Biographical Sketch of Rev. T. S. Reeve, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO

>From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph
Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri.
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Rev. T. S. Reeve was born in Massachusetts October 5, 1806, and re-
sided there till he was twenty one years of age when he emigrated to
the state of Vermont, where he was engaged in farming for the space
of three years.  At the end of this period, he returned to his native
state, and entered as a student at Wilbraham where he remained one
year, when he went to Hartford, where he attended school two years.
He then located in Troy, where he began his first experience as a 
teacher, continuing for two years, when he removed to Vermont, where
he took charge of another school.  His next move was to Richmond, VA.,
where he enlisted as city missionary, serving one year.  He then took
up his abode in Stanton, and from that place moved to Roanoke.  After
a brief residence in the latter town, he moved to Louisburg, where he
engaged in the study of law and practice of the same till 1840.  In
1837, he was married to Miss Elizabeth J. Huff, a native of Virginia,
and daughter of James P. and Elizabeth Huff.  They have had five
children, of whom two are living: James E., a druggist of Kansas City,
and Mary B. Reeve, who continues to reside with her parents.  In 1840,
Mr. Reeve moved to Hannibal, Missouri, where he practiced his profes-
sion till 1843, in the fall of which year he abandoned the law and was
licensed by the Palmyra Presbytery to preach.  He immediately moved to
Gentry County, serving there and in Holt County as an itinerant minis-
ter till the spring of 1844, when he moved to St. Joseph, where he 
located, in company with a number of others, and immediately set to work
to build a church out of logs, which they cut in the neighboring woods.
This primitive structure was the "old log church" referred to in the 
body of this history, and the first ecclesiastical structure ever 
erected within the limits of the town.  During the building of this 
church, and till the following year, Mr. Reeve, with his family, lived
in a stable.  He then cut, with his own hands, the timbers and reared
a little log hut for a residence for himself and family.  His entire
capital in money amounted at that time, to but three dollars.  He sub-
sequently received a salary of two hundred dollars per annum from the
American Missionary Society.  He discharged, during the space of twelve
succeeding years, the duties of pastor of this church, during which 
period he had the satisfaction of noting the development of the obscure
village into the great and prosperous city of St. Joseph.  In the fall
of 1855, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri; thence to Syracuse, New York,
where he was pastor of a Presbyterian Church one year.  He then return-
ed to Missouri and located at St. Charles.  At the end of two years he
removed to St. Louis, and thence to Ironton, Ohio, where he remained
in charge of a church four years.  His next move was to Hannibal, 
Missouri, where he resided six months in the capacity of agent for a 
missionary society.  He subsequently moved to Rushville, Illinois; 
thence to Lincoln, Illinois, where he had charge of a Congregational
Church one year, when he moved to Savannah, Missouri, and there became
pastor of the Presbyterian Church.  At the end of two years, the
church becoming financially embarrassed, he resigned, and moved to
Kansas City, where he erected a dwelling house and store in which he
enbarked in the drug and dry goods trade with his son, James E., to
whom, at the end of a year, he sold out.  He has since continued to 
live in Kansas City, a quiet and retired life.

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