriage they came to Union county in 1873. Here the father developed a new farm in Dodge township but spent his last years in Greene county, Missouri, where he died in 1904, at the age of seventy-nine years. His wife passed away in 1880, at the age of fifty-seven years.

William R. Reeves was the second in order of birth in a family of eight children, three of whom reached adult age. His boyhood and youth were spent upon the home farm and he was largely self-educated, by using his spare time in reading newspapers and books, his opportunity of attending school being quite limited. His training at farm work, however, was not meager and he early became familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the crops. He was twenty-one years of age when the family removed from Illinois to Iowa and since 1873 he has made his home continuously in Union county. Here he purchased eighty acres of land in Dodge township and later his parents located upon this farm.

On the 31st of December, 1876, Mr. Reeves was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Headley, a native of Bureau county, Illinois, and a daughter of John D. Headley, who came to Union county in 1869. Following his marriage Mr. Reeves lived for a year upon his eighty acre place and then bought another tract of eighty acres, which he improved and brought under a high state of cultivation. Eventually he sold that property and invested in another eighty acres, which he cultivated and developed, and later he added one hundred and sixty acres to that. He lived upon that farm until 1893, when he removed to Afton to educate his children, selling his place and making his home in the city for a year. In 1894 he removed to eastern Colorado and followed farming there through 1894 but it was a notably dry year and no crops were raised.

In 1895 Mr. Reeves returned to this county, rented land and thus carried on farming for a year. In 1896 he purchased eighty acres of his present farm, which at that time was in a very run down condition. The improvements upon the place — a good house, substantial barns and other outbuildings — have been erected by Mr. Reeves. He also built the first silo in the northern part of the county with a capacity of one hundred and twenty tons. He also put in a deep well and a system of water works throughout the house and barns and upon his farm all modern conveniences and equipments, both in and out of the house. He uses the latest improved machinery to carry on the work of the fields and has a dairy modern in all of its appointments. In addition to the cultivation of the fields he raises red polled cattle, which he introduced into the county, and for some time has been dealing in registered red polled cattle, commencing the business about 1901. He also raises Berkshire hogs and from this branch of his business derives a good income. In his dairy he has a cream separator and the sales of cream amount annually to from six hundred and fifty to seven hundred dollars. He has all of the silo tools and in all, viewed in every way, his farm is a most complete one, being thoroughly in keeping with the progressive spirit of the age. Adding sixty acres to his original purchase of eighty, he now has a good farm of one hundred and forty acres.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Reeves have been born five children but they lost one son, Loyal, in infancy, while a daughter, Mamie, died in 1897, at the age of eighteen years. She was a graduate of the Afton high school and had successfully engaged in teaching. Stella is the wife of Benton Olinger, a farmer of Dodge township, who for several years has engaged in teaching, and they have one child, Katheryn; Anna is the wife of A. E. Hammans, of Berthoud, Colorado, who was a school teacher for several years and they have two children, Myrle and Loyal. Cloyal is the wife of Earl Hammans, also of Berthoud, Colorado, and they have one child, Keith.

Mr. Reeves was reared in the faith of the democratic party, of which he has been a life-long advocate, and his fellow townsmen, recognizing his worth and fitness for office, have several times called him to positions of public trust. He was elected and served for one term of three years as township trustee, was township clerk for seven years, and in 1889 was elected a member of the board of supervisors for three years. He acted as chairman of the board for a year, during the period when the conflict was waged over the change of the county seat from Afton to Creston. In 1892 he was a candidate for auditor on the democratic ticket but was defeated by a small majority though he ran ahead of his ticket over two hundred votes. He has been a delegate to several county conventions and has twice been a delegate to the state conventions. In community affairs he is deeply interested and whether in office or out of it he is always a champion of the measures and movements which are for the best interests of the community at large. Mr. Reeves belongs to the Masonic lodge of Afton, to the chapter, and to Creston Commandery, while his wife is connected with the Eastern Star and is a member of the Presbyterian church, of Afton. Mr. Reeves belongs to the Farmers’ Institute, of which he is now serving as president. His residence in the county covers thirty-five years—years in which this portion of the state has been converted from a wild and largely unsettled region into one of rich fertility, peopled by a contented and prosperous class of citizens who, improving the natural resources of the country, have utilized its prairie land for the development of farms that contribute in large measure to the reputation which Iowa bears as one of the leading agricultural states of the Union. Mr. Reeves is an active, enterprising business man and farmer, has accomplished a work that is not only beneficial to himself but has been a factor in the improvement of the county. He has done much to stimulate a progressive spirit among his fellow citizens and to hold up a standard of perfection in agricultural lines. He has also been a champion of those interests which promote the political, intellectual, social and moral welfare of the community and may justly be termed one of the representative citizens of Iowa.